BOULDER — A judge has ordered the Boulder County district attorney’s office to serve as the special prosecutor in a case in which a former University of Colorado football player is accused of raping a woman nearly a decade ago.
The order from an Arapahoe County district judge, issued late Friday, states that the Boulder County district attorney’s office must decide by Oct. 5 whether to file charges against one of the players at the heart of CU’s football-recruiting scandal who is accused of raping a teenager in 2000.
Julie Stene, now 27, claims she was sexually assaulted by that man and another man after passing out at a high school graduation party in June 2000.
One of the men was also named in alleged sex assaults in late 2001 when, as a CU football player, he attended recruiting parties in Boulder. No charges were ever filed in those cases.Stene asked Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers to file charges against the two men, but Chambers refused. District Judge Carlos Samour Jr. ruled in May that charges against the two men were warranted in the case and ordered Chambers to appoint a special prosecutor.
Earlier last week, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that the burden of appointing a special prosecutor properly belonged to Samour.
“The Court hereby appoints the Boulder district attorney’s office, including its full-time deputies, assistant deputies and chief deputies, to serve as special prosecutor,” Samour wrote in his Friday order.
Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said his office is well equipped for the task and welcomed the assignment.
“We have a really excellent sexual-assault prosecution unit that’s one of the best in the country,” he said Friday.
This story was updated to remove names because the men were never charged.
