By Sophia Chang
Jan Caballero, a high school senior and College Point resident, appeared at Queens Criminal Court Monday before Judge Stephen Knopf, where an assistant district attorney informed the court that Brown's office was no longer prosecuting the case.”Prosecutors evaluated the facts and circumstances and determined that no criminality was involved,” a law enforcement source said.In court, Knopf told Caballero, “I don't want to see you back on any other cases,” the New York Post reported.Reached by phone at his 116th Street residence Tuesday, Caballero declined to comment beyond saying that he was “fine” and deferred questions to his lawyer Michael Anastasiou, who did not return phone calls by press time.”What he was telling me was considerably different than what he was charged with,” Anastasiou told the Post. “Everything that occurred between January…and the complaining witness was consensual.”The girl involved in the case had told investigators that at an April 8 party in a Corona residence near Northern Boulevard and 101st Street, she was given excessive amounts of brandy and that Caballero raped her after she passed out, the TimesLedger reported at the time. In addition, police were investigating rumors at the time that the alleged attack was videotaped and then passed around students at Bayside High School, but authorities said in April that they did not find any such tape.Caballero was arrested April 12 and charged with rape, sexual misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child. He was arraigned April 13 and released on his own recognizance. He told investigators that he had pulled the girl's pants off and had sexual intercourse with her, according to the criminal complaint filed by the Queens DA's office.Officers at the 112th Precinct's Special Victims Unit in Forest Hills, which made the original arrest, declined to comment.Reach reporter Sophia Chang by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
