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Updated January 29, 2001, 9:09 p.m. ET
Alleged victim, tearful and defiant, takes the stand against Chmura  
   

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Mark Chmura's alleged victim took the stand Monday and accused him of raping her. During her detailed, and at times emotional, testimony, Allison told the jury and a packed courthouse her version of the events at the prom-night party last April.

She was "very drunk" that night, she testified. Her hair was disheveled, her speech was impaired, and she was stumbling. But as she took center-stage in the Waukesha County Courthouse, she had a decidedly different appearance.

Allison told a full courthouse, which included her father and two sisters as well as Chmura's two brothers, how the former Green Bay Packer beckoned her to his side, grabbed her wrist and led her into a residential bathroom in the home of Robert Gessert, 43.

Chmura, who sat stonily by while Allison recounted her story, pleaded not guilty to third-degree sexual assault and enticement of a minor. If convicted on both counts, he could face up to 40 years in prison.

"It was like a dream almost," Allison said, her head cocked to the side and her eyes staring downward as she described the alleged assault. "I didn't know what to do. It was like it wasn't really happening to me."

District Attorney Paul Bucher questioned Allison for approximately two hours. She walked up to the witness stand confident, already halfway across the courtroom floor before Bucher had the chance to formally call her to testify. She was well dressed, wearing a freshly pressed black suit with a lime green turtle neck. Her shoulder-length black hair was pulled back tightly, parted to the side. The 18-year-old's ears stuck out a little bit, and her voice was firm but soft, sounding more like that of an adolescent than an adult — she said "yeah" a lot.

Bucher wasted no time launching into the tough questions. "At any time, including when you walked in this court, did you ever have consensual sex with the defendant?" he asked in a rather stern tone.

"No. No, I didn't at any time," Allison replied.

The jury seemed rapt. They had just sat through two and a half hours of testimony from Dr. Carolyn Levitt, the prosecution's expert witness on sexual assault. She said that Allison's wounds, or lack thereof, were consistent with those of a sexual assault victim. She had no swelling or lacerations, but just a little redness beneath her labia. Her testimony, however, was monotonous, and did not seem to capture the jury's attention. She had never personally examined the alleged victim.

Bucher walked Allison through her history with Chmura, from when they first met through a mutual family friend to the day when she started babysitting for his kids in 1998. He then had her chronicle the events of the night in question, right up to the point of the alleged incident and into the day and a half aftermath.

Allison testified that shortly after she began babysitting for the Chmuras she developed a dislike for the defendant "because of comments he made towards me."

"He would refer to me as 'jail bait.' He'd ask me if my legs had gotten any longer since he'd seen me last," She said. Bucher asked her how those comments made her feel. "I take offense to that. When he was paying me, he gave me $80 and he said, 'Here's another $20 for being cute.'"

Bucher also asked Allison about a rumor — that Chmura had a baby with another babysitter — her friends said they had heard from her. She denied having started the rumor and claimed a lot of people knew about it. No proof of Chmura having an illegitimate child has ever been offered. Bucher also questioned her about a rumor that she loathes the defendant.

"I do not like him, I do not hate him," Allison said. "I do not hate anyone, but he is as close to me hating someone as I could ever get."

Allison, who was 17 at the time of the alleged assault, went on to tell the tale of April 9, 2000. She arrived at her friend Jamie Gessert's house at around 12:30 a.m. after her senior prom. The girls were friends, although Allison testified that their friendship has since dissolved. The teens headed downstairs to the basement for a little post-prom boozing. Between 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m., Allison consumed about four pint-sized glasses of vodka and Mountain Dew.

At 3:30 a.m., Chmura and Gessert arrived. Gessert's wife had told the teens that Robert Gessert and "Chuey" were on the way, Chuey being the defendant. Allison testified that when she learned of the news, she voiced her disdain for the ex-Packer.

"I said, 'I hate that sick f***,' because I think he's sick," she said. "I did not understand why he would be coming and I was uncomfortable with him being there."

But despite her discomfort, she engaged in a drinking game with the 6-foot-5-inch, 230-pound tight end. Allison and a male friend were pitted against Chmura and Gessert. When asked by Bucher why she agreed to play on the same team with a man she disliked, she shrugged it off.

"I was drunk and I disliked him, but I didn't have to be civil to him," she said.

But when the game lost intrigue, Gessert announced that it was "hot tub time." Allison, several teen friends and the two adults, Gessert and Chmura climbed in the hot tub and stayed for about 40 minutes — long enough for Allison's friend Kim to get sickly drunk and throw up over the side of the tub. Kim would later claim to have been sexually assaulted by Gessert in the tub.

Allison said she went upstairs to change into her Abercrombie & Fitch blue jeans and black tank top and then began combing the house for her friend Margaret. She couldn't find her on the third floor, so she decided to look around for her downstairs in the basement.

"I never made it to the basement," she said. At the bottom of the steps, standing in a hallway and wearing only a towel, was Chmura. "I hear Mr. Chmura say, 'Ally, come here.' I walked over there. He gestured to me," she said, making a gesture with all four fingers.

"Why did you go over to the defendant who you have a history of dislike for?" Bucher asked.

"I don't know. I didn't know what he wanted," Allison replied.

Although another teen — Michael Kleber, a key defense witness — claims to have advised Allison not to go into the bathroom Chmura was changing in, Allison denied that account during her testimony.

She then demonstrated for the jury Bucher how Chmura pulled her into the bathroom and then shut the door and locked it with one motion.

"I was up against the door," she said. "He started to kiss me on my neck. I didn't know what to do. I was in total shock. It was hazy, like it wasn't really happening. He started to feel me up under my shirt ... he pulled down my pants. They're not off; they're probably around my ankles. He pulled me down and had his other hand on my back. He got on top of me ... he raped me. He put his penis inside me."

Tears streamed down the alleged victim's face as she recounted the events. Chmura, sitting motionless at the defense table, reddened with embarrassment as he has throughout the duration of the trial. But Allison quickly stopped crying as she started speaking of the aftermath.

Kim pounded on the bathroom door, ending the assault, she said. Kim, who claims to have just been molested herself, was crying when Allison opened the door. The two girls ran around the house collecting their belongings. When they went to the basement, Allison said she fell face first on the ground.

Kleber ambled up to her and gave her the first degree. "He yelled at me that I had to tell him what happened," she said. "I lied to Kleber and told him 'nothing,' anything to get him to leave. I don't know him and I don't like him."

When Allison's testimony concluded, she left the witness stand in a huff. Neither she nor Chmura looked at each other. Chmura's brother Matthew, 30, a Los Angeles policeman, furrowed his brow as he watched her leave. He whispered something to his other brother, Marshall, 22, who is in the United States Air Force.

Bucher will finish his examination Tuesday, and then defense lawyer Gerald Boyle will reportedly begin his cross with a rather unusual prop. Boyle is expected to have a full-scale model of the Gessert's bathroom built in the middle of the courtroom. He will use dummies to recreate the scenario between Chmura and Allison.

Boyle's contention is that there was not enough room in the bathroom for the alleged assault to have taken place, given the massive size of the defendant and the little time the crime is said to have taken, about 45 seconds. Also, Kim testified that she heard "the shuffling of cloths," which Boyle will attempt to show couldn't have happened in such a confined space unless the sex was consensual.

 

 
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