Apr 10, 2007 8:47 pm US/Pacific
2nd Woman Accuses De Anza Baseball Players Of Rape
SAN JOSE (CBS 5 / AP) ―
Authorities are investigating a woman's claim that she was sexually assaulted in December by De Anza College baseball players at the same house where police said a different girl was raped during a raucous birthday party in March.
Sgt. Ed Wise, spokesman for the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, confirmed the new claim, but declined further comment.
"The allegation is the woman was sexually assaulted at that house in December," Wise said.
Authorities began investigating the athletes and some other students at the Cupertino community college, located about 40 miles south of San Francisco, after a 17-year-old girl claimed in March she was raped during a birthday party for one of the team members.
"Investigators had investigated, approximately 45 plus witnesses," Wise said. "And people had made little comments like, 'You know, this might have happened before.'"
Both alleged incidents took place at the home of De Anza infielder and sophomore Steve Rebagliati, 20, in the Burbank District, an unincorporated part of San Jose. Several people live at the home, which is owned by a Rebagliati family member.
No one has been charged in either case, and prosecutors have declined to discuss possible charges.
District Attorney Dolores Carr said Tuesday that her office has sent the first case back to sheriff's investigators to answer some additional questions, a process that Wise said is already under way. Prosecutors also were awaiting the results of DNA tests.
After the first alleged rape was reported, eight ball players were suspended from the team for violations of the athletics department ethics code. Sheriff's investigators took DNA samples from an unspecified number of partygoers, including some players, to determine if any of them were involved.
One witness told a local television station that at least 10 people watched and cheered while two De Anza baseball players had sex with the girl in a side room, and that members of De Anza women's soccer team later took the girl to the hospital.
In an unusual twist, the California Highway Patrol has said it will seek a felony hit-and-run charge against Rebagliati in connection with a car crash on a local freeway just hours before the March house party.
Witnesses told the CHP that Rebagliati's green Dodge Ram pickup made an unsafe turn on the freeway and caused two other cars to collide before he left the scene. The witnesses wrote down the license plate number.
Rebagliati's defense lawyer, John Cahners, said no charges have been filed in the crash, and that he learned of the latest rape allegation from the media. He declined further comment.
"I don't want to give this allegation any credence," he said. "It's off the wall right now. Until we see something official, we have no idea whether this is even a legitimate complaint."
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
