Harding claims she was abducted
■ SKATER: The police are
taking the matter seriously,
even though the report of
abduction is unusual
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — Tonya Harding
says she foiled an abduction at
tempt early Wednesday by ram
ming her truck into a tree and run
ning away from a bushy-haired
man who tried to commandeer
her vehicle.
The figure skater told police
that the man abducted her outside
her home and forced her to drive
to a rural area. She said she
dodged him in a chase through
the woods, then jumped back in
her truck and took off.
Aside from a slap mark on her
face, Harding was unharmed.
Clackamas County sheriffs
deputies, who have responded to
Harding’s calls for help before,
said they were taking the matter
seriously.
“We’ll treat it at face value and
investigate it just as we would in
vestigate anybody, but at the same
time, this type of report is unusu
al,” said sheriffs spokesman Da
mon Coates.
“I have no reason to think it’s
false at this point, but it would be
a poor investigation not to look at
that.”
The abduction report came the
same day the U.S. Figure Skating
Championships began in
Nashville, Tenn., and 10 days be
fore Harding’s skating comeback
— a three-minute exhibition pro
gram in Reno, Nev.
Harding has been banned for
life from amateur competition for
her role in the 1994 attack on her
Olympic rival, Nancy Kerrigan, at
the U.S. Championships. Harding
pleaded guilty to conspiring to
cover up the attack, in which Ker
rigan was whacked on the knee.
A judge placed Harding on
three years’ probation, fined her
$110,000 and ordered her to serve
500 hours of community service.
Harding could not comment on
Wednesday’s incident because of
exclusive media contracts related
to her Feb. 22 performance at
Reno’s Flamingo Hilton, said her
agent, David Hans Schmidt.
“There’s no abduction preclu
sion in the contracts. I might have
to put that in from now on; God
only knows,” Schmidt said.
Harding provided this account
to police:
She had spent the evening at
the Lost and Found Saloon,
where Harding performed mouth
to-mouth resuscitation last Octo
ber on an elderly woman who col
lapsed while playing video poker.
After arriving home in subur
ban Oak Grove, Harding walked
out to her truck for some ciga
rettes and saw a man tinkering
under the hood of another vehicle
outside the house.
The man told her, “You’re go
ing to take me where I need to
go,” and forced her to go inside to
get her keys. He waited for her in
the doorway.
Then she drove for about 30
minutes south to the Mulino area
with a metal object pressed to her
face and her eyes looking forward,
as she was instructed. At one
point, he slapped her face when
she offered to stop and let him
out.
Then the man told her to stop
on a dirt road.
Instead, she bumped the tree,
grabbed the keys and ran. As the
man ran behind her, she hid in
some brush before darting back to
her truck.
Once back within cell-phone
U
I have no reason to think it’s
false at this point, but it would
be a poor investigation not to
look at that.
—Damon Coates
Clackamas Sheriff Spokesman
-99
range, she called her boyfriend,
who called police at 1:51 a.m.
Deputies had Harding retrace
the route and found a fresh dent
on a tree about the height of her
truck’s bumper. There was no
sign of the man.
Over the years, police have re
sponded to numerous calls from
Harding.
While fighting to maintain her
spot on the 1994 U.S. Olympic
team, Harding told Beaverton po
lice that she was assaulted one
night while walking through a
park.
In May 1995, Harding reported
she was tailing a car driven by a
man she said had been stalking
her.
No one was arrested in either
incident.
Schmidt agreed that his client
has attracted some unsavory char
acters.
“It goes with the turf,” Schmidt
said. “It all surrounds everything
that happened in 1994 and the
follow. Security is something
we’re going to sit down and refo
cus. There [are] a lot of weird peo
ple in this world, and one of them
accosted her last night.”
Although Harding’s face was
mildly swollen from her attack
er’s slap, Schmidt said “nothing is
going to prohibit her from her re
turn debut at the Flamingo
Hilton.”
Tournament: Softball faces Texas today
■ Continued from Page 11
Brown has been replaced by Rick Gamez, an eight
year head coaching veteran, most recently at New
Mexico State, who has compiled a 305-145 overall
record.
Stahl, the Ducks’ career leader in runs scored, dou
bles, triples, home runs and walks, and led the team
in all offensive categories last season, is replaced in
the field by freshman Jill Robinson. But it will take
an entire team effort to replace Stahl’s offensive num
bers.
Returning notables from last year’s team include
second baseman Angie LeRoy, left fielder Missy
Koke, pitchers Petrina Martinez and Jennie Cook and
center fielder Melisa Lemke, who sat out last season
with a knee injury.
Also returning this year is Heather Holte from a
two-year hiatus from the team. Holte left the team in
1995 because of philosophical differences with the
coaching staff and instead played for the Oregon
women’s golf team. She returns this year to become
the Ducks’ starting catcher.
This week’s tournament will feature two teams
that are ranked in the preseason top 20 poll: Cal State
Fullerton (12), which the Ducks will play second on
Friday, and Florida State (16), which the Ducks will
play first on Saturday.
Oregon opens today against Texas, will play Pur
due in Friday’s first game and Ohio State in Satur
day’s second game, ending the tournament Sunday
against UC Santa Barbara.
Oregon split the six games it played in Tempe last
year and is 8-8 overall at the ASU Coca-Cola Classic.
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