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De Anza Rape Allegations Persist

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Jun. 19 - KGO (KGO) -- The three De Anza College students who reported witnessing a rape and in the process created something of a firestorm, received a special honor today, nevermind the D.A. is not pursuing the case because of insufficient evidence. It's a new development in the story, but we warn you some of the language in our report is harsh.

The case is still very much alive. As a matter of fact, sheriff investigators tell ABC7 they are still waiting for some DNA evidence to return back from the crime lab.

A third witness in the case says she recognizes face and can name names.

Family and friends looked on as Lauren Bryeans, April Grolle and Lauren Chief Elk each received the Citizen's Medal of Valor from Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith.

Lauren Chief Elk, De Anza College Student: "We were put in a situation and we just did what knew in our hearts was right. And we want to continue to thank our families because they were the ones who raised us to be able to do what we did that night."

Back in March, the young women claim they saw a 17-year-old high school girl being gang raped during a party. Both Grolle and Chief Elk say they noticed several De Anza College baseball players in the room -- one engaged in a sexual act -- but couldn't identify him.

But Bryeans was able to provide more details.

Lauren Bryeans, De Anza College Student: "What I saw was a young girl lying on her back on a mattress on the floor with a guy on top of her... and as that was happening I saw another individual come up to her and force oral copulation on her."

She gave sheriff's investigators the name of at least one of those young men.

Lauren Bryeans: "The one doing the oral copulation, I recognized his face."

Ultimately the district attorney decided there still was not enough evidence to file criminal charges against anyone at the party.

But Sheriff Laurie Smith says her investigators are not giving up.

Sheriff Laurie Smith: "I think that there's there still some additional things that we have to do, information that we have to gather and at that point, at some point, we'll believe that we've reached a point where we've done everything that we can, but we are still working on it."

The D.A.'s Office declined to comment on the case or today's medals of valor. John Cahners who represents one of the De Anza College ball players who threw the party says he's confident no charges will be filed.

John Cahners, Steve Rebagliati's attorney: "I will say that I think the district attorney probably had her story beforehand. I think they probably used it to evaluate what they were going to do, and they still made a decision that they weren't going to do anything."

The State Attorney General is still reviewing the case at the request of the District Attorney's Office. If he decides that District Attorney Dolores Carr made a serious error in not filing charges, attorney general could prosecute the case on his own.

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