DeAnza Rape Case: State Attorney to Review DA’s Decision

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


deanza%20rape.jpg

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.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate