More than four months after a jury deadlocked over charges that
three men raped a UCLA student, the Los Angeles County District
Attorney is scheduled to retry one of the accused this week.
DeShawn Stringer, Chuwan Anthony and Jamar Dawson were accused
of raping a student while she was in her De Neve Plaza dorm room in
December 2002.
The district attorney’s office began prosecuting the three
men in May, but the jury hung after a two-week trial.
Jane Robison, spokesperson for the district attorney’s
office, announced in June that the D.A.’s office would only
retry Stringer, who received a split vote of six innocent, six
guilty on the count of forced rape and a vote of seven guilty, five
innocent on the count of forced oral sex.
Jurors voted 11 innocent to one guilty for both Anthony and
Dawson on charges of forced rape and forced oral copulation. The
district attorney’s office chose not to retry the two.
Scott Millington, a UCLA alumnus, is the lead prosecutor on the
case and said attorneys on both sides are still working to select a
jury.
Jane Doe, the name the court is using to protect the identity of
the alleged victim, will likely testifyTuesday, Millington
said.
The first trial hinged on whether or not the sexual encounter
was consensual. The defense built their case around the idea that
consent was implied while the prosecution maintained that Jane Doe
was a victim of rape.
Stringer, Anthony and Dawson had come to UCLA on a field trip
with Carson High School when the defendants broke off from their
larger school tour group and went to the De Neve dorms.
Dawson said during testimony in May that one of the reasons the
three went to the dorms was to meet girls. He assumed the fake name
“George” and the three told people they were football
players transferring to UCLA from Florida State, Dawson said.
Before going to Jane Doe’s room, the prosecution said the
three walked around the halls of the dorms, meeting people and
speaking with residents. The prosecution said Stringer sexually
assaulted one girl he met in the dorm by squeezing her
buttocks.
Stringer was convicted of that assault during the trial last May
and was sentenced to 60 days in county jail for sexual battery.
Later that day, the three went into the Fir building in De Neve,
came to Jane Doe’s room and had sex with her.
Stringer was first to enter the room and have sex with the woman
while Dawson and Anthony left.
During the trial last May, Jane Doe testified that she said
“no” several times while Stringer forced her to have
sex with him ““ a charge the defense refutes.
Stringer then left the room, and Dawson and Anthony entered. The
two also had oral sex and intercourse with her ““ sometimes
concurrently.
Jane Doe testified she did not say “no” or
physically resist during the sexual encounter with Dawson and
Anthony, something the prosecution attributed to “frozen
fright.”
Alyson Messenger, who was lead attorney for the prosecution
during the first trial, said it was ridiculous to believe a woman
would have unprotected sex with three men whom she knew for less
than 10 minutes.
After the verdict returned inconclusive, some campus groups
showed their support for Jane Doe. One group, the Friends of Jane
Doe, passed out buttons and fliers that said “I support Jane
Doe.”
Tina Oakland, the director of the Center for Women and Men at
UCLA, and said she hopes that support continues over to the new
trial and that people show up in the courtroom to support Jane
Doe.