Rape Charges Dropped

The trial of four Clemson football players accused of gang-raping a woman in a campus dorm abruptly ended when the woman refused to testify.

The charges were dropped and cannot be refiled, court officials said.

At a hearing before jury selection was to begin, Circuit Judge Henry Floyd asked the woman if she had been intimidated or coerced into her decision.

She said she wasn’t.

The woman, then an 18-year-old freshman, told police she was forced to have sex with the players on Feb. 15. She said she had been drinking gin and having sex with a player when three more came out of a closet.

Adrian Dingle, 18, Eric Williams, 18, Bennie Zeigler, 19, and Christopher Rice, 19, - all freshmen - were arrested Feb. 20 on felony charges of first-degree criminal sexual assault and conspiracy to commit first-degree criminal sexual assault.