No Charges for Hofstra Rape Hoaxer - Big Surprise

The young black woman to made up gang rape charges against five black and latino men at Hofstra University (see post below), will not be charged, according to authorities.

The Hofstra University student who prosecutors say falsely accused five men of tying her up and gang-raping her in a dormitory bathroom will not face criminal charges as long as she admits she lied, gets psychological help and does 250 hours of community service, under an agreement she signed Friday with the Nassau County district attorney's office.

Prosecutors say they considered, but rejected, bringing criminal charges against Danmell Ndonye, 18, of Manhattan, who was publicly identified by the district attorney's office for the first time.

Under the agreement, announced Friday afternoon, prosecutors in District Attorney Kathleen Rice's office said they were able to specify the terms of Ndonye's punishment, rather than leaving it in the hands of a judge. She has no criminal record.

Apparently, the fact that this woman almost destroyed the youn men's lives counts for very little. As does the fact that her lies were only exposed because one of the young men filmed the encountered with his cell phone, without her knowledge.

Four men - Bedward, Stan Felipe, 19, and Jesus Ortiz, 19, all of the Bronx, and Kevin Taveras, 20, of Brentwood - were arrested and arraigned on charges of first-degree rape. Authorities still were seeking a fifth man when the case took a marked turn.

The fifth man had taken a video of a portion of the bathroom incident with a cell phone. On Sept. 14, the district attorney's office learned that such a video might exist.

On Sept. 16, prosecutors who were interviewing the young woman told her that the incident may have been videotaped. Her story crumbled, and she soon admitted that sex with the men had been consensual.

Within hours, charges against Bedward, Felipe, Ortiz and Taveras were dropped and they were released from jail late that night.

This week, according to Rice's statement, prosecutors learned of more evidence about the early morning hours of Sept. 13 - including a second set of still images recovered off the phone of one of the men involved in the encounter. The images depict similarly consensual portions of the encounter, the statement said.

In addition, prosecutors also have obtained security video from Hofstra that Rice's statement said contradicts many aspects of the girl's original statements to police.

After Ndonye recanted her story, Hofstra officials suspended her pending an internal judicial process.

Minus those cell phone evidence, the four young men might still be facing a lenghty and degrading trial, the financial ruin of their families forced to retain defense attorneys, and possibly conviction and prison time. Their lives were almost destroyed. But the women walks, in part because of her age.

Any of the crimes she might have been charged with are misdemeanors, which, because of her age, would have carried a maximum jail sentence of 6 months, prosecutors said. In practice, people who do not have prior criminal records almost never serve jail time upon conviction of misdemeanors.

"There exists no perfect solution to this case, only our best attempt at holding her accountable while encouraging real victims to come forward and accusers to tell the truth, so that we can avoid incarcerating an innocent person for even one minute," Rice said in a statement Friday afternoon.

Previously, Rice had declined to identify Ndonye, citing the ongoing investigation.

If criminal charges had been brought against Ndonye in connection with the Sept. 13 incident, a judge would have been required to give her youthful offender status, which means that her record would have been sealed at the time she was sentenced, prosecutors said.

But Rice, in her statement, said, "Because of the youthful offender provision in the law, a misdemeanor charge doesn't hold this girl accountable, and it wouldn't require that she get the treatment that she needs."

Apparently, under the law, Ndonye was old enough to have group sex with five men - none of whom she knew - but not old enough to suffer any real responsibility for almost destroying their lives and make false criminal allegations. What a well-balanced legal system we have.