The beauty queen who brought rape charges against boxer Mike Tyson went
public by appearing on the cover of next week's People magazine, saying "I didn't do it for fame. It was the right thing to do."The magazine goes on sale Sunday but released a copy of the cover and story Thursday.
The cover includes a large photograph of a scowling Tyson with a smaller picture of a smiling Desiree Washington, the 18-year-old Miss Black America contestant he was convicted Monday of raping.
People spokesman Beth Kseniak said the magazine interviewed Washington after its story on the trial had gone to press, so the cover was the only place she could be quoted.
Washington, a freshman at Providence College in Rhode Island, wasn't paid for permission to use her identity, Kseniak said. During the trial, some news organizations, including NBC, identified the accuser without her consent.
Tyson was convicted Monday of one count of rape and two counts of criminal deviate conduct. Each count carries up to 20 years in prison. Tyson, 25, had testified that Washington consented to sex last July 19 after the two met at a pageant rehearsal in Indianapolis.
In Indianapolis, Judge Patricia Gifford granted a defense request to delay Tyson's sentencing hearing by three weeks, from March 6 to March 27, and scheduling conflicts could make it even later, court officials said Thursday.
And in New York, developer Donald Trump proposed that Tyson donate money to Washington and other rape victims in exchange for a lenient sentence. Trump has advised Tyson in the past and helped promote Tyson fights staged at Trump casinos.
Rob Smith, spokesman for the Marion County prosecutor's office, called Trump's suggestion totally out of line.
"This trial, like all trials, is very important and was taken seriously. An offer like this undermines the importance and the seriousness with which this trial was taken," he said.
Said Trump, "The case could be made, well, you shouldn't be allowed to buy yourself out. But a lot more people can benefit by what I'm suggesting than by throwing a man in jail virtually with no money - because by the time this ends he won't have any money."