Special prosecutor being sought out to handle the case
The Arapahoe County District Attorney responsible for handling the case of a woman who says she was raped by a CU football player in 2000 is dropping the case and asking for a special prosecutor to review the case and possibly reopen it.
District Attorney Carol Chambers, of the 18th Judicial District, agreed to recuse the case following a March 2 letter from the victim’s attorney, David Heckenbach, that stated that his client felt “humiliated” and “demeaned” by the way the DA handled the case.
The case goes back to a party in June of 2000, where Clyde Surrell, a CU football recruit at the time, allegedly raped the victim, according to an article in the Daily Camera. The article also reported that test results later revealed that Surrell’s DNA was found in the victim’s vaginal and anal cavities.
In an interview with 9NEWS, the victim, whose name is being withheld, said that she had to drop the case when she found that her father had cancer because she was unable to deal with both issues at once. When the CU football rape scandal was exposed in the media in 2004, the victim felt guilty that she had abandoned the case, saying in the interview, “(The scandal) slapped me in the face again, 10 times harder, and I started regretting not going through with it.”
She told 9NEWS that Chambers did not cooperate with her when she met with the DA office in 2004 to try to reopen the case.
“She told me if I tried to pursue it, they were going to tear me apart,” she said in the interview. “I felt stupid leaving her office.”
The victim also said at one point, “They just hung me out to dry because they didn’t want to deal with the political issues.”
In a letter to Chambers on March 2, Heckenbach requested that she let a special prosecutor take the case.
“Our client deserves an independent, professional and objective review and processing of her case,” Heckenbach said in the letter. “Our client is completely void of confidence that your office is capable of providing objective review and professional pursuit of her case.”
In a return letter, Chambers said she was “extremely concerned” that the victim felt humiliated and demeaned by the DA’s office. She agreed to let another prosecutor review the case.
“We will ask that a special prosecutor be appointed to review the case, ask for any additional investigation and prosecute if that is their decision,” Chambers wrote.
Students at CU generally agreed that the case should be re-examined.
Kelly Herbert, a junior education and psychology major, thought that the case should be reopened, but wondered how a possible trial could further hurt CU’s reputation.
“The case should definitely be opened again,” Herbert said. “But I don’t understand why this always happens at CU. This isn’t going to help our school’s image at all.”
Andrew Gordon, a junior geology major, agreed with Herbert that the case should be reopened, but wasn’t as concerned with the effect it might have on CU’s reputation.
“If what the victim says is true, it’s not right at all that this case was thrown aside just to help CU save face,” Gordon said. “If someone does something wrong, they should be punished for it without question.”
