No one disputes the facts: On a cloudy summer afternoon in 2008, Michael Nyako sneaked up to a runner at Westchester Lagoon, jumped her, dragged her into the grass, and pinned her down. But whatever his intention was, it was interrupted by a passer-by. He got up and fled.

Was it an attempted rape? Or just a bizarre assault on one of the most well- traveled and exposed trails in Anchorage? That was the issue as Nyako's trial began Wednesday.

The case is unusual in that although Alaska has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the country, stranger "jump-out-of-the-bushes" rapes are rare, according to Standing Together Against Rape, an Anchorage organization that helps victims. On a good summer day, the spot where the attack took place is busier than any street in downtown Anchorage.

Nyako's lawyers admit to the assault, saying their client was so intoxicated off two 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor that he acted violently and strangely. But he was not a sexual predator, they say.

"They are turning something that is hard to understand but simple into something far more sinister than it was," defense attorney Chester Gilmore told the jury.

After the attack, the woman chased after Nyako, 25, until police arrived moments later and arrested him near the hill leading up to West High School, according to both sides. The woman, a former marathon runner, was left with broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a fractured collarbone.

Nyako is charged with physical assault and attempted rape, but the jury will have the option of convicting Nyako of the lesser crime of attempted second-degree sexual assault -- meaning he attempted to make sexual contact with the woman but he did not intend to rape her.

"There is no intent in this case. What there is -- is intoxication," Gilmore said. "What Michael Nyako did that day might have been violent, bizarre, offensive and aggressive in the extreme. But that does not mean that it's evidence of first-degree or second-degree attempted sexual assault."

He said there was no groping, no attempt to take off the woman's clothes.

But prosecutor Tali Henry called the attack "every female runner's worst nightmare."

BY THE LAGOON

Nyako sat in the courtroom flanked by his two public defenders while state prosecutors presented their version of events. He is a slight man with a tattoo of what looked like a star near his left eye. He watched as his victim testified, and showed little visible emotion as she recounted what happened to her.

The woman left her Huntington Park home around 5 p.m. on July 17, 2008. She wore shorts, her red running jacket and had no valuables other than her running watch. She headed down the bike path from West High School on the east side of the lagoon. There were not many people out.

She turned and ran along the northern path of the lagoon, where the narrow pavement hugs the water's edge separating it from affluent homes nearby. She noticed a bicyclist out of the corner of her eye. He retreated. Before she could register whether it was a child or adult, he knocked her to her side.

PINNED IN THE GRASS

A small woman -- she weighs about 100 pounds -- she kicked and pawed and screamed for help. He put his hand over her mouth and dragged her into the thick, long green grass, grabbing her wrists to pin her on her back.

"You bitch," were the only words he spoke to her.

Then he tried to kiss her. In the thrashing, he managed only to lick her face, she said.

She couldn't believe what was happening to her, she testified. It was so near her home, and in a spot she always thought was a safe place to run. She was only a few feet from the pavement of the trail.

"He's going to rape me," she thought. "He's going to kill me."

That's when a woman walking her beagle and black lab heard her screams. From a distance, the witness, Gail Sieberts, didn't know what she was seeing in the grass. She testified she thought that it might be a bear mauling.

Nyako, who has a criminal history that includes underage drinking, assault, vehicle theft and drug possession, jumped up. He mounted his bike, and sped away.

"I've never seen anyone jump up on a bike so fast in my life," Sieberts testified.

The trial is expected to end this week.