22 years after alleged rape, trial begins

Molly Ball

Monday, Nov. 15, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

Richard Miller's cornrows are graying now, and so is Spencer Brooks Jr.'s beard.

But 22 years ago, the two were allegedly rowdy young pimps who took a woman home from a Las Vegas dance club, trapped her in an apartment, and brutally raped and beat her continuously for seven hours.

Their trial began Friday before District Judge Michelle Leavitt for the 1982 rape.

In 2001 they were arrested on unrelated charges in California, and authorities there noticed the 19-year-old warrants for their arrest. They had been free since skipping a court date in November 1982.

The alleged victim, a Seattle resident, "swore that she would never forget the man (Brooks) who befriended her, took her to his apartment, joined his friend Richard Miller, and robbed and raped her," Deputy District Attorney Cheryl Kosewicz told the jury.

"She's waited 22 years to tell you what she hasn't been able to forget those 22 years," Kosewicz said.

The charges against the pair -- sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and battery -- were dismissed in 2002 by then-District Judge Michael Douglas based on the right to a speedy trial guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

But last year the Nevada Supreme Court ruled the two should stand trial, saying the accused caused the delay by "fleeing."

Statutes of limitations do not apply because the two had already been charged when the long hiatus commenced.

Miller is now 51, Brooks 48. If convicted on all counts, they would serve at least 10 years in prison, based on 1982 sentencing guidelines.

The pair's lawyers deny that the two were ever on the lam. They say the two were given the wrong court date for their November 1982 preliminary hearing in Las Vegas Justice Court and were never notified of the correct day.

Miller's attorney, Gabriel Grasso, told the judge that Miller was twice arrested for felonies in Kentucky and California in the early 1990s, but authorities failed to notice the outstanding warrants for the alleged rape.

Prosecutors portrayed the alleged victim as a wide-eyed 24-year-old single mother who came to Las Vegas seeking work, only to have her dreams shattered by the brutal incident.

Defense attorneys argued that the woman was a prostitute. A police detective will testify as an expert in "pimp-prostitute culture" that the things the alleged victim did that night -- walking along Fremont Street going in and out of casinos, meeting men in a bar and leaving with them in their car an hour later, stopping on the way to their apartment to buy cocaine -- were all "consistent with something a prostitute might do," Brooks' attorney, Deputy Public Defender Will Ewing, told the jury.

The alleged victim, who testified for more than four hours on Friday, had been in Las Vegas no more than a few months when it happened. She was living with a roommate and her 5-year-old son in an apartment near the Lady Luck casino and collecting welfare.

On the night of Oct. 27, she went to a club called the Keyboard Lounge, where she danced and had a drink with Brooks. According to her testimony, he offered to drive her home in his orange Cadillac Coupe de Ville.

But on the way, he said he had to make a couple of stops. First he made a street-corner deal to buy some cocaine; then he stopped at an apartment complex on East Flamingo Road and insisted she come in with him for just a minute, she testified.

Miller was in the apartment when the two arrived, and Miller and Brooks began snorting the cocaine, she said. About 1:30 a.m., she told them she felt uncomfortable and was anxious to get back to her son, she said.

But when she tried to walk out the door, one of them grabbed her by the arm, she said. They pulled her into the bedroom, but she continued to resist, running into the bathroom and locking the door, she said.

As she realized she couldn't fit through the bathroom window and there were no weapons handy, the men kicked in the door, she said. They then forced her onto the bed and tore her clothes off, she said.

The men held her down and raped her, she said. All the while the two yelled at her, hit her and called her names, she said.

Before the night was over, they had taken her money and driver's license and told her she had no choice but to work for them as a prostitute, she said. They each raped her again, then forced her to dress and get in the car around 8 a.m., ostensibly going to take her son prisoner as collateral, she said.

But she jumped out of the car at a stoplight and started running, memorizing the California license plate as she went.

She ran to a Winchell's donut shop on Maryland Parkway, called the police, and was taken to what was then Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital -- now University Medical Center.

The alleged victim was steely and calm as she testified, freely admitting she couldn't remember many of her past statements and didn't recognize the panties, pantyhose and bra kept as evidence for 22 years.

The defense lawyers pointed out that her statements over the years have varied from the original account she gave police in 1982. For example, at that time she said she had met both men at the bar, not just one.

Questioned about discrepancies like that one, she retorted, "I don't know if you've ever been raped, but I was hysterical when I made that statement."

But she said she was sure the men on trial were her attackers.

"I stared at him so hard -- both of them," she said. "I swore I would never forget their face(s)."