Report: Patrick Kane's Accuser No Longer Cooperating with Rape Investigation

The bizarre saga of the rape investigation against hockey player Patrick Kane may have come to an end. The Buffalo News is reporting that Kane’s accuser has notified the district attorney’s office that she’ll no longer cooperate with the investigation.

The paper, citing sources familiar with the case, says the woman signed an affidavit declining prosecution last week, which the District Attorney is now considering:

The woman has told authorities that the high-profile investigation has caused tremendous stress for her and her family, and that she no longer wishes to participate.

The alleged victim spoke to investigators at the District Attorney’s Office at length last week, and after that, signed a document called an “affidavit declining prosecution,” which is now under consideration by District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III, one of the sources said.

“She was no longer interested in going forward,” another source told The News.

(Sedita’s office can continue to pursue the case without the accuser’s cooperation. As in domestic violence cases, complainants in rape cases often change in their minds about cooperating.)

The woman told police in early August that Kane raped her in his home. The case took a turn for the extremely weird and tragic when the woman’s mother claimed she’d found an open evidence bag with her daughter’s name on it on her doorstep. The DA’s office held a press conference in which they said, more or less, that they believed the bag to be fake, planted there by the mother herself. Kane’s accuser’s lawyer resigned from the case soon afterwards.

Julie DiCaro, a reporter and former lawyer who’s been repeatedly threatened while covering the Kane case, pointed out on Twitter that, yes, this is something that happens in rape cases:

Neither Kane nor his attorney have commented publicly on the report. Kane has continued playing hockey throughout the investigation; fans from an opposing team chanted “She said no” at him from the stands earlier this month.

Kane during a Blackhawks-Flyers game, October 14, 2015. Photo via AP Images