Kennedy Nephew Denies Woman’s Allegations of Rape : Crime: Police report details victim’s interview nine hours after the alleged assault, naming Smith. He calls the charges ‘a damnable lie.’

WASHINGTON —  A “crying and shaking” woman told Palm Beach, Fla., police that William Kennedy Smith sexually assaulted her after inviting her to the Kennedy family’s oceanfront mansion there March 30, according to a police report obtained by a New York newspaper.

The official report of the victim’s interview with police officers about nine hours after the alleged rape said the woman stated that Smith grabbed her by the ankle as she walked near the estate’s pool and that “after some struggling he sexually assaulted her.”

A copy of the report, expected to be released by Palm Beach police today, was obtained by the newspaper Newsday.

In a statement issued by his lawyer, Smith, the nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), denied the victim’s allegations. “I emphatically deny that the woman in question was abused or that force was used by me in any way,” the statement said. “Any suggestion to the contrary is a damnable lie.”

The lawyer, Herbert J. Miller Jr., declined to make Smith available for questions or to otherwise discuss the case.

The police report says that the 29-year-old woman was initially “very reluctant” to provide officers with details of the incident, saying that her attacker “is a relative of a very prominent and nationally known subject.”

Smith is the second son of Sen. Kennedy’s sister, Jean Kennedy Smith, and the late Stephen Smith, who managed the Kennedy family’s multimillion-dollar holdings until his death from cancer last August.

Sen. Kennedy and his son, Patrick, a Rhode Island legislator, were with Smith when he met the woman at a chic Palm Beach bar. The victim’s identity is being withheld under Florida law.

While the police report provides the first official victim’s account of the incident, new questions about the charges were raised by sources close to the investigation.

According to information that the sources said was obtained by private investigators hired by Smith’s attorneys, the woman reportedly returned to the mansion grounds after the alleged attack and spoke with Smith again. They said that the woman was seen kissing Smith goodby as she left the Kennedy estate in her own car after the attack was alleged to have taken place.

But the woman later returned to the grounds and was picked up by a friend, Anne Mercer, who took her to Mercer’s home in West Palm Beach, the sources said. This appears to conflict with Mercer’s account to police that the woman had called her in hysterics, saying that she had been raped and asking to be picked up at the mansion.

The police report obtained by Newsday says that the victim told police she and some friends had dinner and then went to Au Bar, a Palm Beach nightclub, where “she met a subject there who later identified himself as William Smith. . . . Mr. Smith introduced her to a man he identified as Ted Kennedy and stated, ‘This is my uncle.’ ”

The victim told the interviewing police officer that she stayed at the bar, where she talked and danced with Smith until it closed.

Smith then asked if she would return with him to the family mansion, only minutes away, and the woman drove him there in her car, she told police.

Smith showed her around the mansion and then suggested a walk on the beach, where he “took his clothes off because he wanted to go swimming,” the report said, noting that in describing this portion of events the woman began “crying and shaking.”

Once Smith was in the water, the woman decided “it was best for her to get home,” the report said. The alleged sexual assault took place as she walked near the pool.

After the alleged attack, the woman said that she and Smith entered the house, where Smith tried to convince her that he had not raped her. She then called a friend who “escorted her out of the house and then they left,” the report said.

Palm Beach police, who have named Smith as the suspect, said Thursday that any charges are not likely until next week, when initial tests comparing Smith’s hair and blood samples with evidence taken during a medical examination of the woman will be completed.

These tests can rule out a suspect but cannot positively identify him. DNA testing, which Palm Beach police estimated can require a month to conduct, can link any semen recovered from a victim to a suspect. But other evidence must be developed to establish that any sex act occurred without consent, authorities noted.