A woman whose testimony was barred from Mike Tyson's rape trial said she saw the boxer and his victim kissing as they went into the hotel where the crime took place.
"I know what I saw, I know what day I was here. I saw Mike Tyson kissing a woman at 1:30 in the morning outside this hotel," Carla Martin said during a television program Thursday that broadcast Tyson's first interview since he was sentenced to six years in the Indiana Youth Center."They were kissing each other."
Martin and two others came forward after Tyson's trial began last January for the rape of Desiree Washington, an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant from Conventry, R.I.
Marion Superior Court Judge Patricia Gifford ruled it would be unfair to the prosecution to allow the defense to let them testify because they surfaced so late.
Tyson's lawyers argue that the women directly challenge Washington's credibility. They say their evidence could be used in their appeal.
During the trial, Washington testified that she didn't embrace Tyson when their car took them to Tyson's Indianapolis hotel or after they got out of the vehicle.
Tyson was released Thursday from a segregation cell at the youth center where he had asked to stay before his interview with Ed Bradley aired on CBS' "Street Stories."
The boxer told Bradley that he had been harassed by the prison's guards and his fellow inmates since his incarceration in March.
Kevin Moore, a prison spokesman in Indianapolis, said Tyson did not say whether threats had been made against him.
In the interview with Bradley, conducted May 26, Tyson said some inmates had called him a "tree jumper," or someone who jumps from behind trees and rapes people.
He also said he has had trouble with certain prison guards who want to "put their foot on somebody's neck" but aren't good enough to "clean my toilet."