Fighting her way through tears and sobs, a 22-year-old woman told a Brown County jury today about being raped by a Green Bay cab driver in the back of his taxi.

The woman testified at the start of Curtis Lindsley’s trial in which he faces a second-degree sexual assault charge for the December 2006 attack. If convicted, Lindsley, 48, faces up to 40 years in prison.

The Green Bay Press-Gazette is not identifying the woman because of the alleged crime.

The woman testified before a jury of eight men and four women that Lindsley picked her up in his cab in downtown Green Bay late on Dec. 15 and the pair made a stop at Taco Bell for food. After the fast food stop, Lindsley drove to an eastside apartment complex and pulled into a secluded between two garages, the woman said.

“He said ‘Either you’re going home or you’re not,’” the woman testified.

She said Lindsley grabbed her by the shirt, pushed her between the front bucket seats into the back of the minivan.

“He climbed through the seats and he picks me up and puts me on my back on the seat,” the woman testified. “I didn’t know what to do. He was big.”

The woman said Lindsley held her down with an arm across her chest.

“I was scared. I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I just had too much to drink. He was bigger than me.”

After the attack, Lindsley got out of the van to pull up his pants. The woman said she seized the opportunity to escape, jumped into the front seat, put the taxi in gear and drove off.

“I grabbed the shifter and slammed it down,” the woman said. “I almost missed the seat.”

She said she drove to a nearby apartment complex and pushed the buzzers until someone let her in the building. It wasn’t long before the police showed up — initially responding to the report of a stolen cab.

“They were yelling for me to put my hands in the air,” the woman said. “I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what do to.”

Officers put her in handcuffs and asked why she took the van. Initially she didn’t say anything about the attack.

“I said ‘Just take me to jail,’” the woman testified. “I didn’t want to talk about anything. I just didn’t want to talk about what happened.”

When Brown County Assistant District Attorney Dana Johnson asked why she didn’t tell the police what happened, the woman again broke down into tears.

“Because it’s wrong, it’s sick and it’s wrong … I don’t want to discuss it now,” the woman testified. “I told (the officer) that I needed to go get checked at the hospital and he asked my why and I told him.”

Johnson asked the woman if she could be sure that she wasn’t flirting with Lindsley — considering she admitted she was intoxicated the night in question.

“I’m very sure,” the woman replied. “He’s disgusting.”

Testimony is expected to continue today with law enforcement officers who responded to the incident and investigated the case.

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