Tyson Is Sued for Damages by Rape Victim : Jurisprudence: Attorney says she files lawsuit because boxer has shown a glib attitude and lack of remorse for crime.

The woman Mike Tyson is convicted of raping filed a civil lawsuit against him Monday because of what her attorney said was the boxer’s glib attitude and lack of remorse.

The suit filed by attorneys for Desiree Washington, 19, of Coventry, R.I., seeks unspecified damages for assault, battery, false imprisonment and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

“Ms. Washington decided to bring this case only after much soul-searching,” said Deval L. Patrick, a Boston attorney representing Washington. “She wants to put this sordid episode behind her and move on with her life.”

Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard University law professor handling Tyson’s appeal, said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court demonstrated Washington’s greed and ambition.

“We couldn’t be happier because it finally gives us a vehicle for bringing out the whole truth, for deposing Desiree Washington and for exposing her for what she is: a money-grubbing phony who has done this--as we suspected right from the beginning--for the money,” he said.

The former heavyweight champion was sentenced to six years in prison for raping Washington in his Indianapolis hotel room last July. Tyson, 25, is incarcerated at the Indiana Youth Center in Plainfield.

The suit claims Tyson willfully and maliciously caused Washington to suffer physical pain, emotional distress, terror and trauma.

During the trial, Tyson’s attorneys predicted Washington would use a conviction to win monetary damages from him in a civil suit.

Dershowitz compared Washington to Tyson’s former wife, actress Robin Givens, and “the parade of women who have brought false claims against Mike to collect money.”

“We were just waiting for her true colors to show through. I predicted right from the beginning that this is a pot-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow suit,” he said.

Patrick said Washington hoped to regain her self-worth and well-being by winning further sanctions against Tyson. He also criticized the boxer’s lack of remorse during his sentencing hearing and in a televised interview on CBS-TV’s “Street Stories” last week.

“Ms. Washington wants and needs to face her anguish head on, but the glib, disrespectful and remorseless attitude of Mr. Tyson keeps staring back at her,” Patrick said.

Washington would not comment on the lawsuit, he said.

Washington, a contestant in the Miss Black America pageant in Indianapolis, claimed Tyson lured her to his hotel room early July 19 and raped and sodomized her, ignoring her efforts to escape and her pleas for him to stop.

Tyson claimed she willingly had sex with him and then reacted angrily when he refused to escort her to his limousine.

Dershowitz is appealing to the Indiana Court of Appeals, which is not expected to issue a decision for several months.

An inmate, James Bell Yager, said Monday that a national prisoner advocacy group believes Tyson should be released on probation because Indiana prison employees are exploiting and profiting by his incarceration.

Yager said prison employees have sold surveillance tapes to a national tabloid and profited by giving Tyson special food and preferential treatment in exchange for money.

Prison spokesman Kevin Moore said he had no evidence of such abuse, but acknowledged that the possibility exists and said an investigation is continuing.