West Point — One of Lonnie Austin Story's accusers waited more than a year to tell authorities she was raped, and did so only after being approached by an Army criminal investigator, she testified yesterday.

The woman, a former U.S. Military Academy cadet who was medically discharged from the academy in 2005, testified against Story at his court-martial yesterday. She said she told no one about what happened that snowy weekend in January last year.

It wasn't until March 2006, when an Army investigator contacted her about a separate rape accusation against Cadet Story — one dating to October 2005 in New York City — that she filed a complaint.

"Isn't it true that the only reason you reported this is because (investigators) told you there was a predator on the loose and you needed to report it?" demanded Lt. Col. Gary M. Saladino, Cadet Story's military lawyer.

It is rare that sex-based allegations against cadets go to court. The case against Story, a senior from Poplar Bluff, Mo., is only the fourth sex-crime related court-martial since women were admitted to the military academy in 1976.

Rarer still is a conviction for rape: No West Point cadet has ever been found guilty of the crime, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and dismissal from the Army. By contrast, New York state law imposes a maximum sentence of 25 years for forcible rape.

Reinforcing the gravity of the case, the judge, Col. Lauren Leeker, reminded all witnesses and lawyers involved in the proceedings, which resume today, that they are bound by a gag order.

For now, the defense appears poised to pin hopes of acquittal on discrepancies in witnesses' memories. Story's lawyers have repeatedly questioned accusers' testimony, drawing on inconsistencies between statements that cover everything from how much they drank to the sequence of events.

Little forensic evidence has been presented, but a doctor who examined the accuser in the October incident said he found injuries consistent with "traumatic penetration."

After prosecutors rested their case yesterday, Story's defense lawyers called four witnesses: two current cadets and two recent graduates, now second lieutenants in the Army.

Second Lt. Jeffrey Bernasconi testified that the January accuser was drinking during a weekend getaway at a cottage in Fishkill. At one point, Bernasconi said, he saw Story and the woman go upstairs together.

"I assumed it was that weekend," Bernasconi said under questioning. Another recent graduate, 2nd Lt. Tracy Sessions, who was also on the trip to Fishkill, testified that he didn't recall seeing Story and the woman go upstairs in the cabin.

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