JAG CENTRAL

Further testimony from the alleged victim in the rape trial of Air Force Academy Cadet Benjamin Kuster:

The club outing was in part a celebration for the woman, who was graduating from the academy that month, and she admitted to participating in the revelry.

At a Saturday night dinner following a scuba dive, the woman and Kuster's fiancee linked arms in a champagne toast, and some of the male cadets talked of making the night "memorable."

Back at the cadets' motel, the woman consumed nearly a fifth of rum.

At one point, the woman pulled up her blouse and let cadets drink "body shots" off her torso.

Goaded on by male cadets, the woman kissed Kuster's fiancee, then kissed the woman and Kuster on a bed as other cadets took pictures.

"I think it was the environment of the room," the woman said when asked why she engaged in those activities.

She also said that during the bedroom episode, Kuster put his hand inside the back of her panties but she pulled back to discourage him.

Another cadet, Matthew Lare, disputed the woman's account, saying Kuster held his hand inside her panties for several minutes.

Asked by Kuster's attorney if the woman objected, Lare replied, "No, sir."

The woman testified she later went to sleep on the floor of a motel room. Kuster and his fiancee arrived soon after and slept beside her on the floor.

The woman said she was awakened about 1:30 a.m. by someone having sex with her.

She testified that she did not see the man's face but knew from his kiss that it was Kuster.

"I remember being confused," she said.

But she did not cry out, push or hit her attacker to tell him to stop, the woman told Kuster's attorney, Capt. Gwendolyn Beitz.

The woman said she did ask, "What about Kat?" in reference to Kuster's girlfriend.

The woman said the man quickly stopped having sex with her at that point and moved away.

Beitz sought to undercut the woman's testimony with a series of questions about why she did not wake up until she was having sex with her alleged attacker.

Kuster's attorneys suggested the woman concocted the rape charge for fear of being punished and prevented from graduating.

After the sexual assault scandal of 2003, academy policy was changed to grant amnesty to rape victims to encourage reporting of the crimes. Amnesty also erases a victim's own offenses related to a rape, such as underage drinking.

Kuster's attorneys said the woman had been scolded that evening by the club's sponsor, Maj. Adrian Michalicek, following the bedroom episode saying, "I'm not sure how this is going to affect your future."

The woman was the highest ranking cadet on the trip, and Kuster's attorneys said she was responsible for misconduct on the trip, which included underage drinking and her own kissing of another woman, which might be construed as lesbian behavior by the Air Force.

The woman said she delayed reporting the assault for a day because she knew another academy cadet "who had come forward with a rape case and was ostracized."