'Elaborate Hoax' Alleged in NHL Star's Rape Case

DA says mysterious evidence bag was planted by accuser's mother
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 25, 2015 2:32 PM CDT
'Elaborate Hoax' Alleged in NHL Star's Rape Case
It's been a twisty week for the rape case against Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane.   (AP Photo/Joe Raymond)

There's been another shocking revelation in what has already been a twisty week for the alleged rape case against hockey star Patrick Kane. Just two days after it was reported that the evidence bag that apparently once contained the alleged victim's rape kit was found open and abandoned at her mother's front door, authorities are now saying it was a hoax, CBS Chicago reports. “The forensic evidence in this case was not tampered with,” Frank Sedita, the DA for New York's Erie County, said at a news conference today. “We believe that a person—the complainant’s mother—is engaged in an elaborate hoax.” According to the Chicago Tribune, Sedita presented video evidence showing the rape kit was never out of the possession of authorities and was, in fact, never put in a bag at all, but a box.

CBS reports the bag found by the accuser's mother was actually given to her by a nurse during the rape test Aug. 2 to put her daughter's clothing in. The accuser's lawyer, who quit the case yesterday due to being misled by the accuser's mother about how she obtained the bag, had originally claimed the bag was authentic. The apparent hoax came after it was revealed that the rape kit failed to turn up any of Kane's DNA. "That speaks volumes to how important that DNA evidence is, or the lack of it is,” Kane's lawyer says. “Why else would you do this if you weren’t trying to undermine something you weren’t happy with?” Charges against the alleged victim's mother are unlikely, as it doesn't appear it's illegal to lie to a private lawyer in New York. Sedita says it appears the accuser's lawyer was not involved in the hoax, and nothing has yet been presented to indicate the accuser herself was involved. (More Patrick Kane stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X