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Updated January 30, 2001, 7:06 p.m. ET
First came tears, then anger  
   

WAUKESHA, Wis. (Court TV) — The 18-year-old woman marched into court Tuesday afternoon as if she had blinders on. Allison didn't look at the scores of people waiting in a line that wrapped around a corridor outside the chamber, nor did she survey the 70 or so seated spectators craning their necks to see her.

She didn't shoot her two sisters and father a glance. She didn't look at Mark Chmura, the man charged with sexually assaulting her, or his two huge brothers sitting foursquare in the first row of benches behind the defense.

Allison didn't look at Kim — her friend who testified that she was also sexually assaulted at the after-prom party on April 9 at Robert Gessert's house — nor Jeanne Flannery, the woman who drove the two girls to a sexual assault clinic.

Not even the strange freestanding structure serving as a model of the Gessert bathroom in the corner of the courtroom got a look.

The young woman, her wavy black hair pulled back in a neat ponytail and parted on the right, was dressed in a brown pantsuit and yellow turtleneck. She took her seat, cocked her head and prepared for what was to be another ferocious cross-examination from defense lawyer Gerald Boyle. Only this time, she didn't cry: she was angry.

Her eyes dead set on Boyle, she began her second round of testimony with a tinge of animosity in her voice. Boyle asked her if she was sure the ex-Green Bay Packer stuck his penis in her in the Gessert's bathroom at the after-prom party. Allison, without moving her head, said she couldn't be sure that's what he had used. Boyle asked if it was the defendant's fingers she felt enter her body. Again she couldn't be sure.

The defense tried to trip her testimony up by having her admit her own uncertainty about what she was sexually assaulted with.

"It hurt," Allison replied. "Therefore I knew it wasn't a pencil."

As a prop, Boyle had a carpenter recreate a model of the Gessert's bathroom in the courtroom, half to give the jury a more accurate account of the events of that April night, and half to discredit the "rape" allegation by showing that the bathroom was too small to fit the alleged victim and a man of Chmura's size (6 feet 5 inches, 230 pounds).

Boyle asked her if the model was to scale, pointing to the structure with a wooden toilet, green walls and a four-and-a-half-foot shelf in the corner. The bathroom looked just like the one both prosecution and defense had presented in photos.

"Not even close," was Allison's reply.

They proceeded with the demonstration nonetheless. Co-counsel/daughter Bridgett Boyle played the role of Allison, while her father Boyle played the defendant. Allison directed their movements, growing frustrated when they made a mistake.

"This is kind of a poor representation," Allison said. "I'd just like to act it out if I could."

But the defense wouldn't let her. Instead, Boyle, Allison and District Attorney Paul Butcher entered the mock bathroom so Allison could show the jury where her head was during the alleged rape.

"This is not the size of the bathroom," she said. "I'm unable to do that with this model." She indicated that her head was by the toilet.

Boyle continued haggling with the young woman over details of the alleged rape: how she ended up on the ground, who undid her pants, were the lights in the bathroom on or off, how far apart her legs were spread.

With each question, Allison got noticeably angrier. "I don't know how my legs got apart so he could rape me," she announced.

Also Tuesday afternoon, Boyle seemed to trip Allison up when questioning her about her statement to Officer Stephanie Bennett the day after the alleged rape. With each question Boyle posed, Allison's response was the same: "I don't recall what I told Officer Bennett."

"If I were to read to you everything else that's in Officer Bennett's report, would your answer be, 'I don't know what I told Officer Bennett?'" Boyle asked, raising his voice an octave.

"Yes," Allison replied. "I don't recall. That was like 10 months ago."

The prosecution rested its case Tuesday and the defense estimates that its witness list will take two days to complete. Expected to testify Wednesday is high school football player Michael Kleber, who says that he told Allison not to go into the bathroom Chmura was changing in. Instead of heeding his warning, she "smiled" and went in anyway, he told police.

After the jurors were escorted out of the courtroom, Boyle expressed concern over witnesses watching Court TV. Assistant District Attorney Dennis Krueger, who is on the defense witness list and was therefore barred from the courtroom, was said to have been watching some of the court coverage on TVs in the courthouse media room. Judge Mark Gempeler made no ruling but noted the complaint in the court record.

On Thursday, after the testimony of Margaret Polack — who testified that Allison told her Chmura had called her "jailbait" — Krueger was seen high-fiving Polack outside court, according to the Associated Press.

Boyle's expression of concern over TV watching by witnesses followed his request earlier Tuesday to have Allison's entire testimony stricken from the record because she had admitted to watching the trial before testifying. Gempeler denied the lawyer's request. The defense will begin presenting its case Wednesday morning. It is still uncertain whether Boyle will call Chmura to the stand to testify in his own defense.

 

 
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Read about Allison's testimony earlier Tuesday
 


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