Judge Delays Decision on Felony Charges in Rape Case

Misdemeanor sentences of no jail time and $750 fines in a gang rape case should be thrown out and felony charges reinstated against five defendants because a village justice had no jurisdiction, the state attorney general argued Friday.

Defense attorneys responded during a hearing that the attorney general had no standing to intervene.

State Justice Eugene L. Nicandri decided to wait for 30 days before issuing his decision.

The woman at the center of the case said she was not surprised by the judge’s action.

“There’s nothing I can possibly say at this point. I knew there would not be a decision today. That’s OK,” said Krista Absalon, who went public after the men entered misdemeanor pleas. “I’ve had to do that a lot. I’m used to it.”

The five men originally were charged with felony rape for having sex with Absalon after she passed out from intoxication at a restaurant in Gouverneur, in northern New York state.

But St. Lawrence County Dist. Atty. Richard Manning allowed the men to plead to a misdemeanor charge of sexual misconduct. The men admitted last June that they had sex with Absalon without her consent and were fined $750, with no jail time.

The plea bargain set off such an uproar that Gov. Mario M. Cuomo appointed State Atty. Gen. G. Oliver Koppell as special prosecutor and Koppell sought to have the rape charges reinstated. Koppell contends that a series of legal blunders allowed the men to escape the felony rape charges, which carry a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.

Koppell, making a rare courtroom appearance for an attorney general, argued that once a grand jury indicts, local justice courts lose jurisdiction and only a county court can deal with the case.

Manning defended his action as the only way to convict the five men, since Absalon recalled nothing of that evening after passing out and was not examined by medical personnel. Absalon, 26, said she did not learn of the attack, which occurred nearly three years ago, until a week afterward.

The men could have received a maximum of one year in jail, but Gouverneur Village Justice Wallace Sibley sentenced them as first-time offenders.

Defense attorneys said there is no law or legal precedent authorizing the proceeding brought by the attorney general.