Chuck Hayes (?) news

If this indeed is Chuck Hayes, and if the allegations are true, then this is just sad... :

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/12053716.htm


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Woman in Wildcat Lodge case says she's ready to speak with police again

BY VALARIE HONEYCUTT SPEARS

Knight Ridder Newspapers.


LEXINGTON, Ky. - (KRT) - A woman who accused a University of Kentucky basketball player of drugging and raping her in April says she is ready to answer police questions about the case and will provide cell-phone text messages, medical records and a UK basketball program with the suspect's autograph and phone number to back up her claims.

In interviews with the Lexington Herald-Leader, the woman and her husband offered those documents and a preview of what the woman expects to say this week when she is interviewed by Lexington police.

One of the woman's attorneys, Traci Boyd, said she is trying to set up a meeting with police Wednesday morning. Boyd sent a letter to police last week saying the woman wants to pursue charges. Police had cleared the case in early May, in large part because the woman stopped cooperating.

"Once the facts of the case are known, any perceived discrepancies will be explained," said Boyd.

Among the key points the 29-year-old woman and her husband addressed:

_The woman said she went to Wildcat Lodge, the home of UK basketball players, on April 20 to work with the suspect to arrange a visit to her son's school. Also, she said, the suspect told her he wanted to discuss marketing with her because she had once worked in that field.

_The woman said she isn't interested in money and doesn't plan to pursue a civil suit. She said that she spoke with the suspect and UK basketball Coach Tubby Smith after she went to police and that she received several text messages from the suspect on her cell phone.

_The woman's husband said he knew beforehand about every meeting she had with the suspect, including the trip to Wildcat Lodge, and does not think his wife was having an affair. The woman's mother-in-law said she also knew about the Wildcat Lodge meeting in advance but thought the woman - a cancer survivor - was going to discuss a legitimate job offer from the suspect.

_The couple say they have lived in fear since the rape allegations surfaced. They said their home has been "cased" by strangers, that they moved into a hotel for a week and traded in the woman's car to be less recognizable.

The Herald-Leader is not naming the woman or her husband because it normally does not identify alleged rape victims.

Police ruled the case "cleared by exception" in May after the woman stopped cooperating and after tests showed she did not have the "date rape" drug Rohypnol in her system but said new information could reopen the case.

The woman's medical records, which she showed to the Herald-Leader, indicate she had other drugs in her system, including mar1juana and two sedatives. She said she did not take those drugs and must have ingested them unknowingly.

She and her husband also have raised questions about the police investigation, including why Chief Anthany Beatty notified Smith, the basketball coach, about the investigation after the woman went to police. Police never interviewed the suspect, did not search Wildcat Lodge and did not complete DNA tests on the woman's rape kit.

Beatty said last week that he did not tell Smith anything that would jeopardize the investigation. Smith has not returned calls seeking comment.

Police have never named a suspect in the case. But the agent for former UK star Chuck Hayes has acknowledged that Hayes was notified of the investigation. The agent has said publicly that the charges were false and that Hayes and the woman had consensual sex. Last week, Hayes' attorney, James Lowry, declined to comment.

Hayes has been silent, though he briefly commented on the case last week to the Modesto (Calif.) Bee, his hometown paper. "It's behind me. That's all I can say," Hayes told the Bee before the woman sent her letter to police.

Suspect sought her advice

Since late April, when the woman's allegations were made public, the Herald-Leader has made repeated attempts to interview her. Two weeks ago, the woman agreed to interviews, during which she described what led her to be in Wildcat Lodge.

On Dec. 22, the woman said, she was trying to orchestrate a special night for her husband and son when the three of them met several UK players in the Rupp Arena locker room after UK's game against William and Mary.

The woman has three children and said she has undergone treatment for several cancers from about 2000 to 2004.

The woman said the suspect was one of several players her family encountered after the game at Rupp. They also posed for a photograph with Smith and met Smith's wife, Donna.

In photos taken that night, the woman assumes the same friendly pose with each player.

She says she discussed her health troubles with the suspect in the locker room, and he asked her for a hug.

In April, after the season ended, the woman said she took her son and two of his friends to an autograph-signing at Allsports at Fayette Mall. There, she said, the suspect autographed her program from the Dec. 22 game. Beside his signature, he wrote his phone number, she said. The woman still has the program, which she showed to a reporter.

The woman said the suspect contacted her three days later, saying that he admired her because she was recovering from cancer and that he wanted to do something nice for her son and for other children of cancer patients. They agreed that he would visit her son's school.

Because the woman had a background in marketing, the suspect expressed interest in her advice about a post-season basketball tour, she said. And he wanted to discuss formal ways to help children of cancer patients.

The woman said that's why she went to lunch with the player at Rafferty's on April 19 and then to Wildcat Lodge on April 20 with the full knowledge and consent of her husband.

"I'd never cheat on my husband," she said.

Her husband supports her version of events.

"I believe my wife 110 percent," the man said. "This whole claim of an affair is bull. I knew of every meeting before it occurred."

In an interview, the woman's mother-in-law said she had lunch with the woman and her husband before the woman went to Wildcat Lodge. She said no one thought a meeting at the Lodge would be unusual because "they thought it was a legitimate job offer."

Sedatives found in system

The woman has told police that after she went to Wildcat Lodge with the suspect, he offered her a brownie and a bitter-tasting milkshake in a UKshot glass. The woman told the Herald-Leader she felt compelled to eat and drink because she had told the suspect at Rafferty's that she was fond of that restaurant's brownies and milkshakes.

The woman told police that after eating the snack, she remembers little else. The woman said she was at Wildcat Lodge for three or four hours. She said she was nauseated and had a headache when she left but thought she could make it to her husband's work because she was familiar with the route.

"She was not herself when she came back," her husband said, recalling that day. "She seemed like she was in another place. She complained of belly pain."

They drove to the grocery store, then home, where the woman went straight to bed. She said she woke up intermittently during the night. She recalled hearing a shower at Wildcat Lodge and later lying naked on the bed next to the suspect, who was also naked and lying partially on top of her.

Then she discovered what she thought to be semen in her underwear. She said she had not had sex with her husband since two days before.

She called the Rape Crisis Center and told a worker she thought she had been raped. She was told to go to a hospital. According to a hospital report, she didn't want to go to the University of Kentucky Hospital because of its tie to the basketball program. She went to Georgetown Community Hospital alone, the woman said.

At the hospital, a drug screen was performed and later showed mar1juana and two sedatives in her system that the woman insists she did not take knowingly.

The results show that she did not have the "date rape" drug Rohypnol in her system. Police emphasized this point when they later cleared the case, but they never publicly mentioned the other drugs. The woman says she told police only that the hospital had suspected that she might have been drugged with Rohypnol.

Her lawyers point out that the sedatives in her system are from the same family as Rohypnol.

Hospital employees called the Rape Crisis Center in Georgetown and the woman's stepmother, who took her home. Her stepmother also was present when the woman told her husband what happened.

The couple recall hugging and him telling her they had been through worse, referring to her cancer. He told her that they would arrange for her to see a rape counselor.

And then, the woman said, "He begged me not to go to the police."

The husband said that while he believed his wife's allegations, he worried about her physical health and feared what would happen if she went to police. "I knew our lives would be threatened,"he said.

But the woman said that while her husband took a nap, she stepped into her front yard and called police.

"My rage couldn't keep me from it. You couldn't have something like that happen and not go to the police," she said.

Tired of being intimidated

Since then, the woman said, she has lived in fear of strangers who appeared to be "casing" her home,and that's a big reason she quit cooperating with authorities.

The woman said she had been contacted several times by the suspect, and she showed a reporter several cell-phone text messages that she said he sent to her. For example, one, dated April 28, says, "What did the police say to you when they called?"

The woman said that after she made the rape allegation, she had face-to-face meetings with the suspect and with Smith and had talked to both by telephone.

She says she asked the suspect to take an HIV test so she could discontinue a precautionary anti-viral drug regimen. The woman showed a reporter the results of a May 3 HIV test that she said were provided to her by the suspect and his attorney. The test was negative.

She said she also asked for more security at Wildcat Lodge and counseling for the suspect.

She said she's decided to pursue the case now because "I was tired of being intimidated and scared. Everyone needs to know what happened at Wildcat Lodge that day."