A grand jury will decide whether three men and a 17-year-old should face more serious charges for their alleged roles in the rape of Madison Brooks, an LSU student from Madisonville who was abandoned near a Baton Rouge subdivision and fatally struck by a car after her assault.
Police said Monday they had arrested the four suspects accused of leaving the bar with Brooks, 19. They booked Kaivon Washington, 18, and the 17-year-old, who is not being named because he is a juvenile, on a count each of third-degree rape; they also booked Casen Carver, 18, and Everett Lee, 28, on a count each of principal to third-degree rape.
Prosecutors will face the unusual task of pursuing a sex-crimes conviction in a case where a victim is no longer alive. But evidence like Brooks' blood-alcohol content — which was four times the legal limit to drive a vehicle when she died, deputies said — gives them strong grounds for proving third-degree rape, a former district sex crimes prosecutor believes.
"I think it’s a potentially pretty strong case for third-degree rape," said Sue Bernie, a retired longtime sex crimes prosecutor in East Baton Rouge Parish. "I did read that they are considering upping the charge to first degree rape. I don’t see how that fits any of the circumstances."
Defense attorneys have argued that the acts were consensual and say they have video that proves it.
Brooks had been drinking at the popular Tigerland bar Reggie's on the evening of Saturday, Jan. 14, when she met the 17-year-old and left the bar with him and his three male friends, arrest records say. The group pulled over after leaving the bar and two of the males — the 17-year-old and and Kaivon Washington, 18 — raped her in the back of the car, the documents say.
Medical records showed Brooks had a blood-alcohol level of .319 — enough to give someone alcohol poisoning and render them unconscious. She could not say where she lived and the four males dropped her off in a subdivision, arrest documents say.
Brooks was hit by a car and killed on Burbank Drive shortly before 2:50 a.m. The driver who struck her called for help, waited at the scene and was found not to be impaired, an East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office spokesperson said.
At an initial bail hearing for the suspects the following day, a prosecutor from the 19th Judicial District Attorney's Office said those charges could be upgraded to first-degree rape and accessory to first-degree rape. District Attorney Hillar Moore said in an interview Wednesday that he had not yet considered the bulk of evidence in the case and that a decision about higher charges would fall to the grand jury.
"This just happened," Moore said. "It's way early on. I’m waiting on evidence and it’s still being investigated."
The legal standards
Louisiana law says third degree rape occurs when the victim can't resist because of a stupor or "abnormal condition of mind" caused by intoxication, and when the rapist was aware or should have been aware of the victim's intoxication; or simply when the rapist acts without consent, among other factors.
Situations defined as first degree rape include those in which the victim resists but is overcome by force, or when the victim’s resistance is met "by threats of harm"; when a weapon is involved; when the victim is under the age of thirteen, regardless of the whether the rapist knew their age; or when two or more offenders participated in the rape.
Moore said a grand jury could potentially weigh first-degree and accessory to first-degree rape charges under the "two or more offenders" stipulation.
A blood alcohol level four times the legal limit shows a victim was inebriated beyond the point where they can give consent, Bernie said, or even resist assault. Both fall under the statute's definitions of third-degree rape.
"In this case, her .319, leaves no doubt that she was...in fact was intoxicated to such a degree that she would have been prevented from resisting," Bernie said.
Bernie, whose career in the East Baton Rouge district attorney’s office spanned more than three decades, recalled prosecuting many cases over the years that originated at bars in Tigerland.