A former Arkansas State University student arrested in the rape of another student in February won't be charged in the case, officials said Thursday.
Prosecutors declined to file charges against James K. Chambless, 21, of Lonoke. After Chambless' arrest Feb. 17, a Craighead County district judge initially found probable cause to charge him with rape and aggravated assault.
"Due to the lack of conclusive physical evidence and the conflicting statements of other witnesses, we do not have the evidence to move forward with the case," deputy prosecutors wrote in a letter to Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington.
The university expelled Chambless after conducting its own investigation into the incident, which occurred at the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity house at 3405 Aggie Road in Jonesboro.
The reported rape capped a series of fights and altercations that prompted university officials to suspend fraternity and sorority events for about a month.
A woman told police she was attending a party at the fraternity house when she went into a bedroom to get her cellphone and Chambless followed her, according to a probable-cause affidavit.
Chambless kissed her but began "going too far," the affidavit stated. After she told him to stop, the woman said, Chambless grabbed her neck, choked her and pushed her onto a bed, the affidavit stated. Chambless left the room after having sex with her, the report said.
Chambless admitted to police that he had sex with the woman, who reported the incident to authorities five days later, but he said it was consensual, the affidavit said. The two were intoxicated and "things got carried away," he told police.
"[Chambless] also stated that she may have said 'no,' but she didn't say 'NO!' and no force was used," the affidavit stated.
An emergency room doctor noted mild bruising on the left side of the woman's neck consistent with strangling, the prosecutors' letter said. When later interviewed by an investigator, the doctor said the bruising also was consistent with "hickeys."
ASU spokesman Bill Smith confirmed Thursday that Chambless was not enrolled at the school this semester, but he declined to discuss whether prosecutors' decision to not pursue charges would affect Chambless' ability to return to ASU, citing student privacy laws.
Chambless' attorney, Jared Woodard, said they "hadn't gotten that far" when asked about Chambless' expulsion in light of potential charges being dropped, but he added they weren't considering any adverse action against ASU.
Woodard said his group interviewed dozens of witnesses who were at the party or had pertinent information.
"We provided that information to the prosecution to help them make a fair charging decision rather [than] charging and litigating later," Woodard said in a phone interview.
In their letter, prosecutors laid out a timeline of the night the incident occurred.
Partygoers were drinking and allegedly using controlled substances, the letter said.
"It is undisputed that the victim and the suspect were dancing with each other during the party and together most of the night," deputy prosecutors wrote.
The assault occurred after the woman went to retrieve her phone.
A friend picked her up at the fraternity house about 2 a.m., and she reported the incident to her family, sorority sisters and police over the next week.
Prosecutors in the letter said they lacked physical evidence, noting that forensic analysts couldn't find any blood or semen on the woman's clothes.
The letter also said witnesses contradicted the woman's account. Prosecutors said one witness, interviewed seven months after the incident, told police he had lunch with the woman the day after the party.
"The victim told him that she had 'hooked up' with the suspect on the night in question and that was how she got the 'hickey' on her neck," the letter said. The witness gave a similar statement during ASU's Title IX investigation.
That investigation came before the Trump administration scrapped federal guidelines in September for colleges investigating sexual assault.
The Barack Obama-era guidelines demanded that schools use the lowest standard of proof when determining if a student was responsible for sexual assault. The current administration under President Donald Trump raised the standard to "clear and convincing evidence."
Critics of the previous guidelines claimed that the decision stripped the accused of their rights and lacked fairness.
Smith, the ASU spokesman, declined to speculate whether the university would've handled the case differently under the new guidelines, again citing student privacy laws.
Metro on 11/03/2017