Lawyer
for accuser of NHL's Kane withdraws from case: newspaper
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[September 25, 2015]
(Reuters) - The attorney for a woman
accusing National Hockey League player Patrick Kane of sexual assault
said on Thursday he was withdrawing from the case, the Chicago Tribune
reported, a day after alleging evidence may have been tampered with.
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Thomas Eoannou had said on Wednesday an empty evidence bag that
once contained the case's rape kit was delivered anonymously to the
home of the accuser's mother, adding that mishandled evidence would
scuttle a prosecution.
The newspaper said Eoannou told reporters at a news conference on
Thursday however, that he "no longer had confidence in the story
given to me," about the evidence bag.
He still stood by the woman's allegations, according to the
newspaper.
Kane's accuser told police that Kane, a three-time Stanley Cup
champion with the Chicago Blackhawks and one of the NHL's top
players, raped her in his lakeshore home in Hamburg, New York, early
on the morning of Aug. 2 after the two met at a Buffalo nightclub.
The 26-year-old Kane has not been charged with any crime and has
denied the accusation.
"Ethically, he had to withdraw and to me that means - and I think
logically it means - that the integrity of the accusations has been
completely undermined," Kane's attorney, Paul Cambria, told
reporters at a news conference on Thursday.
Cambria added that he was confident prosecutors would look into what
he characterized as "somebody's efforts to obstruct this
investigation."
The Buffalo News reported over the weekend that DNA evidence
gathered in the rape investigation did not confirm the woman's
allegations.
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His DNA was found beneath the woman's fingernails and on her
shoulders, the News reported, according to two sources, one of them
identified as a member of law enforcement.
Authorities in Erie County have said that all evidence related to
the case was accounted for and remained in its proper packaging.
Eoannou said on Wednesday the accuser's mother picked up the empty
brown evidence bag when she returned home from work for lunch on
Tuesday, finding it between her door and storm door.
Eoannou said the bag had the personal identifying information of the
woman and the initials of the nurses who administered the kit.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Julian
Linden/Greg Stutchbury)
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