The star witness against an Air Force basic training instructor charged with raping her in a dormitory office said his misconduct began with a kiss she didn't see coming — and says she didn't want.
Taking the stand against Tech. Sgt. Marc Gayden for about three hours Thursday, the woman told a five-member jury the first incident occurred as she stood duty as a dorm guard.
“He came up to me and tried to hug me, and I turned my head,” said the woman, identified as Airman 1.
Gayden is charged with rape, forcible sodomy and trying to develop an illicit personal relationship with the woman while he was her basic training instructor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He could get life in prison.
As the morning unfolded, Airman 1 maintained her military bearing, never becoming flustered or emotional.
She maintained that Gayden raped her even after Houston defense attorney Guy Womack highlighted differences in three statements she gave Air Force investigators, the email she sent and an evidentiary hearing here in April.
A prosecutor, Capt. Mark Schwartz, this week said Airman 1 was on crutches nursing a bad ankle on Christmas Eve 2010 when she talked with Gayden about the injury. They were in his office a short walk from her bed.
As they talked, the government alleges, he tried to kiss her, then put a hand down her pants and pushed her into a chair, where he briefly forced her to perform oral sex.
When it was over, the recruit limped to bed and cried, leaving her crutches behind, she said. A few minutes later, she said, he stood over her.
“'No one's going to believe you,'” Airman 1 recalled him saying.
Womack calls her a liar and worked throughout the day to damage her credibility. He threw many punches as 10 witnesses took the stand, but landed few.
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