Rikki Rockett, the story went, raped a cocktail waitress at a casino owned by the Choctaw Indian tribe.

Interesting tabloid grist, of course, if you remember that Rockett is the big-haired drummer for 1980s glam band Poison, and more incredible, if you believe he'd skip Las Vegas for a trip to central Mississippi.

Rockett raped no one. He was, admirably, in Los Angeles watching his fiancée try on wedding dresses.

The ''Rikki'' accused of the crime is John Minskoff, a convicted kidnapper whose encounter with a cocktail waitress has stirred waves from Miami-Dade County to Philadelphia, Miss., to California.

The cocktail waitress sued the Indian casino last week, alleging that Minskoff, 48, drugged and raped her last year. A judge in Neshoba County -- which dropped charges against the real Rikki -- has issued arrest warrants for Minskoff and pal Robert Delavega of Homestead on charges of sexual battery.

Minskoff, who has lived in South Florida, Nevada and Southern California, has disappeared. Delavega, who remains free because his warrants have not yet been served, is livid.

''I never even touched the girl. I didn't even shake her hand,'' he insisted this week. ``The whole thing is made up.''

ROCKETT ARRESTED

In March, the real Rikki Rockett and bandmates were flying to Los Angeles from a show in New Zealand.

After more than 20 years with hits such as Every Rose Has Its Thorn and Talk Dirty to Me, the band was still rocking.

The group was scheduled to release a live-show DVD and start a new tour. Singer Bret Michaels had a successful reality show, Rock of Love.

And Rockett -- real name: Richard Ream -- was preparing to marry Melanie Martel, who was waiting for him at the airport.

As the band deboarded at Los Angeles International Airport, police officers pulled him aside. They said something about rape.

Perhaps an ex-business partner? A snubbed fan? He had been the target of stalkers and impersonators before; a surfer-looking guy claiming to be Rockett once hit on a woman through Myspace.com.

He left the airport in handcuffs.

''The thing that freaked me out is that here is this person I'm ready to marry, the person I love, and she's got to see me walk out of LAX in handcuffs with a rape charge attached to me,'' Rockett remembered. ``It was so devastating.''

He spent a few hours in jail. The charges made no sense -- the band had not even played in Mississippi last year.

''It's not a place I would ever pick to go,'' Rockett said.

Named after the Choctaw word for ''wolf,'' Neshoba County is home to 28,684 residents -- and is also where white supremacists murdered three civil rights workers in 1964, the basis for the movie Mississippi Burning.

These days, the county is dominated by the Choctow tribe, which owns the sprawling, Vegas-style Pearl River Resort, boasting two casinos, 16 restaurants, and a golf course called the Dancing Rabbit.

The resort had employed the 35-year-old cocktail waitress, whose initials are M.C., for seven years. The tribe declined to comment on the lawsuit.

CIVIL LAWSUIT

In her civil-negligence suit filed against the casino on Sept. 24, M.C. claims that an employee forced her to entertain high rollers, once even making her ``stack poker chips on and between her breasts.''

M.C. says supervisors ignored her complaints. She also claims that Minskoff was ''an employee/agent'' who was seen by casino employees ''dominating'' her in a lounge called the Starlight.

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