Trial highlights use of drug in LV clubs

Kim Smith

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

A sexual assault trial this week is detailing the alleged use of the so-called date rape drug GHB in Las Vegas area nightclubs.

The trial of Marine Lance Cpl. Raymond Flores, which began Wednesday, is one of the first cases in Las Vegas in which prosecutors are alleging that a suspect slipped the so-called date rape drug GHB into the drink of an intended victim at a nightclub to render her unconscious.

Metro Police told the Sun last month that undercover officers have been investigating the use of GHB and the designer drug Ecstasy in Las Vegas nightclubs for about a year.

One Metro official said the drugs are "extremely prevalent" in local clubs.

A 32-year-old Las Vegas woman told jurors Wednesday that she met Flores at The Beach nightclub on Convention Center Drive about one week before the alleged attack. She said her boyfriend, a Marine stationed in Miramar, Calif., introduced her to Flores as a former schoolmate.

The Sun is not disclosing the name of the woman because she is the victim of an alleged sexual assault.

On Aug. 14, the woman said, she ran into Flores again at The Beach while dancing with three female friends. Later that evening the two struck up a conversation after becoming separated from their respective friends in the packed nightclub.

The two spoke about her boyfriend, military school and gambling, the woman said. Eventually, his friends -- five or six other Marines -- joined them.

The woman said she looked at her watch about 2:10 a.m. and told Flores she was going to go to the restroom, then head home to her three children.

When she came back, the woman said, Flores asked her if she wanted a shot of tequila before she left. The woman said she accepted, and because she saw empty shot glasses on the table, she assumed everyone at the table had already drank theirs.

Her next clear memory, she testified, was waking up in a motel room about nine hours after she drank the tequila.

She said she was panicked, nauseated, disoriented and sore. She dressed, then yelled at Flores, who was sleeping on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Flores handed her the keys to her car, and she fled, leaving her debit card and shoes behind, the woman said.

She found her car parked outside the motel room, the driver's seat pushed back farther than normal. It wasn't until she pulled out of the parking lot that she realized she was somewhere near the airport.

The woman said she went home, took a three-minute shower and went to work, arriving 45 minutes late. She worked about 45 minutes before going home ill.

The woman said she thought about calling the authorities but didn't because she wasn't sure exactly what had happened or whom to call -- the police or the Marine Corps.

After speaking with her boyfriend later that evening, the woman said she called the police. She spoke with detectives and underwent a sexual assault exam at University Medical Center.

She gave her clothing to the police, the woman said. The zipper on her pants had been torn.

The woman told Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry that she was not drunk that night. Before she went out she had two rib-eye steaks and at the nightclub only drank two beers and two shots of tequilas.

During opening arguments Wednesday, prosecutors said DNA tests showed that physical evidence on the woman's clothing most likely came from Flores.

However, defense attorneys Dianne Dickson and Bita Khamsi said they intend to prove that the woman was not sexually assaulted, and the symptoms she exhibited the following day were the result of a bad hangover.

Flores, who is stationed in Miramar, Calif., was in Las Vegas at the time of the alleged assault participating in military exercises at Nellis Air Force Base. He has been reassigned to Nellis until the resolution of his case.

Flores, who was wearing his uniform Wednesday, must be accompanied into court by a military escort. On Wednesday six other uniformed Marines sat behind him in the courtroom observing.

The trial is expected to continue Friday before District Judge Kathy Hardcastle with cross-examination of the woman.