Late last week, in the Friday afternoon media dead zone, Montgomery County, Maryland prosecutors announced their decision to drop rape charges against two illegal aliens who were accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl at a local high school.  This is being presented in the mainstream media as a difficult but principled legal call based on contradictory evidence.  But the case, which garnered national attention, including from the Trump administration, was also a political hot potato that authorities in very liberal Maryland wanted very much to be rid of, regardless of the cost.

As a former prosecutor who has successfully prosecuted rape cases, and also declined to do so, I'm hesitant to directly criticize another prosecutor who may have had to make a tough call, especially since we are not privy to all the evidence in the case.  That said, state's attorney John McCarthy's decision in the matter stinks to high heaven.  Montgomery County is not technically a sanctuary jurisdiction, but a city within its boundaries, Takoma Park, is, and county authorities in general are highly sympathetic to aliens and hostile to the Trump administration. 

What know about the case is that the two undocumented students charged, Henry Sanchez Millian, 18, and Jose Montano, 17, had sex with a 14-year-old fellow student in a Rockville High School bathroom on March 16.  That is not in dispute.  According to the girl, the accused students took turns raping her as she struggled against them.  Millian and Montano say the sex was consensual. 

Supposedly, a surveillance video suggests that the girl entered the bathroom not under any obvious duress.  She also exchanged sexually suggestive text messages and images with one of the accused in the days before the assault, which among today's teens is called flirting.

We don't know how credible a witness the girl is, but evidently, her account was sufficient for authorities to bring the charges initially, though they are explaining this away now as a way to keep the two undocumented teens in custody, lest they attempted to flee.  However, we do know that at least one of the suspects lied to police initially, claiming that the three went into the bathroom to tell jokes, which suggests that Montano's and Millian's current accounts – that they engaged in consensual sex with the girl – are not the most credible, either.

There is nothing particularly unusual or difficult about this case.  Most rape cases involve claims of consent by a male or by males.  Nor is it unusual that circumstances often show that the female put herself in a compromising position, or even led the guy(s) on.  So what?  The usual position of the media, left-wing politicians, prosecutors, and feminists is that none of this counts for squat so long as the female, even at the last instant, refuses sex.  And that is what the law in Maryland specifies. 

Almost any decision a prosecutor makes in such a case is going to be fraught with political and social concerns, and that decision will tend to reflect those concerns.  Usually, in a school situation, the tendency is to lean heavily on the side of the victim, regardless of the apparent mitigating circumstances regarding the alleged rape.  Vindicating the rights of the alleged victim is especially the overriding concern in liberal jurisdictions like Maryland, with a phalanx of left-wing politicians, feminists, and school administrators closely observing matters to make sure that "privileged" male miscreants don't get the benefit of the doubt, sometimes seemingly regardless of constitutional concerns. 

Hundreds of young men attending college across the country, including in the one just down the road from Rockville High called the U.S. Naval Academy, have faced unmerciful prosecutions in alleged rape cases far more questionable than this one.  Take the not atypical case of a 20-year-old college woman, who, though below legal drinking age, overdoes the booze, takes a young man to her room, disrobes, and then passes out.  Awakening, she believes she's been raped and presses charges.  Ordinarily, prosecutors who drop charges even in such questionable cases will face accusations of chauvinism, gender insensitivity, or support of "rape culture" from the mainstream media and liberal politicians.  Such cases make it to court all the time, on the theory of letting a jury hear both sides of the story to decide the matter.  The woman's claim is at least partially vindicated even if the cost, win or lose, is that the male accused's life is irreparably damaged.

The bottom line is that unless the girl in the Rockville High case is a total wreck as a witness, this case deserved to get at least to a grand jury.  The prosecutor in his announcement did not say the girl's account was unbelievable, but rather that the case contained inconsistencies, which, as noted, is hardly unusual.  By dropping the charges so early in the process, before even bringing an indictment, the prosecutor showed no interest in pressuring the accused for even a plea to lesser charges, which typically is the way such cases play themselves out. 

Atypically, this prosecutor showed absolutely no interest in vindicating the interests of the girl.  He essentially acted as judge and jury, evaluating the evidence, finding reasonable doubt, and letting the two illegal alien teens off, because that was the politically correct thing to do in Montgomery County, Maryland.  And he did so confident that he will not face that phalanx of fellow liberal politicians and feminists, because the feminist agenda is much less pro-woman than it is pro-left.

Just as leftist feminists excuse Islamist patriarchy and rap culture misogyny because Muslim and black values are exempt from feminist rage, so they will excuse the likely rape of a young Hispanic girl because her attackers were not only Hispanic men, but illegal aliens.  Their illegal status, as the left is fond of saying "in the age of Trump," is an effective get-out-of-jail free card in a place like Montgomery County, Maryland.  Vive la résistance!