A woman who was allegedly kidnapped, beaten and sexually assaulted in January took the witness stand in Circuit Court yesterday to testify against her accused attacker, John Veikoso, 22, of Waimanalo.

The woman, 23, said she was working as a prostitute near the Pali Longs Drug Store in Downtown Honolulu Jan. 18 and got in Veikoso's truck after she solicited him for "a date."

Almost immediately, she said, Veikoso began punching her and threatening to rape and kill her as he drove the truck up Nu'uanu Avenue and then Kailua-bound on Pali Highway.

The woman said she fought back, kicking at Veikoso as he accelerated the truck past 60 mph.

At the Pali Highway Lookout, she said, she fell from truck and landed on the pavement, badly gashing her head, breaking her collarbone and suffering "road rash" scrapes on her legs and hands.

The victim said she struggled to her feet and "ran across four lanes of traffic, screaming for help."

She said she saw six or seven cars but none stopped to help before Veikoso chased her down and dragged her by the hair back to his truck.

"I couldn't believe he came back after me," she said.

"I thought he was going to kill me. He said he was going to kill me."

She said she was particularly afraid of the dark, remote stretches of the Pali.

"The Pali," she said, "that's where you die."

But Veikoso took her to a spot near Maunawili Elementary School in Kailua and forced her to have sex with him, the victim said.

When she started to pray, the woman said, "that's the time that he hit me the worst and I didn't understand why."

Veikoso left semen on her sweater and she rolled up the garment and held on to it "because it was evidence," she said.

She described him as "very assertive, very aggressive" before she was sexually assaulted but said that after the attack Veikoso's demeanor changed.

The victim said she was covered in blood and when she asked to be taken to a hospital, he offered to drive her to nearby Castle Medical Center.

But she was unfamiliar with Castle and was afraid that he "might come back to get me," so she asked to be taken to Tripler Army Medical Center on the other side of the island.

The woman said she grew up as a military dependent here and was familiar with Tripler, giving birth to one of her two children there.

Veikoso agreed and asked her not to say anything about what had happened when he dropped her off at Tripler, the witness said.

The woman cried and shook with emotion when First Deputy Prosecutor Douglas Chin asked her to identify the sweater she had been wearing as well as a lavalava cloth she said Veikoso gave her to cover her bleeding legs.

Under cross examination by defense lawyer Emmanuel Guerrero, the woman testified that she has been a prostitute since she was 16 or 17 years old.

She also works "for tips" as an exotic dancer in Pearl City, she said.

She has not been charged with prostitution in connection with the Veikoso case, although she admitted she agreed to have sex with him for $200.

The witness said she used to work as a prostitute in a Ke'eaumoku Street massage parlor, and more recently as a streetwalker on a section of Kukui Street that she called "the track."

Under questioning from Guerrero, she explained that there are actually three "tracks" on Kukui Street: one block of female prostitutes, one block of transvestites and one block called "the dope track."

Veikoso is also charged with kidnaping and sexually assaulting another woman in February.