BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The attorneys representing three of the suspects in the Madison Brooks rape case held a press conference at noon Friday.
Four suspects in the case were arrested Monday, Jan. 23. They were identified as Casen Carver, 18; Kaivon Washington, 18; Everett Lee, 27; and a 17-year-old unnamed minor. Washington and the 17-year-old were charged with third-degree rape. Carver and Lee were charged with principal to third-degree rape.
Attorneys Ron Haley, Dale Glover and Ryan Beaulieu are representing Lee and Washington. Attorney Joe Long is representing Carver.
Haley read a joint statement from the attorneys and said that they decided to hold the news conference to correct the record on allegations made against the suspects.
“We hope that the public will understand and that we cannot and will not share everything that we have out of duty as officers of the court in our respect for the victim’s family,” Haley said.
“The way this has been reported and taken out of context from the police report is factually inaccurate,” Haley said. “Miss Brooks asked to be dropped off at a sorority sister’s house in Pelican Lakes.”
According to an affidavit, Brooks, 19, was raped and left to wander a local neighborhood with a blood-alcohol limit of .319% before she was later found hit and killed by a vehicle on Jan. 15.
During the press conference, Haley said that Brooks left the car on her own.
“Miss Brooks left the car on her own volition saying that she would get an Uber. She is seen on video leaving the car unharmed, in a good health,” Haley said. “This will be confirmed by video at a later date.”
When Long was asked about a video that was recently released of Brooks leaving the bar, he said it confirmed that they were getting ready to leave when Brooks followed them from the bar.
“I think the video is the best evidence of what happened,” Long said.
Long also said that if Brooks were alive, it would not be a crime.
“And so the only reason it’s there is because the understandable anger in the community wants someone to pay for her death,” Long said. “We understand that. But our clients did not do that.”