A former Indiana University student who was charged with rape in two separate cases in September accepted a plea deal last week in which both felony charges were dismissed and he was sentenced to a year’s probation with no prison time for a misdemeanor.
That the former student, John P. Enochs, 22, spent only a night in jail last fall before posting bail was met with outrage on social media. It also drew comparisons to a recent case in which a Stanford University student, Brock Turner, was sentenced to six months in jail by a judge after being convicted of sexual assault.
The case reflected the complexities that often arise in campus sexual assault cases, when alcohol blurs memories and evidence becomes too ambiguous to prove rape. Mr. Enochs pleaded guilty to one count of battery with moderate bodily injury. Prosecutors had sought a felony charge but, because of Mr. Enochs’s age and lack of prior criminal convictions, a judge reduced the charge to a misdemeanor.
“The most frustrating aspect of this case is the fact that there were two unrelated complaints against the defendant, but neither was sufficient to prove rape,” said Robert T. Miller, chief deputy prosecuting attorney for Monroe County, Ind.
The more recent episode took place on April 11, 2015, at a party hosted by Mr. Enochs’s fraternity, Delta Tau Delta. A woman told the police that while she was drinking at the party, she went into the house to look for a bathroom. She said she had later found herself in a room with an unknown male having sex with her, despite her telling him “no” repeatedly and trying to push him away.
Video surveillance tapes showed her entering and exiting the room with Mr. Enochs, and DNA evidence showed that they had had sex, according to court records. A nurse said that she had observed a laceration in the woman’s genital area, according to court documents.
After learning of the 2015 allegations against Mr. Enochs, a second woman pursued criminal charges against him. The woman said that she had blacked out while drinking with Mr. Enochs in her sorority house in October 2013, and was later told by friends that he had had sex with her. She had pain in her genital area for several days and was treated in a hospital soon after, she said, according to a police affidavit.
In a statement on Monday, Mr. Miller said the 2013 case was difficult to prove because the woman had no specific recollection of that night, because of her consumption of alcohol.
He said video and DNA evidence that emerged during the investigation of the 2015 case had made it difficult to prove that Mr. Enochs committed rape.
Mr. Enochs had been scheduled to stand trial on July 5. Ultimately, Mr. Miller said, prosecutors determined that they did not have strong enough evidence in either case. That there were two cases had been an important consideration in charging Mr. Enochs, Mr. Miller said, but prosecutors were required by law to have the cases heard by separate juries.
The woman in the 2013 case is also pursuing a civil complaint against the Indiana University chapter of Delta Tau Delta. After the 2015 rape allegation, the university placed the fraternity chapter on social restrictions for six months.
