TRENTON, N.J. (AP/ 1010 WINS) -- Sex scandal allegations against seven New Jersey state troopers should be dismissed because the attorney general's office withheld crucial evidence, a lawyer for the troopers argued Friday.
Newly released DNA test results show the woman who claimed she was gang raped two years ago had sex with someone after leaving the troopers and before reporting the rape, attorney Patricia Prezioso said. The woman lied when a detective confronted her about the test results, Prezioso said.
The state attorney general's office released the DNA results and subsequent police interview this week after being directed by a court to do so, Prezioso said.
``Either they were purposely and maliciously hiding (critical) evidence or this is the biggest, most shining example of incompetence we've ever seen,'' Prezioso said.
Attorney general spokesman David Wald said no evidence was withheld.
The troopers have been suspended since the 2007 claim and stopped receiving paychecks last month as the state moved to fire them. The administrative case is pending.
Prezioso argued Friday that the disciplinary charges against the seven should be dropped. She asserted that if the woman lied about her sexual activity in the hours after the alleged assault, none of her testimony should be trusted.
In 2007, a 25-year-old Rider University student reported she had been raped in the Ewing Township home of a trooper after going out to a Trenton nightclub.
The troopers have not denied having sex with the woman but say the encounter was consensual.
County prosecutors opted not to present the case to a grand jury after a seven-month investigation, and no criminal charges were filed.
A DNA test taken at a hospital the afternoon after the encounter found semen in the woman's mouth and on her body that does not match any of the seven. Prezioso said semen in the mouth quickly dissipates and is broken down by bacteria. It is unlikely to be detectable more than a few hours after sex, she said.
The woman denied having sex with anyone else within a week of meeting with the troopers, according to a report from a Middlesex County detective released this week.
David Jones, president of the trooper union, said the men should not have been suspended.
``Consensual adult relations are outside of the purview of any employer by the law and by the Constitution,'' Jones said.
The woman's lawyer, Nat Dershowitz, has said his client was plied with liquor and the sex was against her will. He did not return after-hours messages left for him Friday.
The troopers also have asked a federal judge to dismiss the disciplinary charges and reinstate them, based on a claim that the state violated their privacy by forcing them to talk about their sex lives even though a crime was not found to have been committed.
A hearing before U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper is scheduled for Nov. 13.
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