The King County Prosecutor’s Office recently determined there was insufficient evidence to charge suspects in the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl that occurred at a house party in Yarrow Point last year.
The decision was finalized on Feb. 2 and was based on the review of all evidence submitted by Clyde Hill Police, a spokesperson with the King County Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday.
“Based on the information we were able to obtain, at this time, we are unable to file charges; but it is possible to revisit the decision should new information be presented, taking into consideration the statute of limitations,” the spokesperson said.
Clyde Hill police investigated the case in April 2017 after several Eastside teens were accused of allegedly raping a teenage girl, a Bellevue resident, while she was at a house party in Yarrow Point.
According to a 2017 search warrant affidavit for various smart phones, the victim reported the alleged rape to a Clyde Hill officer and was evaluated at Harborview Medical Center on April 3.
Two 16-year-old boys who attended Bellevue High School were under investigation. Police believed people at the party took photos of the alleged rape and shared them through Snapchat and text messages.
The party, which was reported as “large,” was held on April 1. An officer said he witnessed between 150 and 200 teenagers leaving when he arrived to shut it down. The victim, however, did not leave. According to the search warrant documents, she spent the night at the house and awoke the next morning to blood on her shoes and a sore abdomen.
Although she believed she had sex the night before, she was unsure, as she had been intoxicated.
According to a past report, the juvenile who threw the house party told the victim that she might have been raped at the party and that she had been “tag-teamed” by two teenage boys.
Her friends told police she had gone missing for an hour at the party and people were calling her “the legend” because she was the youngest person at the party as an eighth-grader. Additionally, the victim recalled dancing with the suspects and telling them she was “ready to lose her virginity that night if they wanted to do it,” according to the search warrant documents. She did, however, say she was intoxicated when she said that and “freaked out” in the morning at the thought of having had sex.
After the victim’s evaluation, she learned the suspects and possibly another had “evidence of the rape” on their phones but she had “no clue” the photos were being taken.
According to Washington State law, suspects who rape a victim under the age of 18 can be prosecuted until the victim’s 30th birthday.