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Very interesting and here we go again...
Similar rape claim made at Moravian by Scott's accuser
Student in 2003 case was acquitted by a jury
By Brian Callaway Of The Morning Call
The woman accusing Penn State running back Austin Scott of sexual assault leveled similar charges in 2003 against a Moravian College student, who was later acquitted of rape.
In both cases, the woman said the attacks happened after she spent the night drinking. And in both cases, she said she woke up to find the men forcing themselves on her, court records show.
Scott's attorney, John P. Karoly Jr. of South Whitehall Township, said the Moravian case shows the woman is ''pathological'' and has a history of falsely accusing men of rape.
''This girl has made similar allegations before that were not believed by a jury,'' he said. ''? If they insist on going forward with this case, we are going to petition the court to have her examined by a psychiatrist.''
Assistant District Attorney Lance Marshall said he was aware of the earlier case when his office gave the go-ahead to file charges against Scott in Centre County last Friday. He declined to say how his office learned of the Moravian case.
''I was prepared for this to come out sooner or later,'' he said.
Karoly said he will use the Moravian case to discredit the accuser. Marshall said he would fight any reference to it if Scott goes to trial.
''We don't think it's important at all, and we don't think the defense should even be talking about it at all at this stage,'' he said.
Marshall said he doesn't think the earlier rape accusation is relevant ''because it has nothing to do with what happened Oct. 5.''
In the Moravian case, the woman told police she'd been drinking at a fraternity party in October 2003 when she met Christopher Burgan of New Jersey, then a fraternity pledge. They later had consensual sex in his room in a campus apartment while his roommate was in the bottom bunk. The roommate left, she testified, and Burgan raped her several times.
Burgan testified that the woman was a willing participant, and that after spending the night together they kissed goodbye.
Scott, one of the top high school football players in Lehigh Valley history, was charged with raping the woman, now 22, in his apartment on Penn State's campus in the early morning hours of Oct. 5.
He was suspended from the Nittany Lions during his last year of eligibility after the woman accused him of rape. He remains enrolled at the university, and is free under $50,000 unsecured bail.
The woman testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday that she went out drinking with friends on Oct. 4 before meeting up with Scott and going to his room. She testified that Scott, 22, began forcing himself on her, and she initially tried to resist but he hit her in the back, so she let him have sex with her because she was afraid.
She said she tried to sneak out of his apartment after he fell asleep, but he woke up. She testified that she told him she couldn't sleep there, then kissed him goodbye.
Karoly said he was told of the Moravian case when he was hired, a day or two after the woman told police Scott had raped her. He said he's had an investigator looking into it.
''People had told us this had happened before,'' Karoly said. ''She told her friends about something that happened at Moravian.''
Karoly said the rape shield law will not prevent him from bringing up the old case in defending Scott. That law prohibits defendants from exposing the ''lack of chastity and promiscuity'' of people who claim rape, he said, but permits testimony that shows ''a plan, scheme, design or past circumstance of making false allegations.''
Eddie Ohlbaum, a professor at Temple Law School, said it is unlikely under Pennsylvania law that information from the earlier case would be allowed into court. The earlier not-guilty verdict should not be considered a comment on the woman's credibility, he said.
However, he noted, the law does allow the judge to exercise discretion.
''To the extent that the factual situations were very similar, that might concern a judge,'' he said.
Marshall declined to say whether he thinks the Moravian case could damage the accuser's credibility.
''We'll see what happens,'' he said.
He said news of the old case could make it more difficult to find unbiased jurors, though.
''What you write about in Allentown doesn't concern me nearly as much as what happens here in Centre County, because this is where the potential jurors come from.''
Scott could not be reached Thursday afternoon, and nobody answered the phone at his parents' home in Price Township, near East Stroudsburg.
His accuser did not respond to an e-mail for comment, and her father hung up the phone when contacted by a reporter.
Burgan's trial in Northampton County Court lasted five days in November 2004. His accuser wept as she told a jury she was repeatedly raped, but Burgan testified that the woman never screamed or tried to say no as they had consensual sex several times. Burgan's roommate testified he heard giggling on the top bunk during the consensual sex.
Jurors ultimately acquitted him of most charges, including rape. The judge declared a mistrial on three other sex-related charges after jurors deadlocked following 10 hours of deliberations.
Prosecutors could have sought to try Burgan again on those counts, but Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli later announced there would be no retrial because ''our view is that it would not be successful.''
Burgan could not be reached for comment. The attorney who defended him, George Heitczman, was shocked to hear Thursday that Scott's accuser was the same woman who had accused Burgan of rape.
''My client doesn't need any further vindication,'' Heitczman said. ''But I find that very interesting. Obviously, this will make Mr. Karoly's case a lot easier.''
Scott's case has drawn widespread attention because of his prowess as a football player at Parkland High School. In 2002, he ran for 3,853 yards and 53 touchdowns in leading the Trojans to a state championship, and later received Parade All-American honors.
He earned a scholarship to play for Penn State, but has struggled at times, in part because of injuries.
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