which is I why I corrected your
inaccurate reply below
After rape charges against
The Breakfast Club host
Charlamagne tha God from 17 years ago
resurfaced this week,
South Carolina Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett A. Wilson issued a statement on Thursday confirming the state will not reopen the case, Billboard reports.
The charges stem from 2001, when Charlamagne, 22, was charged with the rape of 15-year-old Jessica Reid.
After about a year, Reid stopped cooperation with prosecutors and the case was dropped. Charlamagne took a plea deal in which he pled guilty to the less serious charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was sentenced to three years of probation. Reid, now 32, gave an interview this week expressing her desire to reopen the case in an attempt to find “closure.” She allegedly stopped cooperating in 2002 only after her mother encouraged her to.
Although South Carolina does not have a statute of limitations on criminal prosecution, Wilson argues that because Charlamagne took a plea deal, per the law, the court is “duty bond to honor the agreement" and presume him “innocent of the dismissed allegation."
"The plea was negotiated because the alleged victim in the matter did not cooperate with the prosecutor," said Wilson in a statement, adding that there was an issue of lack of evidence as well. "While the tools and technology of justice have evolved, in cases involving personal violence, the State must have the witness to prosecute. Too often, the key witness will not come forward in support of criminal prosecution. Trying a tough case is no problem; trying an impossible case is not ethical.
So don't try to spin it as if you were correct.