4.2.12 WC: 191694 how to "handle the hometown boys" if they even dared to try to cop a "quick feel," thus suggesting that she did not even neck or pet. As a waitress in Washington's hometown put it: "America thought this girl was a blushing, virginal type." (Under the rape shield law, Tyson’s lawyer could not counter this portrayal. The prosecution thus used the rape shield law as a sword to present a one-sidedly false picture of the alleged victim.) The prosecutor also argued to the jurors a variation on the "dressed-for-sex" theory, telling them that Washington went to meet Tyson wearing "little pink polka dot panties," rather than "Fredericks of Hollywood underwear," thus showing that she did not put on the kind of sexy underwear that women wear when they are out to have sex. (He neglected to tell the jury that Desiree's sexy underwear was all still wet from having been washed, and that her only dry pair—when she went to meet Tyson at 2 o'clock in the morning—was the one with polka dots.) Finally, Desiree Washington solidified her image as a totally non-sexual platonic date who only wanted to go sightseeing with Tyson at two o'clock in the morning, by describing to the jury how she responded when Mike tried to kiss her as she entered his limousine for the ride to his hotel: "he went to kiss me and I just kind of jumped back." Thus, the jurors were presented with the picture of a zealously religious, young, naive "virginal type" girl, who does not kiss, neck or wear sexy underwear, and for whom a lawsuit or media attention were the furthest thing from her mind. No wonder the jurors believed her testimony, in what was a classic "she said" -- "he said" credibility contest. We discovered during our investigation that virtually everything “she said,” and her family corroborated, was highly questionable if not outright false. The Washington family did not hire a lawyer to "ward off the media" as they claimed, but rather to do precisely the opposite—namely to sell Desir