Prosecutors dropping charges in rape case
Two teens won’t be charged with rape of girl at school.
ROCKVILLE, MD. — Prosecutors are dropping charges against two Hispanic teens accused of raping a 14-yearold girl in a restroom at a suburban Washington high school, a case cited by the White House as an example of why the president wants to crack down on illegal immigration.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said at a Friday news conference that the rape and sex offense charges were being dropped after a “pains- taking investigation” of the girl’s claim that the two teens raped her in the bathroom at Rockville High School.
Defense attorneys said the sex was consensual. They pointed to text messages in which the girl agreed to a sexual encounter; an explicit video the girl sent one of the teens; and secu- rity camera footage, which they said shows the girl running to meet one of the teens and willingly entering the restroom with him.
McCarthy said the girl was interviewed multiple times and the investigation revealed a “lack of corrobo- ration and substantial incon- sistencies.”
“The original charges cannot be sustained, and prose- cution is untenable on those charges,” McCarthy said. He refused to answer any questions after reading a statement.
While dropping the rape charges, prosecutors brought child pornography charges against the two male teens. McCarthy said 18-year-old Henry Sanchez wi ll be charged with possession of child pornography, which carries a potential sentence of up to five years.
He declined to say what charges the 17-year-old would face because that case has been transferred to juvenile court. But the boy’s lawyers said he would face charges of distributing and possess- ing child pornography. They said the charges carry a pos- sible sentence of 10 years or more.
Defense lawyer Maria Mena said the pornography charges stem from the video the 14-year-old girl sent to the 17-year-old, which he then shared with Sanchez. She called it “egregious” that her client was being charged.
Another defense attorney, David Wooten, said the pri- mary reason they were able to prove the 17-year-old’s innocence was by produc- ing the evidence of explicit text messages and the video that the girl had sent.
“Those very text messages and images that vindicated him are now being used against him,” he said.
After the initial charges were filed in March, White House spokesman Sean Spicer, in response to a reporter’s question, called the allegations shocking and disturbing, saying “Part of the reason that the president has made illegal immigration and crackdown such a big deal is because of tragedies like this.”
The county school system later became the subject of anti-immigration protests and counter protests. Officials said they were besieged by hundreds of racist and xenophobic calls and comments.
At Friday’s White House briefing, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked whether the White House unfairly jumped to conclusions in the case. She said Spicer “was speaking about what he knew at the time.”