Word: bludworth
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Smith's lawyer, Roy Black, and some legal experts assert that Bludworth's motive was to avoid seeming soft on the Kennedy family. But there was more to it than that. During their eight-month investigation, the prosecutors became convinced that the woman was telling the truth about Smith, then a medical student at Georgetown University. Their problem was proving that in court...
After the trial ended, Bludworth insisted, "Based on the evidence, I would charge ((Smith)) again today. This wasn't date rape. They had just met. This was a sexual battery, intercourse without her consent." The police, prosecutors, rape counselors and the doctors who examined the woman believed her. During the investigation, she passed two polygraph tests and a voice- stress analysis. She stuck to her story through five grueling interrogations by police and prosecutors and an exhausting three-day deposition by the defense. The bruises on her torso were consistent with the attack she described. Says Bludworth: "There was absolutely...
...Much as Bludworth may deny it, the fact that a Kennedy family member was involved may have played a role in his decision to prosecute. Seven years ago, he was accused of kowtowing to the family by not thoroughly investigating the drug-overdose death of Robert Kennedy's son David in Palm Beach. Bludworth, who faces re-election next year, risked renewed accusations of a cover-up had he declined to move against another Kennedy...
...doubts Bludworth and Lasch might have harbored about Smith's guilt seem to have been swept away last summer when three women came forward to claim that they too had been sexually attacked by Smith. Each described how an initially charming Smith had turned violent once they were alone with him -- eerily mirroring the account of the woman in the Palm Beach case...
...crime he is charged with. Moreover, none of the women had filed charges against Smith. One of Lasch's most controversial moves was to release the three women's stories, perhaps mistakenly hoping that prospective jurors would remember them even if they were not introduced into evidence. Bludworth says Florida's "sunshine law," which requires that public records be made available on request, left Lasch with no choice but to make the stories public -- as well as details of the accuser's sexual past, which included three abortions and sexual abuse by her father...