UNC players tell of drunken victimization

They testify against a man accused in sex, robbery case

HILLSBOROUGH -- UNC-Chapel Hill football players testified Monday about a wild night of drinking last December that they say ended with them trussed and sexually molested by a woman while a naked man roamed their apartment with a kitchen knife.

The testimony in Orange County court came during the trial of Michael Troy Lewis, 32. The Durham man is charged with first-degree kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy to kidnap, rob and sexually batter. Closing arguments are expected to begin this morning for the case, in which the defense put on no witnesses.

Also accused in the case are Jenise Taylor of Greenville, who was charged with resisting a public officer, three counts of first-degree kidnapping, three counts of felony conspiracy and three counts of first-degree sex offense. Tnika Monta Washington of Durham is charged with resisting a public officer.

Police found two of the Tar Heel football players in their boxer shorts, bound with belts, shoelaces and sound system wires shortly before 4 a.m. on Dec. 17. The events that led them there began the previous evening, when two players -- one of them underage at the time -- got together with Tar Heel center Lowell Dyer to celebrate his 21st birthday. The North Carolina football season was over for the year, and one of the players was set to graduate that weekend.

(The News & Observer generally does not identify people who report that they were sexually assaulted.)

Dyer, who comes from Durham and is the team's starting center this year, testified Monday that he started drinking about 4 p.m. Another player brought over a case of beer about 8 p.m. The three linemen, by their count, downed dozens of beers before leaving the Chapel Ridge Apartments in northern Chapel Hill shortly before midnight to continue the party downtown.

Drinking downtown

First, the players, who all approach 300 pounds, went to Top of the Hill, a restaurant and bar, for at least one beer each and liquor shots.

An hour later, according to their testimony, they went to the East End Martini Bar, where one player drifted away from the other two. That player met two women in the bar and persuaded them and a male friend of theirs to give him a ride home. The player testified that he blacked out during the ride.

When he regained consciousness, he said, he was in a chair in his room with his arms bound and one of the women straddling him.

The other two players stayed at the martini bar until closing at 2 a.m. Then they went to get food at Hector's, a late-night restaurant next to the bar.

"The size that we are, we have certain eating habits," one of the players testified. "It was feeding time."

Dyer and the remaining player caught a taxi back to Chapel Ridge Apartments shortly before 3 a.m. and noticed nothing out of the ordinary as they went inside, according to testimony.

Dyer, who acknowledged being drunk, went into his room and collapsed face-down on his bed with his clothes and shoes on.

'I thought I might die'

The other player went down the hall to look for the teammate who preceded them. What he found was Lewis, naked, standing outside a bedroom with a kitchen paring knife in his hand.

It was unclear why Lewis was not wearing clothes, but the player testified that he did not feel threatened by the naked man, that he is a "happy-go-lucky" guy who gives "everybody a chance."

The player testified that Lewis told him that his teammate was in the bedroom with two women.

"I wanted to see exactly what was going on, to tell the other guys in the locker room the next day," the player testified.