WAUKESHA, Wis. — On the first day of the defense's case, the jury hearing Mark Chmura's sexual assault trial was bombarded with medical testimony. Expert after expert took the stand and testified that the teenage accuser's injuries and recollection of the alleged rape were not necessarily consistent with a sexual assault.

The defense experts didn't go so far as to say the alleged victim, an 18-year-old named Allison, made up her claim that the former Green Bay Packer sexually assaulted her at an after-prom party last April, but they did say that her accounts of the assault to police and to Sexual Assault Examining Nurse (SANE) Deborah Donovan were not characteristic of a rape victim.

During direct questioning by defense lawyer Gerald Boyle, Page Verlander, 39, testified that Allison's injuries, as described in Donovan's report, could have been caused by something other than rape. Verlander, a nurse and the director of the SANE program at John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell, Va., said that although she would not rule out that possibility, there was no physical evidence or severe injury specifically to indicate a forced sexual assault.

"You can usually have redness to any area, not related to trauma," Verlander said.

The nurse pointed out that an abrasion to the alleged victim's posterior forchette (the area below the labia) could have been caused by something else.

"Fifty-six percent of non-abused women have erythema [redness]," Verlander said.

If the assault was quick, as it was in this case, it would likely disturb the hymen, she said. Allison testified that the entire incident — Chmura calling her into the bathroom, closing the door behind her, removing her pants, lowering her to the floor and sexually assaulting her — took less than a minute. The medical examination later that day showed that her hymen had not been disturbed.

Verlander also criticized Donovan's examination, saying she had used almost no direct quotes from the alleged victim when filling out the forensic form and had swabbed only a limited area of the vagina.

"The primary reason the SANE nurse is there is to gather evidence ... we swab everything," Verlander said. Another defense expert, Dr. Joseph Zeccardi, testifed earlier Wednesday that Donovan had been too hasty in forming conclusions from Allison's exam. "It's not your job as a medical professional to come to a conclusion about that part of the exam," said Zeccardi.

Verlander also testified that a forced sexual assault — especially one by someone of Chmura's size (6 feet 5 inches) — would also have left marks on the attacker's body. But medical examinations administered to Chmura after he was arrested indicated that he had no lacerations or abrasions on his penis.

"What occurred to one person would have to occur to another," Verlander said.

Under cross-examination, District Attorney Paul Bucher grilled the nurse fiercely, questioning her experience and testing her knowledge of published studies regarding sexual assaults on children.

But with each attempt by Bucher to shake her, the witness stood her ground. The district attorney tried to capitalize on the fact that Verlander is 20 years younger than Dr. Carolyn Levitt, who testified for the prosecution Monday that although she never examined Allison, she'd done enough examinations to know that Allison could have been assaulted.

"You're trying to tell me that physicians in this area are not more experienced than you?" Bucher asked sternly.

"I do not believe they are," Verlander replied.

"Dr. Levitt has done more than 4,000 pelvic examinations," Bucher said.

"I've done more then 28,000 pelvic examinations," Verlander said, to which Bucher could only reply, "Congratulations."

Bucher went after her again, quoting medical findings on abrasions characteristic of sexual assaults on children, which seemed to dispute Verlander's testimony about the alleged victim's abrasions. Verlander pointed out, however, that each medical study Bucher cited was performed on "prepubescent children." Allison was 17, an adolescent, at the time of the alleged incident.

Although this small firefight between Bucher and Verlander seemed to capture the jurors' attention, generally the mood in the court was melancholic. Nine days after the jurors arrived in Waukesha, they were inundated with extremely detailed medical testimony. A couple of them huffed and puffed through some of the expert witnesses, looking at their watches and at the clock in the left rear of the courtroom.

Boyle later called to the stand Mary Armstrong Gay, an emergency and SANE nurse who had been raped once herself. Gay testified that Allison's recall of the assault was inconsistent with that of most rape victims. Typically a victim recalls every detail of the attack, including many specifics about her surroundings and the length of time, she said. Allison, however, gave few specifics in her statement to police and gave inconsistent accounts of some of the details on the stand.

Later in the afternoon, the defense recalled Captain Michael Bagin of the Hartland police — previously a prosecution witness — who filled out the forms needed to obtain a search warrant for the Chmura house. Boyle used Bagin's testimony to imply improper conduct on the part of the police, by noting that Bagin's report made it seem like he had spoken with Allison personally. In fact, Bagin admitted receiving all of his information about the alleged rape third hand from Officer Stephanie Bennett.

Also testifying Wednesday was Joene Lese, mother of Molly Lese, a prosecution witness and one of the girls who attended the after-prom party last April. Joene testified that she overheard Allison saying she had "some gossip about last night" when the girls were at her house following the attack.

Boyle asked every witness Wednesday, almost mockingly, about whether they have followed media coverage of the trial. Each of his witnesses, including Verlander, said they had followed his directions not to watch trial coverage. Many of Bucher's witnesses, including Allison, Kate Flannery and Hartland Police Captain Michael Bagin, admitted on the stand to following court coverage, essentially ignoring a rule about witnesses listening in on court proceedings before they've testified. But Circuit Court Judge Mark Gempeler chose to overlook their disobedience, despite defense objections, saying his directions to them had not been specific enough.

The issue of media coverage arose once more late in the afternoon, after Gempeler excused the jury. The judge told the court that one of the jurors had accidentally stumbled across a headline in the USA Today sports section that read "Teen Testifies That Chmura Assaulted Her." The juror promptly folded the paper up and gave it to a bailiff. Gempeler ruled that the juror didn't read enough of the article for him to be excused.

Expected to testify Thursday is high school football player Michael Kleber, who said 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.