Woman Faults Decision Not to Charge Tyson

The woman who accused Mike Tyson of raping her this summer lashed out at San Bernardino County prosecutors Monday, saying that they conducted a flawed, old-school investigation and painted her as a suspect as much as a victim before dropping the case.

Arlene Moorman, 50, went public with her criticism three days after the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office said it would not file rape charges against Tyson because it lacked evidence to prove the case to a jury.

“My suffering has been magnified by their decision,” Moorman, a Big Bear Lake-area resident and retail cashier, said during a news conference held at the Los Angeles office of her attorney, Gloria Allred.

David Whitney, lead deputy prosecutor in the major crimes unit of the district attorney’s office, responded tersely but forcefully, saying he was “not going to try the case in the media.”

“We’re very satisfied with the exhaustive nature of our investigation and the way it was conducted,” Whitney said. “We are confident in our decision not to file charges.”

Darrow Soll, Tyson’s Phoenix attorney, also defended the integrity of the investigation.

“Ms. Allred has chosen to focus on sensationalism rather than to accept the truth,” Soll said. “The facts in regard to this matter are simple. Mr. Tyson did nothing wrong and both the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office and our defense team spent hundreds of hours investigating this matter. Both investigations revealed that there was no credible evidence that Mr. Tyson committed any wrongdoing.”

Allred, however, said the investigation raised disturbing questions about the sensitivity of San Bernardino County investigators, and about whether alleged rape victims there “are given second-class treatment.”

The investigation, Allred said, often seemed to focus more on Moorman than on Tyson. Shortly after Moorman reported her allegation to local officials, for example, a male investigator warned her not to use her position to leverage money from Tyson--though she had no plans to do so, Allred said. It was just one of the instances when the questioning was hostile, the attorney charged.

Investigators also failed to photograph Moorman’s genital area at the hospital she visited the day after the alleged assault, failed to retrieve her clothing at the hospital and did not ask their sex crime specialist to interview Moorman, Allred said.

Prosecutors may have had a hard time proving that the alleged incident amounted to rape, not consensual sex, Allred said. But that is a question that should have been decided by a jury, not by prosecutors, she said.

“The jury should have been able to hear both sides and see who they believe,” Allred said.

The case is apparently headed to court one way or another. Allred, though she insisted that no decision has been reached, made it clear that she and Moorman are likely to file a civil lawsuit against the boxer.

The standard of proof in a civil court case is lower than the standard used in a criminal case. Instead of proving the case “beyond the possibility of a reasonable doubt,” which prosecutors said they could not do, Allred would only have to prove that the accusation is true “by a preponderance of the evidence” to win a civil case.

The attorney said Tyson could be held accountable in a civil court--the same way, she pointed out, that O.J. Simpson was held responsible in a civil court after being found not guilty of murder in a criminal court.

Moorman accused Tyson, 35, of sexually assaulting her July 16 in a home he was renting near Big Bear Lake. The former heavyweight champion had been training there for his upcoming fight in Copenhagen against Danish boxer Brian Nielsen.

Tyson spent three years in an Indiana prison after he was convicted in 1992 of raping Desiree Washington, then an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant, at an Indianapolis hotel. Tyson returned to jail for three months in 1999 after he assaulted two motorists.

Tyson’s former wife, actress Robin Givens, has also accused the boxer of violence. He was never charged with a crime in those alleged incidents.

Allred said Tyson’s record should have encouraged prosecutors to take the case to a jury.

Whitney, the San Bernardino County prosecutor, declined to discuss Allred’s and Moorman’s specific accusations, though he pointed out that the officials who handled the case were all trained and skilled in sex crime investigations.

“We have that experience. [Allred] just didn’t know it,” Whitney said. “We are proud of our investigation.”