Patrick Kane’s alleged victim ‘no longer wants to cooperate’: Buffalo News
On Sunday, the Buffalo News reported that Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane wouldn’t be formally charged in the Erie County District Attorney’s Office investigation into an alleged sexual assault that occurred at his home on Aug. 2.
On Tuesday, the paper dropped the rest of that bombshell: The complainant in the case has notified the DA’s office that she no longer wants to cooperate with authorities.
The woman has told authorities that the high-profile investigation has caused tremendous stress for her and her family, and that she no longer wishes to participate.
The alleged victim spoke to investigators at the District Attorney’s Office at length last week, and after that, signed a document called an “affidavit declining prosecution,” which is now under consideration by District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III, one of the sources said.
“She was no longer interested in going forward,” another source told The News.
The woman first asked the DA’s staff about the status of the investigation before stating that she no longer wants to cooperate, this source said.
Sedita said there would be no announcement on the case until he speaks with the prosecutor assigned to it, who is currently on vacation.
The signing of that waiver doesn’t mean the potential prosecution of Kane is officially over, although it’s hard to imagine a “he said/she said” case going forward if the complainantno longer wishes to cooperate in the prosecution.
No telling how this decision might affect a potential civil case against Kane either.
Kane has been under investigation since Aug. 2, when a Buffalo area woman went to police with a claim that Kane raped her at his home in the early morning hours, after the two met at a bar earlier in the evening.
Over the next three months, the case had several significant evidence leaks, including one involving DNA evidence. Then came the infamous rape kit hoax, in which the complainant’s mother told her lawyer that she discovered an empty evidence bag at her home. Attorney Thomas Eoannou recused himself from the case after saying he no longer believed the story the mother relayed to him.
But the stress wasn’t just related to the investigation, one imagines. The complainant’s name had been openly discussed on social media for months by Kane supporters, and at least one Chicago sports blog posted a tweet from her since-deleted account.
When asked about the recent report in the Buffalo News, Kane said: “A lot of things that have been said that may have been accurate too. We’ve kind of stayed even keel the whole time … leaving it to the facts and what actually happens instead of going off sources and different reports.”
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