A 12-year-old girl claimed she was raped by five teens at a Philadelphia Rec Center last month. Charges were withdrawn against those teens on Friday.
"She was not raped," said District Attorney Seth Williams in a statement released Friday. He added that "exonerating those that we should not prosecute is just as important as prosecuting those that we can, if our system is to have legitimacy, to be fair and to be just."
The 12-year-old girl told police that on July 16, she was gang-raped by the group of teenagers at the Francis Myers Recreational Center in the Kingsessing section of the city. She told investigators she was using the computer room when she was lured into the stairwell by the boys.
Early Friday, charges against those five teens were withdrawn by the District Attorney, who called this "a very sad story."
Philadelphia's Recreation Department still considers the incident a wake-up call and will proceed with plans to install 15 new security cameras at Francis Myers Rec Center next week.
