Man accused of rape freed

Deepa Bharath

A rape suspect was released Tuesday after the Orange County district

attorney did not file charges in a complaint filed by a young woman

over the weekend.

The woman reported to Costa Mesa police that she was raped early

Saturday morning after a party at her home, Costa Mesa Police Det.

Jack Archer said.

The suspect, whom police arrested shortly after she called the

police, was released Tuesday after he went to court and was not

charged by the district attorney. Last year, between January and

September, 28 rapes were reported; the district attorney filed

charges in only four cases. Two of the cases reported were unfounded,

and in a few others, the victims themselves did not want to go

forward with the prosecution, police said.

A group of young people came back to the victim’s home in the 400

block of Fair Drive on Friday night, Archer said. After a night of

drinking and partying, the victim went to bed, he said.

“The suspect, who was at the party, went into her bedroom and

started kissing her,” he said. “She resisted it, but passed out

shortly afterward. When she woke up, she found the suspect on top of

her and realized that he had penetrated her.”

Archer said there was no violent struggle between the two but that

she was “verbalizing” her feelings.

The victim told the man to leave and called police at about 5

a.m., he said. Police arrested the man within minutes near the

intersection of Adams Avenue and Albatross Drive. The man was booked

on suspicion of rape and rape with a foreign object, Archer said.

It is pretty common for the district attorney to send cases back

to police departments for further investigation, he said.

“Our requirement to make an arrest on the field may be different

from what the prosecution needs to make their case,” Archer said. “We

make our arrest based on probable cause.”

The district attorney is very aggressive in prosecuting sex

crimes, said Assistant Dist. Atty. Rosanne Froeberg, who oversees the

Sexual Assault Unit. Sexual assaults and rapes present unique

challenges to prosecutors because they happen behind closed doors,

she said.

“We often don’t have eyewitnesses or any evidence to corroborate

the victim’s story,” she said. “Sometimes the police officer will say

he believes the victim. But that’s not enough for us. We have an

ethical code which tells us that we can’t charge someone until we

have a reasonable belief that there is a likelihood of conviction.”

Then there are other challenges, such as when a victim who has

previously engaged in consensual sex with the suspect suddenly says

she has been raped.

“If there has been previously consensual intercourse, that case is

almost impossible to prove,” she said. “For the same reason, date

rapes are also difficult.”

But in 2003, her department conducted 44 jury trials and secured

38 convictions, Froeberg said.

“We don’t feel good when we know we have a victim and we can’t

file charges,” she said. “But we need a lot more than probable

cause.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.