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Druckenmiller acquitted Jury deliberates for only an hour before delivering verdict
Posted: Thursday July 22, 1999 08:19 PM
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) -- A jury found San Francisco 49ers reserve quarterback Jim Druckenmiller innocent Thursday of a charge of raping a 22-year-old graduate of Virginia Tech, where Druckenmiller was a star player. The jury of nine men and three women reached the verdict after about an hour of deliberations. As the verdict was read, Druckenmiller breathed a sigh of relief and winked at a supporter sitting in the courtroom. He hugged both of his attorneys and his parents, who were present throughout the trial. "I'm relieved, and it's time to play football," Druckenmiller said outside the Montgomery County courthouse where the four-day trial was held. "I learned a tough lesson and a valuable lesson." Sue Druckenmiller, the player's mother, said, "It was very hard sitting through all of this." "We knew the truth would come out, and it did," said James Druckenmiller Sr., the quarterback's father. Druckenmiller's accuser, through two of her sorority sisters, said she would not comment. Steve Mariucci, coach of the 49ers, said the NFL team was happy that Druckenmiller had been cleared. "We are looking forward to seeing him at training camp and now he can concentrate on playing football," Mariucci said in a statement. Jury foreman Keith McCarter said afterwards that he was convinced Druckenmiller was innocent. "The evidence just wasn't there," McCarter said. Druckenmiller's accuser contended she was raped after a night of drinking when she was too drunk to resist. Druckenmiller was visiting his alma mater and staying at a Blacksburg house where the alleged assault occurred. "Mr. Druckenmiller took advantage of a drunken girl. He took her clothes off. She was fuzzy, she didn't know what was going on around her when she awakened," assistant prosecutor Skip Schwab said in closing arguments. The defense contended the sex was consensual. "She has a selective memory to recall what she wants to remember, and black out what she doesn't want to remember," defense attorney Bev Davis told the jury. "She was kissing him, telling him he was hot, and that she wanted to have sex with him." Druckenmiller, 26, could have faced five years to life in prison if convicted. He did not testify. According to testimony, Druckenmiller, his accuser and several friends went out partying at two bars before going to the house. Three men who know Druckenmiller testified Wednesday they heard his accuser say she wanted to have sex with him. The woman testified that she didn't recall kissing Druckenmiller or telling him she loved him and wanted to have sex. Earlier Thursday, the defense played a tape recording of Druckenmiller's conversation with a police sergeant the day after the alleged attack, despite prosecution objections. Druckenmiller told the officer the woman was awake while they had sex and that they undressed each other beforehand. She testified that she passed out and woke up to find Druckenmiller on top of her. On the recording made by the officer, Druckenmiller said he asked the woman after having sex if everything was OK and she said, "I'm drunk. I know what I'm doing. Everything's fine." He said she started crying when she realized her friends had gone home without her. She declined Druckenmiller's offer of a ride and called a friend instead, he said. The officer asked Druckenmiller if he knew why she had started to cry and he said, "Maybe she was regretting what she had done," according to the tape. Schwab complained that playing the tape to the jury allowed Druckenmiller to make a statement without being cross-examined.
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