CAMARILLO : Alleged Rape Victim Had to Lie, D.A. Says

In final arguments at a rape trial where the alleged victim recanted her story, a Ventura County prosecutor on Monday told jurors the woman believes she had no choice but to lie to them.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth told the jury that Dale Chester, 22, of Oxnard, raped the woman while holding a .357 magnum to her head. But the Camarillo woman testified last week that she had consented to sex with Chester and reported a rape to get him in trouble.

Henke-Dobroth said the victim feared she would have been shot had she not recanted. She pointed to testimony from the woman’s mother that her daughter received death threats from some of Chester’s relatives.

“There’s no contest between having your brains blown out and being held in contempt of court. None,” the prosecutor said.

Chester is charged with two counts of rape and one count each of oral copulation and sodomy. The assault allegedly occurred July 3 at a Camarillo park.

Deputy Public Defender Robert K. Willey told the jury that the alleged victim changed her story because she had already done enough damage to Chester by fabricating the rape story.

“Her goal was not to just get him arrested,” Chester said. “Her goal was to hang him. Her goal was to put him right where he is.”

Willey urged the jury, which starts deliberations this morning, to keep in mind that the burden of proof is on the prosecution. In cases where the evidence allows two or more interpretations, he said, the jury is required to accept one that points to innocence.

Henke-Dobroth played a tape of the victim, apparently hysterical and frightened, speaking to a 911 operator after the encounter with Chester. The prosecutor said that tape shows the victim’s real feelings about the case, before she had time to recant.

A guilty verdict is important, she said, even though the victim changed her story. “When we start to have apathy, that’s when our society starts to break down,” she said, “and that’s when people like Dale Chester start running around our community with a .357.”