Brooklyn Gang-Rape Suspects to Be Freed From Jail

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — Four teen boys accused by the NYPD of gang-raping an 18-year-old woman and chasing her father away at gunpoint in Brownsville’s Osborn Playground last Friday, Jan. 8, will now be released without having to pay bail, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

The boys will go free because the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office was not able to not meet its Friday deadline to prepare indictments against them.

“Because we are determined to get to the truth about what happened in that park, we need more time to investigate this complex case and gather more evidence,” DA Ken Thompson said in a statement.

“Therefore,” he said, “we have consented to the defendants’ release.”

What was initially portrayed by Brooklyn police and politicians as a cut-and-dry case of brutal gang-rape in a public park has been mired by claims from the boys’ defense lawyers that the sex was consensual, and that the boys saw the girl’s own father having sex with her that night, too.

Various surveillance and cellphone videos reviewed by cops in the past week have also called the young woman and her father’s narrative into question.

“The first story is never the last story,” NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Thursday. “I think in this case that’s certainly the case or will prove to be the case.”

Now, as Brooklyn prosecutors prepare a case against them. suspects Denzel Murray, 14, Ethan Phillip, 15, Onandi Brown, 17, and Travis Beckford, 17, will be released without bail.

A fifth suspect in the case — Shaquell Cooper, 15 — will remain in custody, a spokeswoman for the DA’s Office told Patch, “because there’s a hold on Cooper from an unrelated assault charge.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.