Defense attorneys last week released a video they say exonerates their clients, charged with raping intoxicated LSU sophomore Madison Brooks prior to her death last month, but the video apparently didn’t persuade a grand jury not to indict the juvenile, charging him as an adult in the case.
The grand jury handed down a true bill on Thursday charging 17-year-old Desmond Carter with first and third degree rape, as CrimeOnline reported. The other defendants in the case — 18-year-old Kaivon Washington, 28-year-old Everette Lee, and 18-year-old Casen Carver — have not been indicted so far but were charged by deputies, Washington with rape and Lee and Carver with accessory to rape.
The defense attorneys claim Brooks consented to sex with their clients before they let her out of her car on January 15 — and she was later hit by another car, killing her. Prosecutors say all four of the suspects and Brooks were drinking at a Baton Rouge bar that night in Baton Rouge and that Brooks was too drunk to consent to sex. Only Lee, at 28, was drinking legally as the drinking age is 21.
In the video attorney Ron Haley released to WBRZ, Brooks is seen in the back seat of the car after the alleged rape. “I’m sorry that I offended you that bad,” Brooks says. “Take her home,” one of the men says.
“Get out, get out. I will Uber on my own,” she says, speaking to the man sitting next to her. He gets out of the car so she can exit, calling the driver “gay” as she does.
Haley told WBRZ that the “gay” comment was meant to insult the driver because he wouldn’t have sex with her — not as a common insult often used in anger by teens. And he glosses over Brooks’ obvious intoxication in the video.
“Speaking, engaging in conversations … very vulgar language to the driver of the vehicle,” he said. “Implying that he’s not straight based on him not wanting to engage in certain activities with her. It doesn’t put anyone in the best light, but again, not being put in the best light isn’t the same thing as rape.”
An attorney representing Brooks’ family flat out disagreed with Haley’s assessment.
“Under Louisiana law, this is rape,” Kerry Miller told the Investigative Unit. “We were deeply offended by blaming the victim, and statements regarding if she hadn’t been hit she wouldn’t be complaining of things. We thought that was deeply offensive and plain wrong.”
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore apparently aggrees with Miller.
“It’s just like we handle murder cases (that) don’t have murder victims to say ‘I didn’t consent to being killed or shot at,'” Moore said recently.
Authorities have said Brooks’ blood-alcohol content was 0.319% — nearly four times the legal limit — at the time of the sex act, casting serious doubt on her ability to consent to anything.
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[Featured image: Madison Brooks/handout]
