Cell Phone Sex Video Unravels Hofstra Gang Rape Case

By: Ryan Smith
Topics: Daily Blotter

(CBS)

Photo: Hofstra Students Accused of Rape.

MINEOLA, N.Y. (CBS/AP) She was a Hofstra University freshman who had claimed she was raped by five men in a dormitory bathroom, but she has now changed her story after prosecutors confronted her with the revelation that a video of the encounter may have been recorded, a prosecutor said Thursday.

The recantation on Wednesday night led to the immediate release of four men, including one student at the Long Island college, who had been arrested on rape and other charges. Police had been seeking to arrest a fifth man when the charges were dropped.

The sex did occur in a bathroom but was consensual, a prosecutor said. Authorities could decide within weeks whether to charge the 18-year-old woman for making up the story.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said Thursday that the woman, whom she would not identify, was interviewed Wednesday night by two senior prosecutors as a routine part of a follow-up investigation.

The woman first told police she was lured to the dormitory and raped early Sunday after her cell phone was stolen by a man she had met at a dance party, Rice said. She said she was bound with rope while the five men took turns sexually assaulting her in a men's bathroom stall.

(Hofstra Chronicle, Sean Gates)

Photo: Nassau County Police officers question Hofstra University student Rondell Bedward, seated, in a dormitory hallway, at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

Almost immediately, Rice said, the woman's story began to unravel with "significant inconsistencies," but she declined to elaborate. "The turning point was when she was confronted with the fact that there may exist a video of some or all of the incident," Rice said.

"Her actions and demeanor depict a very troubled young woman in need of much help," the prosecutor said.

An attorney for one of the accused men, 20-year-old Kevin Taveras, said he was shown a copy of the cell phone video and said it confirmed reports that the woman was not attacked.

"It looks more like a porn movie," Victor Daly-Rivera said. "It showed just the opposite of what the allegations were. There was no tying up, there was no bruising, there was no screaming."

The four young men who were falsly accused say the experience was traumatizing.

"I was really scared. I couldn't believe what was basically going through my mind. It was like a big nightmare, and I thought I was going to do time for something I didn't do," 20-year-old Kevin Taveras said on Headline News network's "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell" on Friday, Sept. 18.

The woman who filed the accusation has been suspended from school until a disciplinary hearing is held, a Hofstra spokeswoman said. Melissa Connolly also said a suspension against Rondell Bedward, the only Hofstra student among the five men implicated, had been lifted.

Two of the men who were released said outside the Nassau County jail on Wednesday night that said they had feared the possibility of serving 25 years to life for a felony rape conviction.

"It's crazy; the system is supposed to prevent these things from happening," Taveras said outside the jail late Wednesday.

"It's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent," he said. "Inside I thought I was going to do a bit for something I didn't do."

Bedward, 21, declined to comment after he was released.

On campus, students shook their heads at the latest twist in the case.

"It's definitely a shock," said Megan Michler, a junior from Penargyl, Pa. "I guess she completely lied about it and it's not fair to the guys that were involved. Everyone was shaken up by the whole thing, and now we were shaken up for nothing."

Hofstra, a private university of 12,600 students, played host to the final presidential debate of the 2008 election.

The rape report "just really gave the university a bad name," said Dani Frank, a print journalism major from Easton, Conn. "I really wish there hadn't been conclusions jumped to because it put the boys in a negative light, it put Hofstra in a negative light, and people will give her a lot less credibility in the future."

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by butway October 17, 2010 7:55 AM EDT: http://alfanbutway.blogspot.com/2010/10/inilah-alasan-kenapa-anda-harus.html; Reply to this comment

by dbloom12 September 27, 2009 12:32 AM EDT

If these guys hadn't put themselves in that situation, they wouldn't have had all those problems. They should have just gone to http://www.phonesex.com. ;)

Reply to this comment


by butway January 10, 2010 9:37 PM EST: ya i gree :D

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by dahizzle September 21, 2009 10:39 AM EDT: I'll tell you whether it was a rape or consensual. I will need a high resolution copy of that video.....; Reply to this comment


by jincstress September 21, 2009 10:34 AM EDT: If they dont fix the laws and quick- soon male jurors will simply start siding automatically with the male to even the score. Ultimately lying women will end up causing a society where REAL rapists are set free as collateral damage.; Reply to this comment


by rsmik September 20, 2009 11:51 PM EDT: what a train wreck; Reply to this comment

by micheleisfree September 20, 2009 4:28 PM EDT

Here's how to keep this from happening again.
Do not have sex with a strange woman in a bathroom with four of your friends. It's an intelligence test, you idiot men.

Reply to this comment


by Jamesedmunds September 20, 2009 9:16 PM EDT: Wow, micheleisfree . . . Sexism and stupidty coming right from you. As if this would be the only scenario for a false rape allegation . . . Seems you're the idiot. And listen up people, men and women, because the prejudice and sexism that this moron has just spelled out is really common. I want people to take a look at the amount of jobs that have been lost in the past few years and then look at the gender that has lost these jobs . . . males. You damn well better believe it would be all over the news about how awful of a scourge it is if this were women . . . There is a blatant sexist, misandrous attitude that is prevalent in our society and we have been tricked into thinking it goes the other direction.


by bantamei September 20, 2009 3:02 PM EDT: All a woman has to do is say a man raped her and he is automatically guilty without any evidence.; Reply to this comment


by jokr8790 September 20, 2009 2:01 PM EDT: While the young women involved is clearly in need of psychiatric help, doesn't it say anything about the guys involved that they would be involved in something like this? Or is this just another case of "boys will be boys?"; Reply to this comment


by Jamesedmunds September 20, 2009 1:14 PM EDT: No, actually what we are seeing with this case is the huge bias and discrimination between the sexes that is present in our law enforcement, legal system and society at large. All this talk with feminism and equal rights, we completely focus on one group being the good and the other the bad, of course. We essentially are doing the SAME THING that has caused these problems of inequality in the past. It absolutely astounded me to hear KATHLEEN RICE, the DA of Nassau County, continue to use victim terms about this woman after she nearly ruined lives. She called this a rarity in rape cases and it is, not that it is a false accusation, but that there was tangible evidence showing the allegations to be false . . . There's your rarity Kathy!!! In ordinary circumstances, and it is clear by what Sexist little Kathleen Rice has said and done, we would just take the woman's testimony over the man's and even men's in this case. He might as well not even be allowed to testify, because it won't matter anyway. This is true of rape cases, divorce cases any case involving a man and a woman. Rice spouts out about how difficult it is for a woman to come forward with charges of rape . . . No, not when we are just going to take HER side of it because women are equal, but better than men - At least according to Kathleen, feminists(Femi-sexists), and what is even being programmed in boys and men. Women are equal and better than you are! Look for it in society and you will see it all over the place. It is only considered sexism when it lessens women. NOT RIGHT OR EQUAL.; Reply to this comment


by klewt September 20, 2009 12:13 PM EDT: Crying rape was a disgusting thing for the young woman to do. But I still wouldn't want to have anything to do with the men involved. Participating in a gang bang is a pretty disgusting act, too. They all sound like a bunch of sleezebags!; Reply to this comment