Victim tried to force sex, alleged rapist says

The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Feb 23, 2007 9:16:57 EST

An Air Force officer accused of raping four men said one of his alleged victims tried to force him to have sex.

Capt. Devery L. Taylor, a medic and the former chief of patient administration at Eglin Regional Hospital, said he took care of the man, trying to help him find his hotel when he had too much to drink at an area bar. He said he eventually took the man to his own home and let him sleep it off there after determining he was too drunk to find his hotel.

Taylor, 38, pleaded not guilty Feb. 19 to raping four men and attempting to rape two others. Prosecutors described him as a serial rapist who used the date-rape drug GHB to incapacitate his victims. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of all the charges against him. There are two counts of attempted sodomy, four counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of kidnapping and one count of unlawful entry.

In a video of Taylor’s interview, shown Thursday during his court-martial proceedings, investigators from the Office of Special Investigations told Taylor that another Air Force captain claimed something happened to him at Taylor’s apartment in 2004 and that there was trace evidence that consensual sex might have occurred there.

“That doesn’t concern me if it was consensual,” the investigator told Taylor. “I’m not allowed to talk about your preferences. That has nothing to do with your military career as far as the people who do my job are concerned.”

The investigator then suggested that the man might have changed his story and said he was raped after his military buddies questioned him about spending time with Taylor at the bar.

“I think this guy is making up these allegations because a couple of the guys he was with are trying to give him a hard time,” the investigator said.

But Taylor said he did not have consensual sex with the man.

“That’s charging me with homosexuality and that’s against the [Uniform Code of Military Justice]. I didn’t force anything on this guy. This guy came onto me at AJ’s [bar], and he came onto me at my place and I said ‘No, I don’t do that,’ but he said ‘Come on, come on,’” Taylor said.

Taylor’s civilian attorney, Martin Regan, has since said that Taylor is gay and had consensual sex with his alleged victims. Regan said all but one of the men were either in the military or wanted to be in the military when they knew Taylor, and feared being discovered as gay would jeopardize their careers. Under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, members who are openly gay are subject to discharge.

Taylor later told investigators that the Air Force captain undressed him and attempted to force himself on him but that Taylor forced him away. During the lengthy interview, Taylor initially said he could not remember whether another person was in his apartment, but then said a friend helped him put the man in his car and return him to his hotel.

In their opening arguments, prosecutors said the Air Force captain claimed he was attacked by more than one man in Taylor’s apartment.

Ellie