JEFF KAROUB
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — A judge on Thursday dismissed rape charges against former Detroit Tigers pitcher Evan Reed, saying the testimony of the woman who accused him wasn’t credible and prosecutors failed to show that force or coercion took place.
Reed, 28, said he was “elated” to be cleared of the third-degree criminal sexual conduct charges. He was with the Tigers at the time of the March incident and appeared in 27 games for Detroit before being sent to his current assignment with the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens.
“It’s not my time or place to bash my accuser, (but) her lies caught up with her,” Reed said after the hearing. He has said they had consensual sex.
“There were some bad decisions made, but I didn’t commit any crimes (and) the judge just agreed with me,” he added.
The 45-year-old woman testified at the probable cause hearing that she met Reed at a bar in the suburb of Royal Oak on March 30 and that they later went to a casino in downtown Detroit. She said that she “blacked out” after taking her third drink at the bar, which tasted “sour,” and that she believes she had been drugged.
“The last thing I remember was my body feeling funny. … Everyone just sounded robotic to me, like I was in another world,” she said, adding that the next thing she remembered was “waking up in the hotel room.”
She said she woke up in bed with Reed, both of them naked, and prosecutors say he tried to force her to have sex on two occasions in the room. She said he then asked her to leave.
Judge Kenneth King threw out the charges, though, saying the woman gave contradictory accounts of what happened, including testifying that she had no idea that Reed and his companions at the bar played for the Tigers, then acknowledging that she texted a friend that evening to say she was with members of the team.
“Because of the alleged victim’s vacillating testimony and her inability to remember many parts of the evening, I don’t think (prosecutors) have met their burden of probable cause,” he said.
Assistant prosecutor Suzette Samuels said afterward that the ruling was “disappointing,” and that she believes “it was another value judgment” against a sexual assault victim. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that no decision has been made about appealing the case.
Defense attorney David Gorcyca said King made a “wise” and “courageous” decision.
“We never had anything to hide,” he said.
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