Copyright 1989 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday
November 21, 1989, Tuesday, NASSAU AND SUFFOLK EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 24
LENGTH: 220 words
HEADLINE: Student Cleared in Rape
BYLINE: Shirley E. Perlman
BODY:
After 35 minutes of deliberations, a Nassau jury yesterday acquitted a
student at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University on four
counts of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse in connection with the alleged
1988 assault of a fellow student in her dormitory room.
The parents of the accused student, zzz, 20, of Staten Island,
burst into tears upon hearing the verdict. zzz’s lawyer, Stephen
Scaring, said the speedy verdict showed that the prosecution
had “no case.”
“The case never should have been brought in the first place,” Scaring
said. “I’m pleased that the jury said it so quickly.”
During the weeklong trial before County Court Judge Marvin
Goodman in Mineola, the prosecution alleged that the woman was
attacked in her room at the all-woman Queens Dormitory about 5 p.m.
on March 5, 1988, as she and zzz watched pornographic movies with
another young woman, a friend of the complainant.
The complainant testified that zzz handcuffed her to the bed, told the
friend to leave, and proceeded to rape and sodomize her.
The defense argued that the handcuffs were owned by the women and
that zzz and the complainant were seen together hours after the
alleged attack. Police said the complainant did not report the incident
for three months because she was “embarrassed and ashamed.”