Sexual assault defendant testifies it was consensual

Erica Johnson

Thursday, Aug. 2, 2001 | 10:31 a.m.

A Las Vegas man accused of drugging and sexually assaulting two women and videotaping the incidents said, under cross-examination Wednesday, he loved the alleged victims and thought the sex was consensual.

Clarence "Jim" Dozier, who testified most of Wednesday, was arrested in November after one of the alleged victims woke up during the encounter and called police. The prosecution maintains Dozier put sleeping pills in the woman's drink.

Dozier said he and the first alleged victim, with whom he had a long-term relationship until 1995, had a "good, healthy sex life." Dozier said the tape was made while the two were still together.

Dozier said he and the alleged victim occasionally experimented by videotaping their sexual encounters, but he denied drugging the woman. He said the couple often tried to arouse one another while sleeping.

During the prosecution phase last week, the jury watched the videotape of Dozier performing sex acts on the alleged victims.

Dozier appeared calm on the stand but became uncomfortable when defense attorney Stan Walton asked him to describe the sex acts in the videotape.

"I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't consensual," Dozier said. "We were a ... couple. We loved each other."

Dozier said he and the second alleged victim, also a former girlfriend, had sex a few hours before the videotaped encounter, and the woman was responsive. During the videotaped encounter, Dozier said, the woman wasn't unconscious but "in a deep sleep."

Under cross examination, Deputy District Attorney Mary Kay Holthus questioned Dozier about his definition of the word "consensual."

Dozier defined the word as the difference between saying yes or no. "She never said stop," Dozier said of the second alleged victim. "She could have said no at any given time."

Dozier said he had a prescription for sleeping pills filled at a local drugstore the same day as the incident, but he didn't do it with plans to drug his former girlfriend.

Holthus Tuesday presented the jury with an audiotape of Dozier's involuntary statement taken by investigators the day of the incident in which Dozier admitted giving the woman eight to 10 sleeping pills when she complained of insomnia.

Under cross examination Wednesday, Dozier said he was intimidated by the police when he gave the statement. He said he gave her only two to three pills and sprinkled "a pinch" of crushed pills in her drink a few hours later.