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by Val Ellicott
Staff Writer
The rape trauma expert who wasn't allowed to
testify at William Kennedy Smith's trial says Smith's accuser behaved
very much like a woman who had been raped.
The bruises on Patti Bowman's body, her statement
that she had been terrified that Smith would kill her and the shaking
that overcame her when she talked to police officers "are highly
consistent with what a victim looks like after she's been through a
forcible rape, " psychologist Dean Kilpatrick said in a December deposition.
Inconsistencies in Bowman's story and her inability
to recall key details of her few hours with Smith fit the same
profile, said Kilpatrick, who directs the Crime Victims Research and
Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina. He said
many rape victims forget random details associated with their experience.
Jurors said Bowman's faulty memory-- she couldn't
recall, for instance, where or when she removed her pantyhose-- was
critical to their decision to acquit Smith on Dec. 11.
Kilpatrick's deposition is contained in 18 boxes of
court documents, letters and other material collected by prosecutor
Moira Lasch during the 81/ 2-month case. Many of the documents
examined by The Palm Beach Post were not released by the State
Attorney's Office until the trial ended.
The thousands of pages of documents include hostile
correspondence between prosecutors and Smith's attorneys, depositions
from witnesses who never testified, Bowman's medical and education
records and a file labeled "anonymous tips" that contains
potentially damaging allegations about Smith.
Kilpatrick never took the stand at Smith's trial,
and he would not agree to an interview last week. Judge Mary Lupo
ruled he couldn't testify because Lasch didn't give the defense
enough warning that she wanted to call him as a witness.
Lasch had added Kilpatrick to her witness list on
Nov. 26, just six days before Smith's trial began Dec. 2. By the time
defense attorney Mark Schnapp took Kilpatrick's deposition on Dec. 5
and 6, Bowman had testified.
In arguing that Kilpatrick should be allowed to
testify, Lasch said he would describe the psychological effects of
rape and a tendency among rape victims to delay reporting the crime.
She told Lupo she decided to call Kilpatrick as a
witness because she was worried Smith's attorneys might be planning
to call their own expert on rape trauma who would discredit Bowman's
account of her Easter weekend encounter with Smith.
"I didn't want to undertake any expenditure of
public funds until I knew what the issues were in the case,"
Lasch told Lupo in explaining why she hadn't listed Kilpatrick as a
witness earlier.
But Lupo rebuked Lasch, saying she should have
known rape trauma would be a factor in the trial.
In his deposition, Kilpatrick notes that Bowman's
symptoms match some of those associated with Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder, although he said he could not render a solid diagnosis
without examining her.
Even Bowman's decision to take an urn, note pad and
photograph from the estate matched behavior often exhibited by rape
victims, Kilpatrick said.
"I've certainly heard about a lot of victims
who do things like that, " Kilpatrick said. "They sometimes
will take things that will attempt to identify a defendant."
Often, he said, rape victims will leave something at the scene to
later show they were present.
Kilpatrick said Bowman's behavior was slightly
uncharacteristic of rape victims in what he characterized as a minor
way: She didn't take a shower immediately after leaving the Kennedy
estate, where she says Smith attacked her.
"Many victims describe feeling very dirty and
unclean after a rape experience and will attempt to wash and shower
and whatever as soon after as possible," Kilpatrick said.
Schnapp, the defense attorney, repeatedly suggested
to Kilpatrick that there were other possible explanations for
Bowman's symptoms. He said having consensual sex with Smith might
have caused Bowman to re-experience a traumatic molestation incident
from her childhood, or it might have made her terrified she would
become pregnant.
But Kilpatrick said neither of those possible
influences would produce the shock and fear that Bowman displayed.
"I do not think that there is any evidence
whatsoever that people who have been victims of child sexual or
physical abuse are more likely than people who haven't to view
non-violent consensual sexual encounters as being violent,"
Kilpatrick told Schnapp.
Kilpatrick was a consultant in State Attorney David
Bludworth's prosecution of the Globe newspaper for publishing
Bowman's name before she agreed to identify herself, but Kilpatrick
never testified as a witness in that case either.
Coincidentally, Kilpatrick also was prepared to
testify in the rape trial of boxer Mike Tyson, under way in
Indianapolis. Again, however, the judge in that case ruled that the
prosecutor failed to notify the defense attorneys in time, and
Kilpatrick's testimony will not be allowed.
*Kennedy Smith case table of contents
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