The attorney for late Louisiana State University student Madison Brooks’ family blasted her accused rapists for making her the victim of a “smear campaign” — calling their claims that she consented to sex the evening of her death “absolutely shameful.”
Kerry Miller, an attorney for Brooks’ parents, ripped the accusers’ legal teams for basing the claims on apparent recordings which have yet to be made public — and which a judge suggested could even strengthen the case against the 4 charged rapists.
Miller trashed the rival attorneys for denying Brooks was too drunk to consent, despite authorities saying her blood-alcohol content was 0.319%, nearly 4 times the legal limit.
“To come back out to say evidence that they’ve and don’t show it, to contradict a gold standard blood alcohol test and never say on what basis they’re doing it, it’s a made-up smear campaign, absolutely shameful,” Miller told WAFB in an interview Saturday.
The accusers’ defense attorneys gave a press conference Friday in Baton Rouge claiming that Brooks had “consensual sex” with two of the 4 accused behind their SUV shortly before she got out and was fatally struck by one other vehicle.
The phone videos were reportedly filmed by Kaivon Deondre Washington, 18, who’s charged together with a 17-year-old — who can’t be identified due to his age — with the third-degree rape of Brooks, based on her being too drunk to provide consent.
The opposite two within the automotive on the time — Everett Lee, 28, and 18-year-old driver Casen Carver — were each charged with principle to third-degree rape, meaning they witnessed it but didn’t participate.
Their defense attorneys on the Friday press conference disputed lots of the findings within the case, based largely on footage from the night.
One in every of them, Ron Haley, had also shared the same message in a series of earlier interviews.
Still, he claimed that they “don’t intend to do that case within the media.”
“We do, nonetheless, intend to state the pertinent facts on this case while being as sensitive as possible to all parties involved,” he said.
That included the very fact, he said, that “the 2 defendants who engaged in a consensual sexual act with Ms. Brooks did so after obtaining verbal consent.”
Slightly than getting dumped, the video shows that Brooks then “left the automotive on her own volition, saying that she would get Uber,” Haley said.
“She is seen on video leaving the automotive, unharmed and in good health. This can be confirmed by video,” he said, while stressing that the videos didn’t show any of the sexual acts.
One other of the defense attorneys, Joe Long, said videos from that night — including one among Brooks running after the 4 men to get into their SUV — prove that she cannot have been as drunk as authorities claimed.
“If you might have a .319, your motor skills shut your body down,” Long said.
“You possibly can’t walk. You possibly can’t talk. You’re lapsing out and in of blackout and also you risk death,” he stressed, saying the videos “undermine” the accuracy of the police findings.
Although the legal teams have yet to release the videos, they were seen by District Judge Brad Myers — who told a bond hearing that they showed one among the suspects “callously” laughing at Brooks.
Myers also revealed that one other video showed Brooks falling over and needing help standing up before the sexual encounter within the automotive.
“The evidence to me is obvious,” Myers told a bond hearing.
District Attorney Hillar Moore told the identical outlet that upgraded charges of first-degree rape have yet to be fully ruled out.
“At this point they’re arrested for third-degree rape based on the dearth of ability to consent to sex. First-degree rape is clearly a far more serious offense and is when any person is raped by multiple person — by two people or more — and that’s obviously what the allegations are,” Moore said.
There’s also an issue of whether the 17-year-old charged within the case might be tried as an adult.