As I’d heard yesterday, a special prosecutor has completed his review and recommended no charges in the case of a University of Arkansas freshman’s allegation that she was raped by three Razorback basketball players at a fraternity party on campus last year.

Former Faulkner County prosecutor H.G. Foster, who was appointed in November to review the case by Circuit Judge William Storey, filed a letter with the judge this morning.

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The brief letter said that, based on investigations of the UA police, findings of the state Crime Lab and other information, it was Foster’s opinion that there wasn’t evidence sufficient to warrant the filing of criminal charges. Washington Prosecutor John Threet had earlier reached the same conclusion, but didn’t object when a lawyer representing the woman asked for an independent review. She has said she didn’t consent to sexual contact. The players said she did. She reported the assault several hours after her encounter with the players Aug. 27 at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house.

Judge Storey said that, because no charges have been recommended, “This matter is over with.”

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John Bass, attorney for the woman, issued this statement. It said the family was “disappointed” in the finding. It also said the case still pointed up the need for “systemic” change in how the UA conducts criminal investigations involving athletes. It continued:

The family has exhausted all remedies available to them through the criminal justice system and shall not seek alternative relief. The pursuit of justice was their only goal. Moving forward, the family will continue their advocacy efforts for rape prevention and education, and will work toward effecting systemic change.

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The three players — Marcus Britt, Glenn Bryant and Nick Mason — spoke publicly for the first time in a joint statement issued by their attorney, John Everett. It said Britt and Bryant took polygraph tests on their version of events and passed. It also said they’d submitted DNA samples that proved “beyond a reasonable doubt that we did not commit the acts of which we were accused as the DNA taken from the accuser was not contributed by any of us.”

The three said they were guilty of “conduct unbecoming of a Razorback student/athlete,” but said they believed they deserved an apology from the accuser for “baseless but inflammatory allegations.”

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Foster  releasef the complete file of his investigation late this afternoon. It included Crime Lab reports that excluded the basketball players as the source of DNA evidence found in the woman’s rape examination. The police reports had been released previously, including accounts of a witness who entered the frat bedroom to see the woman giving oral sex to one player, manual stimulation to another and a third player behind the woman “rubbing against her buttocks with his pelvis.”

On the jump, UA athletic officials comment on the “exonerated” athletes.

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