NY- Cell-phone video helped unravel Hofstra student’s rape claim

9-21-2009 New York:

NEW YORK — The police were looking for him.

Then the man Nassau County, N.Y., police said they’d identified as the fifth suspect in an alleged gang rape at Hofstra University on Long Island shared a crucial piece of evidence with the family of another suspect.

A cell-phone video. It was just five minutes and 58 seconds of grainy footage from a public men’s bathroom in a college dormitory, according to a defense attorney for one of the four men who was later charged. It did not show the entire incident, the attorneys acknowledge.

But its existence would help unravel the claims of an 18-year-old Hofstra student who said she was raped by five men in an on-campus dormitory early Sunday morning.

The man — not identified by authorities — showed the footage to the family of one of the four suspects, Stalin Felipe, 19, of the New York borough of the Bronx, according to a defense attorney.

Then after a series of events over two days, authorities would announce that the girl had recanted her rape claim and the dismissal of rape charges against all four men.

The tumultuous week began with a fraternity party Saturday night at Hofstra USA, a campus dining facility sometimes used to host parties, that brought the four men to campus to join Rondell Bedward, 21, a junior there. The group attended the party where several hundred students danced to hip-hop and reggae music. Beer flowed. And then Hofstra football players, pumped from a victory that night, got out of hand, according to Melissa Connolly, a Hofstra spokeswoman.

"There was a big brawl in the middle of the dance floor," said Greg Kigozi, 20, a sophomore. "Public safety tried to break it up and they evacuated the whole building at like 3 a.m."

Sometime early Sunday morning, the young woman reported an incident to authorities.

At 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Jesus L. Ortiz, 19, of the Bronx, was arrested by Nassau police, according to authorities. Bedward was arrested that night at 6:35 and Felipe at 11:40 p.m. On Monday at 3:35 a.m., Kevin Taveras, 20, of Brentwood, was arrested.

All four men were charged with rape. Students on campus said the sexual encounter had occurred on the 11th floor of Estabrook Hall, where Bedward lived.

In a Tuesday news conference, police described it as an orchestrated ambush in which the girl was lured to the bathroom after Ortiz stole her cell phone. She said she was roped to a toilet stall and raped.

As the news hit the media and campus officials struggled to communicate to students what happened, Felipe’s family contacted his attorney, Jon Silveri of the Bronx.

On Tuesday they gave Silveri a flash drive, a digital storage device, with footage of the encounter, Silveri said. He watched it on a computer. "It was graphic," said Silveri. "It looked like they were in the outside of a shower stall."

To date, the young woman has not spoken publicly.

But Silveri and others who viewed the video said there was no indication of rape in the video, no rope tying her to a toilet stall, as the woman had told authorities, and no screaming.

There were sexual acts between at least two people and the young woman was consenting, those who viewed it said. But those attorneys acknowledged it wasn’t the whole incident from start to finish.

Silveri called Carlos Cruz, a Bronx attorney representing defendant Ortiz. He showed Cruz the video in his office. At the same time, Bronx attorney Victor Daly-Rivera, who represents Taveras, saw the video. "There was no tying up, there was no bruising, there was no screaming," said Daly-Rivera of the video. "More important than what you see is what you don’t see."

On Monday the Nassau County district attorney’s office was informed of the existence of the video.

On Wednesday, as the investigation proceeded, the woman was brought in to the district attorney’s office to be interviewed, according to authorities. She arrived at about 5:45 p.m.

Madeline Singas, the county’s chief sex crimes prosecutor, had not viewed the video but confronted the woman with the prospect of its existence.

By 7:15 p.m., the woman recanted, according to the district attorney’s office. Within hours the four accused men were released from Nassau County Jail and the pursuit of the fifth man had been dropped.

Friday night, outside his Bronx apartment, Felipe denied having sex. "As far as the others, I can’t say anything about that, it’s not my business. But whatever happened, it was all consensual. ..Source.. by Sumathi Reddy / Newsday