Prosecutors in Brooklyn plan on moving to dismiss first-degree rape charges against all five teenagers accused of attacking an 18-year-old woman on a playground in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in January, officials said on Wednesday.
Almost from the moment the explosive allegations were made public, the case was dogged by questions about the accounts by the woman and her father, who later admitted that they had been having sex in the park that night, and about the city’s handing of the case, which was criticized for being too slow.
The woman gave several conflicting accounts of what had occurred on Jan. 7 in Osborn Playground, two law enforcement officials said. The father admitted that the assailants had not had a gun, as he had initially told the police. And in recent days, the woman has told prosecutors that she was unwilling to testify or otherwise cooperate further with the investigation, according to the two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that have not been made public.
So, even as prosecutors learned more about the young woman’s deeply troubled childhood in foster care, they decided that the case could not go forward, and on Wednesday the Brooklyn district attorney, Ken Thompson, said that he would ask the court to dismiss the charges.
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The charges will be dismissed with prejudice, which means prosecutors are precluded from reinstating the charges even if additional evidence emerges in connection with the encounter.
All those holes collapsed the case.
