June 25, 2005

Accuser defends account

DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News

10:13 PM CDT on Friday, June 24, 2005

By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News

Attorneys for former priest John Salazar grilled a 20-year-old Amarillo man Friday over charges that he sexually assaulted him in September 2003 while he was too intoxicated to resist.

Beau Villegas spent more than two hours on the witness stand Friday, mostly under cross-examination. Attorney Leigh Demasi challenged Mr. Villegas' account of what happened inside an Irving hotel after a wedding party the two men attended.

Ms. Demasi noted that the Amarillo College student had written that he had been too inebriated to recall details of what happened in his earliest statements about the attack. But in later accounts, as well as his testimony Thursday, he described the events in great detail, she said.

Mr. Villegas said that he was embarrassed and didn't want to remember all of the details. He said he drank at least 10 beers and three mixed drinks and had vomited several times the night in question but said he had a high tolerance for alcohol.

Ms. Demasi also questioned why Mr. Villegas entered Mr. Salazar's hotel room despite his earlier testimony that he had been "appalled" that weekend with what he thought were sexual advances from Mr. Salazar.

Posted by kshaw at June 25, 2005 07:35 AM