CATTARAUGUS COUNTY
Rape charges against teens tossed out
LITTLE VALLEY — A Cattaraugus County judge threw out the indictments against two Salamanca teenagers who had been charged with raping an 18-year-old woman during a party in December.
In a decision handed down Monday, Judge Larry M. Himelein dismissed grand jury indictments against Joshua J. Kinder and Shane M. Gogel, both 17.
In doing so, Himelein said the prosecutor, former Assistant District Attorney Lori Rieman, failed to disclose to the grand jury that an eyewitness, a second woman at the party, had given a statement to police that corroborated the defendants’ claims that they had consensual sex with the alleged victim.
Also, Himelein wrote that when a Salamanca police investigator told the grand jury that the witness’ “credibility was pretty much zero,” the prosecutor should have corrected the testimony.
Kinder and Gogel have been held in Cattaraugus County Jail since Dec. 10 in lieu of $10,000 bail each on charges of first-degree rape, third-degree rape and third-degree assault, according to Kinder’s attorney, public defender Mark S. Williams.
The judge gave the district attorney’s office the option of presenting the case against the two teenagers.
District Attorney Edward Sharkey was not available to comment.
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