DECAPITATED Issues Statement In Response To Rape Charges "We'd like to emphasize (that the) Spokane Police Department has pressed charges as procedural formality...it's taken a full thirty days...(W)ithout (their) doing so, they would (have been) forced to release (us)...
"This is not a conviction or any indication of guilt or innocence...(T)he original officer who took the complaint from the accuser stated, 'I do not have probable cause that a rape occurred'...
"Once again, we ask that everyone wait for each party's case to be presented..."
Sounds like they've already beaten
first-degree rape charges -- what remains to be seen is whether charges of second degree rape (forcible compulsion, or when the victim is incapable of consent) or third degree rape (lack of consent was expressed by words or conduct) can stick. As the band suggests, the "deadline" filing of the charges can be considered a good omen. And perhaps they can consider this a good omen, too, especially since it also occurred in Washington State:
Quote:
NYTimes: A woman who accused the multiplatinum rapper Nelly of raping her on his tour bus after a concert last weekend...has told the local police that she will not testify against him and wishes to end the investigation...The lawyer for the accuser wrote in an open letter ..."Before her initial tears have dried, her phone will ring, and she will belatedly realize that she is talking to a reporter who is trying to befriend her. 'How did this reporter get my number?' will echo through her mind...
On...Oct. 9...(t)he detective promises that no one will know that she has met with them until the investigation was closed. On...Oct. 10 the commander of the police department issues a statement to the media advising that she met with the police and prosecutor. The detective apologizes on...Oct. 11...'I gave the victim my word...and I failed her with that promise.'"
(A) lawyer for Nelly said in a statement that the accuser’s desire to end the investigation was “welcome news." But...he added, “This type of reckless allegation is an affront to women who are real victims of sexual assault. I am suggesting that Nelly seek a public apology...”
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The detective had no business making such a promise: she was the victim, not a witness, and there is no investigation without her cooperation. With the case thus dead in the water, all the police commander could do was deliberately sabotage it by releasing the statement.