Prosecutor for Patrick Kane's Rape Accuser Quits over Questionable Evidence
- by Grant Boone
- in Sports
- — Oct 3, 2015
The last few days have seen information about purported DNA evidence, leaked to the media, accusations of evidence tampering and claims that a rape kit collected from Kane's accuser was delivered anonymously to the home of the complainant's mother. While Eerie County DA Frank Sedita has never publicly acknowledged an investigation into the claim, he held a news conference to address the allegation of evidence tampering. At his news conference, Sedita showed reporters surveillance video of the rape kit being stored in an evidence room.
Eoannou had told reporters that the bag was found Tuesday afternoon by the mother of a young woman who has alleged she was raped by National Hockey League star Patrick Kane.
While Eoannou remained confident that the evidence bag was in fact a rape kit from the Kane case, he said he lacked the confidence that the events he laid out the day before were truthful.
The case has been the source of intense speculation and rumor since early August, when Kane was accused of assaulting the young woman in his waterfront mansion after they met at a nightclub. He has not been charged. After hearing the accuser's mother's account regarding how the rape kit bag arrived at her home, however, Eoannou stepped down since he did not believe the account, per Erik Brady of USA Today. Sedita called Eoannou's Wednesday afternoon news conference "reckless" but honest , indicating that the attorney had no part in the hoax. He said that put him under an "ethical obligation" to withdraw from the case.
Sedita said it won't be known how much this hoax will impact the investigation until he determines whether the accuser knew about what her mother was doing.
"There will be one of two actions taken by this office: either this case will be administratively closed, or this case will be presented to the grand jury", Sedita said. "So far, everything that we've been given from a physical evidence standpoint is consistent with what he says, and not consistent with forcible intercourse", the attorney said.
The Hamburg Police Department, which conducted the initial investigation, called its handling of the evidence "unassailable" and said it would cooperate.
Sports radio station update anchor Julie DiCaro - who regularly contributes to 670 The Score - tweeted Friday that she made the decision to stay home from work after receiving the tweet Thursday evening.
Sedita said that the mother denied ever taking possession of the bag.
Cambria downplayed the drama surrounding the case Thursday during an interview with the Tribune before Eoannou's news conference. The case was supposed to be heard by an Erie County grand jury on September 8, but that was postponed. None of the DNA, he said, belonged to Kane.
