Five teens freed after DA drops rape charge

After spending more than a year in custody awaiting trial on charges they raped a 17-year-old in a Jamaica Plain basement, five teenagers were released yesterday when prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to convict them.

Prosecutors said they were dropping the case because, even though they believed the young woman had been sexually exploited, they could not prove a crime had been committed. In court yesterday morning, Boston Juvenile Court Judge Marjory A. German told the young men and their lawyers, ''The case is over."

About 20 relatives in the courtroom started cheering and clapping and scrambled to hug the teenagers, who were released from the restraints they had worn around their ankles and wrists during the brief proceeding.

Lisa Badgett, the mother of Dominique Hines, 16, said she planned to make up for lost time and enroll Hines in school immediately. ''We missed two Christmases," she said outside the courtroom. ''We missed his birthday."

''I missed everything," said Hines, who stood nearby.

Another one of the accused, Eric Barrows, 19, said, ''It's good the case is over with. It's just good to be home."

Barrows, of Dorchester; Hines, of Jamaica Plain; Curtis Silva, 18, of Dorchester; Justin Searcy, 15, of Mattapan; and Jason Graham, 16, of Lynn, were each charged with aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping after the 17-year-old told police that a group of teens pointed a gun at her neck, took her into the basement of the Bromley-Heath housing development, and forced her to repeatedly perform oral sex. The Globe does not identify victims of alleged sexual assaults without their permission.

The brutality alleged in the November 2004 assault brought attention from the media and from authorities still investigating a high-profile alleged sexual assault in Franklin Park and an attempted rape in Beacon Hill earlier that fall. After police appealed for help, the five teenagers were arrested, and police praised residents at Bromley-Heath for helping investigators.

But late last week, prosecutors discovered evidence that created doubt they could prove the kidnapping and rape charges, said David Procopio, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

He declined to describe the evidence, citing the need to protect the alleged victim's privacy. ''There are ways to take advantage of a person sexually that do not rise to the level of criminal conduct," he said.

Several lawyers for the young men said yesterday that witnesses came forward and said the sex between some of the teenagers and the alleged victim was consensual. Graham's lawyer said his client had not participated in the acts, and Hines's lawyer said there was no forensic evidence that his client was in the basement.

The five teens were arrested in December 2004. Barrows and Silva were held in jail awaiting trial. Searcy, Graham, and Hines, who were younger than 17 at the time of the alleged assault, were held in juvenile detention centers. Bail for the five ranged between $50,000 and $100,000, Procopio said.

Graham's lawyer, James Corbo, contrasted what happened to his client to the fate of five former Milton Academy students accused of statutory rape after an oral sex session with a 15-year-old sophomore girl in a school locker room about two months after the Bromley-Heath incident.

In a deal with prosecutors that could spare them any jail time and clear their records, the Milton Academy teens agreed last June to undergo counseling, complete community service, and serve at least two years of probation.

''The difference is that in Milton the students walked into the court with their ties on and got probation," Corbo said. ''And these five African-American kids sat in custody for 13 months on extremely high bails."

The ambiguity surrounding the prosecutor's decision not to pursue the trial could discourage other sexual assault victims from coming forward, said Gina Scaramella, executive director of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. For instance, a sexual assault victim who lives in a poor neighborhood might wonder whether the case did not go forward because the alleged rape happened in public housing, Scaramella said.

''It would help us if the DA's office would be able to come up with more specifics about why they would or would not take a case," she said yesterday. ''It just leaves us all with a lot of questions."

Josh Dohan, a lawyer who runs a committee that provides defense attorneys for indigent juveniles, said that determining whether sexual exploitation amounts to a crime falls under a prosecutor's discretion.

''You and I could easily spin any number of hypotheticals where one person took advantage of another, but it wasn't illegal," said Dohan, who is not involved in the Bromley-Heath case. ''When it comes to sex, there is just still a world of manipulation. So, my hunch is that what they're saying is . . . that they feel like these boys took advantage of this girl, but they didn't actually threaten or use physical violence."

Prosecutors may still file charges in the case if more evidence is found in time, Procopio said. The statute of limitations for aggravated rape is 15 years and six years for kidnapping. ''But at this point in time, based on the evidence as we know it, we have no intention of doing that," he said.

As they walked out of the courtroom yesterday, the freed teenagers exulted. They hugged relatives, talked of getting a hot shower, and looked forward to a large meal.

Searcy's mother, Gloria, however, said she plans to leave the city and put the year behind her. In November, while her son was in custody, his nephew, Carl Searcy, 17, was fatally shot in Roxbury, a homicide that remains unsolved.

Despite her distress, however, she said she holds no bitterness against the young woman who accused her son. ''I feel for her," she said. ''She needs help, and I hope she gets what she needs."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.