HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — All charges were dropped against four men accused of gang-raping a Hofstra University student after the woman recanted her story.
The woman, a student at the university on New York's Long Island campus, originally told police she was lured into a men's bathroom in a dorm at 3 a.m. on Sunday, but told police she made it up on Wednesday.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement released late Wednesday that the 18-year-old told law enforcement officials that
the sex was consensual.
Rice says Nassau County Judge Robert Bruno then dismissed the charges against the four men and ordered their release.
The woman had accused the men, including a Hofstra student, of taking her cell phone at an on-campus nightclub and luring her into a dormitory men's room and sexually assaulting her early Sunday.
Four of them, Rondell Bedward, Jesus Ortiz, Kevin Taveras and Stalin Felipe, were arrested and arraigned on rape and other charges.