Remember that case that got everyone so riled up a couple weeks back? Well, apparently the California State Attorney’s office is heeding the public’s protests. The office has decided to review District Attorney Dolores Carr’s controversial decision not to prosecute the men who allegedly gang-raped a 17-year-old, intoxicated, girl at a house party at a DeAnza College baseball player’s house back in March.
The DA said her office did not have enough evidence to confidently prosecute the case, despite three eyewitnesses. Women’s groups, community activists, and the media quickly called foul. Carr gave her reasons in an editorial in the local paper, where she detailed why she believed there’s not enough evidence to go forward.
Carr wrote that the intoxication of the alleged perpetrators, victim, and witnesses would make it difficult to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the victim did not give consent AND that her alleged attackers knew it. She saluted the courage of the eyewitnesses but said that they “only saw the last 30 to 60 seconds of a two-hour party,” and their testimony was just part of a body of evidence rife with conflicting accounts.
Carr’s editorial did not squelch the demand for a trial, however. The Santa Clara County sheriff’s office is pursuing the case, perhaps especially now that the victim is speaking out (albeit, via representatives). The girl, who has since moved out of the area, says she deserves “her day in court.”
