Men who say they
were drugged and raped by an Air Force officer lied to
avoid being revealed as gay in the military, a defense
attorney told a military jury Tuesday.
Capt. Devery L.
Taylor, former chief of patient administration at Eglin
Air Force Base Regional Hospital in Florida, is gay and
engaged in consensual sex with the men, his civilian
attorney, Martin Regan, said during opening arguments
in Taylor's court-martial.
Taylor, 38,
pleaded not guilty Monday to raping four men and attempting
to rape two others; prosecutor Capt. Eveylon Westbrook
describes him as a serial rapist. He faces a maximum
sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted
of all the charges against him. The charges are two
counts of attempted sodomy, four counts of forcible sodomy,
three counts of kidnapping, and one count of unlawful
entry.
''This case is
about homosexual activity that is not approved of by the
military services in our country at this time. Every one of
these individuals but one is either in the military
service or wants to be in the service,'' Regan said.
Under the
military's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy, members who are
openly gay are subject to discharge. Westbrook said Taylor
met his victims in bars, spiked their drinks with the
''date-rape drug'' gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, and
kidnapped them. ''Each victim will tell you they felt
like they were drugged before he either assaulted or
attempted to assault them,'' she said.
A Pensacola,
Fla., paramedic later testified that he and Taylor were
friends and had consensual sex on a previous occasion before
the two met again at a bar in July 2004. The man said
that he had one beer and that Taylor then bought him a
shot, which caused him to become extremely ill.
He said that he
woke up in Taylor's home and that Taylor raped him
repeatedly, but that he couldn't fight Taylor because he
felt drugged. ''My brain knew what was going on, but
my body just wouldn't cooperate,'' he said. The man
said he did not report the encounter to authorities
until two years later, when he read a newspaper report about
Taylor's arrest.
An Air Force
lieutenant who worked with Taylor at the base hospital
testified about his 2004 encounter with Taylor. He said he
blacked out and does not know whether he was raped.
The lieutenant, who is married, said he never had
consensual sex with Taylor.
Col. Thomas
Cumbie, the military judge, turned down a defense request
Tuesday to limit testimony about GHB. Defense attorneys said
that its effects were similar to that of alcohol and
that none of the victims had traces of the drug in
their bodies, but Cumbie said the symptoms were common
among all the victims. (AP)