"These people are so powerful," she tells New Times, "not only in terms of the Suns organization, which has a lot of pull in the Valley, but individually. They are big people, physically, and if this gets out, if too much attention is paid to this thing, they could hurt me again.
"And, anyway, I'm not a well person. I don't think I could hold up under the pressure of a trial."
Reeling from the stress of the past few weeks, during which time she has been besieged by media inquiries and has lived in constant fear that her name would be exposed--and that her two children would read about their mother in the newspaper--her resting heart rate has climbed to 110 beats per minute. She says she is under a doctor's care for stress and exhaustion.
Never a basketball fan, she has made a point since that Saturday night to learn a bit more about the Phoenix Suns. What she has found, gleaned mostly from newspaper accounts over the past year, has contributed to that fast heart rate.
Bar fights involving Barkley and Majerle. Ceballos, the man who owns the home where the alleged attack took place, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. Jerrod Mustaf, another Sun, questioned in the killing of his pregnant girlfriend; Mustaf's cousin has been charged with the murder.
These are people, Mary says, whose rules of fairness and conduct require only a veiled warning that "anything that goes on in this house doesn't leave this house" before assuming that any woman in attendance has granted her consent to have sex.
"I just couldn't go to trial against people that think like that and come out a loser," she says.
"I mean, you have to understand. I feel like I'm already a loser."
@rule:
@body:Perhaps the most disturbing segment of the police report detailing the events of that night is the one in which Mary describes the moments immediately after the alleged sexual attack.
It is a chillingly dispassionate scene, in which Miller, Mary says, made it clear he wasn't necessarily done with her. The police report states: Oliver Miller had asked [Mary] for her phone number while they were at the bedroom after he had dressed. She said that she did not know it. Miller stated that he did not believe her and she told him that she does not call her house.
She said that Miller became upset, and she told him that if she went to a phone and tried dialing the number, she could possibly remember it. At that point Miller had her go to the phone in the bedroom and dial the number.
Mary dialed the correct number, because her answering machine came on after four rings. When she hung up, Miller asked her if she remembered the number. She said that she did and gave Miller the number, which he dialed on the same phone.
Miller listened for a moment, then hung up the phone. Then, without a word, he turned and walked out of the room.
Upon hearing this, Detective Newcomer asked Mary once again if she would be willing to press charges against Miller. If so, he counseled her, an investigation would begin immediately. But the report states:
Mary told me again that she did not want to prosecute and she would not testify. She said that all she wanted to do was . . . be with her kids, pray to God she did not wind up with AIDS and put everything behind her . . .
She also did not want me to contact any of the parties involved and she only wanted to go home. For these reasons, this report was taken for information purposes only.
Case closed.
