Voiceover narration reports on the acquittal of 5 men, Robert Tarr, Mark Savoy, John Strickland, Richard Dovel, and Alexander Aldoupolis of rape and beating charges in which they had previously plead guilty and the reactions from Massachusetts and national communities to the acquittal. Massachusetts State Representative Marie Howe expresses her outrage that damage to the victim's car is given higher value than her rape in an onscreen interview. NOW Boston Chapter President Janet Ferone appears in an onscreen interview to point out that at one time the men did plead guilty to the charges. Robert Tarr and Mark Savoy appear in onscreen interviews to express relief at their acquittal.

Reporter: McKenzie, John

The woman who claimed she was beaten and raped...
NEEDHAM, Mass. -- The woman who claimed she was beaten and raped by five men wrote in a letter read on a TV newscast Saturday that she was 'very angry' the suspects were found innocent by a jury and 'mentally I will never be OK.'

'Justice has failed. There is no way I would have gone to the police if they were not guilty,' the woman wrote in a letter read over WCVB-TV in Needham, 15 miles west of Boston.

'My feelings for the court of law are null and void.'

The woman, a former Ohio beauty queen, now 42, lives in western Massachusetts.

WCVB associate producer Steve Sine said the station contacted the woman and her husband.

'They would not go on camera but agreed to read the letter to us,' said Fine.

The five men, all in their early 20s, were found innocent Friday of rape, unnatural rape and assault and battery in the alleged January 1980 incident in the town of Holbrook -- 20 miles southeast of Boston.

The five men were found guilty of malicious damage to personal property -- the woman's car -- and face sentencing in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston July 20.

The woman claimed she was raped, then abandoned nude on a frigid night.

'I am very angry because they are guilty and they know it. They admitted to their guilt once and received suspended sentences because of tricks the law plays -- pleas bargaining,' the woman wrote.

The men -- Robert J. Tarr, Mark Savoy, John Strickland, Richard Dovel of Holbrook and Alexander Aldoupolis of Quincy -- originally pleaded guilty to the rape charges in 1981 and received suspended 3-to-5-year prison sentences and $500 fines.

But a public furor erupted, new evidence came to light and the presiding judge ordered the men to stand trial or serve out the jail terms.

The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that the judge's decision amounted to double jeopardy, but the high court refused to hear the case and the state Supreme Judicial Court ordered a new trial.

The woman -- who did not take the stand during the seven-day trial - said she suffered mentally and has been under psychiatric care since the alleged incident.

'The reason I did not testify is because of my doctor's advice, whom I had to see every week since the rape occurred. They have ruined my life. I'm not able to work. If I were able to go to court there would only have been guilty verdicts,' she wrote.

'... I was left to die naked -- my car destroyed -- not even knowing where I was and it was a terrible state of shock ... I was just trying to stay alive. Physically I did survive -- mentally I will never be OK.'

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