Chris Jones didn't rape women, partygoer says

An 18-year-old who says she was in the apartment where former University of Louisville basketball player Chris Jones is accused of raping two women claims the crimes never occurred.

In a post on social media, Kristen Smith, who attends Bullitt Central High School, said, "For the people saying Chris raped someone, I was there and he didn't."

She also wrote that "the girl" — referring to one of Jones' accusers from the get-together — "thought it was funny and I'm going to defend that 100 percent because I was in the room the whole time."

Smith's mother, Sherry Smith, confirmed that her daughter wrote the post on her Instagram account and that she has given a statement about it to Jones' lawyers. The account is private and can only be seen by her friends, but The Courier-Journal obtained a copy of the post.

The teenager could be called to testify Monday at a preliminary hearing where Jefferson District Judge Sheila Collins will decide if there is probable cause that the crimes occurred.

At the hearing, lawyers for Jones and his two co-defendants also may question past cases worked by the lead detective in the investigation, University of Louisville Police Lt. John Tarter.

As a longtime city police officer, Tarter was lead detective in three rape cases in which defendants were convicted and later exonerated. In one of those cases, the city paid a $3.9 million settlement to William Gregory, who was cleared by DNA evidence.

Tarter, who retired from the city department in 2002 after 28 years, declined to comment, citing the pending charges.

Scott C. Cox, one of Jones' lawyers, also declined to comment.

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Sherry Smith said her daughter has been advised not to comment by Jones' lawyers.

Jones pleaded not guilty last Wednesday to two counts each of rape and sodomy and was released on home incarceration in lieu of $25,000 bond.

Two other men, Jalen Tilford and Tyvon Walker, also have been charged and pleaded not guilty.

Walker's lawyers, Brian Butler and Alex Dathorne, said they were unaware of Smith's post or that she was allegedly a witness. Tilford's lawyer, Scott Drabenstadt, did not respond to a request for comment.

According to police records, the sexual assault allegedly occurred between 2 and 4 a.m. in Cardinal Towne, a privately owned apartment complex that is associated with the university.

In Gregory's case, a federal appeals court in 2007 said Tarter never told Gregory that one of his alleged victims failed to pick him out of a photo pack before persuading him to submit to a one on one show-up, in which the same accuser identified him.

Gregory, who was convicted in 1993 of raping one woman and attempting to rape another, was freed in 2000 after tests showed that DNA found in a stocking mask used by the rapist couldn't have been his. He was the first Kentuckian exonerated through DNA.

Tarter also was the detective in the 1982 rape, sodomy and robbery conviction of Michael VonAllmen. That conviction was overturned in 2010 by a Jefferson Circuit Court judge after VonAllmen spent more than 10 years in prison.

VonAllmen, who was paroled in 1994, sued the city and Tarter, alleging that he conducted a sloppy investigation and induced a false identification from the victim by lying to her. But VonAllmen's attorney, Ted Shouse, said the suit was dismissed because he couldn't prove the city was responsible.

In a third case, according to news accounts, Tarter's detective work led to the conviction of Paul D. Thomas in 1981 on charges of unlawful imprisonment of one woman and his trial on charges of raping and sodomizing another woman. He was acquitted in the latter case and prosecutors later freed him from prison after they realized that both women were victims of Beoria Simmons, a serial killer and rapist who was initially sentenced to death but is now serving life without parole.

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Louisville defense lawyer Jan Waddell, who won Thomas' exoneration, said Tarter used a prejudicial photo lineup and show-up identification to implicate Thomas.

But another defense lawyer, Don Major, who said he defended several clients on murder charges in which Tarter was the detective, said he held him in high esteem.

Major said that in one of them, where his client was charged because of a mistake by another officer, Tarter's "candor on cross examination" in a 1991 trial resulted in the acquittal of Major's client.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189. Reporter Jeff Greer can be reached at (502) 582-4044