Gareon Conley was hoping to have been cleared by now, but the Raiders first-round pick still is still waiting, hoping to avoid sexual assault charges stemming from an incident that occurred just over three months ago.
Publicly, there are still no answers. The Raiders seem to be waiting on Conley’s legal status before signing him as the investigation process seems to have extended beyond what Conley’s lawyer had anticipated.
To this point, there obviously hasn’t been enough evidence to charge Conley, but also not enough to clear him.
Based on Conley’s account of the event, DNA evidence probably wouldn’t clear him (he admitted to a consensual sexual encounter), but it could incriminate him – and the good news from his perspective is that hasn’t happened. If DNA evidence doesn’t contradict Conley’s story, the case could come down to Conley’s testimony against his accuser’s testimony and that’s where the process could come to a crawl.
To that possibility, the witnesses still may not have been contacted at all – at least as of a little less than two weeks ago.
None of the witnesses have heard anything either. Nothing
— NFL Draft Diamonds (@DraftDiamonds) June 29, 2017
Is it good news for Conley that the case is taking this long? In one way, yes. If the prosecutor’s office is in possession of DNA evidence (they’ve had sufficient time to have results) and hasn’t charged him, that’s a positive development for Conley.
What isn’t great from Conley’s perspective is that he still hasn’t been cleared, which means there still isn’t enough evidence in his favor to close the case.
Twitter: @raidersbeat
Court is bullshit
Not sure he can be ‘cleared’ without a trial and acquittal. Think the best he can hope for is something like ‘there is insufficient evidence to proceed with a case at this time’, or his accuser withdraws her claim. Otherwise statute of limitations plays out on an open case. Now I’m not a legal person so I’m open to correction.
It is not that there isn’t enough evidence to clear him, since that is not procedurally proper. They must have enough evidence to charge n convict him. The state does not collect evidence for defense. The state is either wanting to charge him but unable to proceed with evidence collected thus far or they want to clear him but feel there may be too much in way of evidence, circumstantial n otherwise, to announce clearing him.
Believe this is becoming witch hunt