Jury’s task is unusual

Kim Smith

Thursday, July 26, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.

The trial of a Las Vegas man accused of drugging and sexually assaulting two women and recording the incident on videotape began Wednesday with the prosecutor apologizing to the jury.

Deputy District Attorney Mary Kay Holthus told the jury the Clarence Dozier case is not a typical sexual assault case because of the drugs involved and the videotape.

It is imperative, she said, that they watch the explicit videotape and decide for themselves if the women on it are responding "in any way, shape or form," to Dozier's actions.

"If (Dozier) hadn't had the courtesy of videotaping it, we wouldn't be here today," Holthus said.

Holthus told jurors that Dozier, 40, was arrested on 27 felony charges in November 2000 after a former girlfriend of his woke up naked, feeling violated and being videotaped.

The woman confronted Dozier and he ran outside to his truck with the videotape, Holthus said.

Feeling groggy and unwell, the woman called police. Dozier told police they had had consensual sex and after she fell asleep he began watching a vacation video of his daughter.

Police found such a video in Dozier's camcorder, but after receiving permission to search his truck, they found another videotape, Holthus said.

The tape shows the clearly unconscious former girlfriend being sexually assaulted in a variety of ways by Dozier, Holthus said. Initially, police thought two other women were also assaulted on the tape, but it ended up being just one other woman with whom Dozier had had a long-time relationship.

Holthus said the first woman told police that on the day of the incident, Dozier bought two frozen drinks, but objected when she reached for one, saying it was his. He also stopped her daughter from sipping her drink and gave him a sip from his.

The last clear thing the woman remembers before waking up nude is feeling overwhelmingly tired, Holthus said.

Police officers responding to the woman's house found a backpack on her lawn containing sleeping pills, a lubricating jelly and pornographic photos of the woman.

One of the bottles showed that Dozier had just refilled his prescription that day for his insomnia. Eighteen of the 30 pills were gone, Holthus said.

The second woman will testify that, judging from her clothing and the furnishings on the videotape, two of the three assaults on her happened after they broke up, Holthus said.

Holthus said Dozier eventually admitted he videotaped the acts on the first woman because he wanted something to remember her by. He also admitted to having done similar things to the second woman.

"We expect that between the victims, the videotape and the audiotape of the defendant, you will have no problem returning a verdict of 'guilty,' " Holthus said.

Dozier's attorney, Stan Walton, told jurors he will give his opening statement after the state has rested its case.