Edited to say that this was meant as response to hhusky's post as follows:
"There is no dispute they had sexual contact. Jerramy is a thug and a creep. The prosecutor still has to prove a rape charge."
(I got it wrong with the format that I have not used since it has been so long since I posted here.)
That should be relatively simple to do. As you say, there is no doubt they had sexual contact, which comes from the DNA evidence. I recall Maleng saying that the victim was drugged or drunk and thus unable to provide proper testimony. But here is the deal-Washington State law says that if someone is impaired they are unable to give consent or legally sign a contract. So with the DNA evidence of sexual contact and WA law that says someone under the influence cannot give consent, it should be a slam dunk. That is something that you DO take to a grand jury, at least.
Do you remember Mary Kay LeTourneau and her 13 or 14 year old boyfriend? She was found guilty in a trail. Later she became pregnant again while Vilii (sp?) was still underage, but they decided not to prosecute. That was wrong to do, and would never happen if it was an underage girl. Similar to the Stevens case, it would have been a simple prosecution-present the DNA evidence showing that the baby's parents were Mary Kay and Vilii and rest your case. Open and shut.
I used to do a lot of posting and following on the dawgman.com board, and remember clearly all the arguments back and forth on this issue back then. There were 3-5 guys that posted saying what a travesty it was that JS was let off, and of course they took a lot of crap from guys like you that would defend the husky program no matter what the facts were. These posters were all closely tied in to the Seattle police and/or justice system. They were guys that had access to see the files, they had intimate knowledge of the evidence and the investigation, and they were absolutely furious that the charges were dropped. They said that there was overwhelming evidence against him, more than they had seen in most cases that went through the system. I gave their input a lot of credence due to what they knew, and their stated ties to the system, much more credence than the sycophants that only wanted to protect the program.
The reality is that Maleng should have recused himself from the case entirely and turned over the responsibility for making the decision to Snohomish or Pierce County to eliminate ANY appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest. And given that Maleng had uw degrees as both an undergrad and graduate, along with being a Tyee Club member, he most certainly had conflicts of interest. Given the record of husky crimes that were never prosecuted over the years, it becomes obvious to outside observers that the fix was in for Norm Maleng when it came to husky football players.