Ethiopian student in Rhode Island acquitted of assault charge
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, RHODE ISLAND — Two former University of Rhode Island students have been found not guilty of raping another student in a campus dorm about two years ago.
The jury returned its verdict Thursday after about an hour and half of deliberations.
Jurors rejected the prosecution’s case that Yaw Peprah of Lincoln and Estifanos Gizaw, a native of Ethiopia, currently residing in Houston, Texas, had used “force and coercion” to rape a freshman student after a party involving alcohol and marijuana.
Peprah’s lawyer suggested in closing arguments that the woman who accused the men did so because of embarrassment over having sex with them at the party. Attorney Roy Fowler said she did not call for help or attempt to leave the dorm suite.
Fowler had said earlier that a university judicial board cleared the men.
– AP
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