The Patrick Kane sexual assault investigation has taken an incredibly strange turn this week, and it sounds like the accuser’s mother is responsible for creating a mess.
The lawyer for the woman accusing Kane of rape, Thomas Eoannou, quit the case on Thursday after he says he learned information about an evidence bag was misrepresented to him. Earlier in the week, Eoannou held a press conference and held up a bag that he claimed contained the rape kit from the case, which was allegedly tampered with.
On Friday morning, Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita told reporters that the last 48 hours have been a “bizarre hoax” and provided video evidence proving the bag Eoannou had in his possession — which was supposedly dropped on the mother of the accuser’s doorstop — was not a rape kit evidence bag. As Tim Graham of The Buffalo News noted, Sedita showed that the rape kit was never in any kind of bag and never left police custody.
According to Sedita, the bag shown by Eoannou was provided by Erie County Medical Center for the alleged victim’s shirt. The accuser reportedly went to her mother’s home and changed her shirt before going to ECMC to have a rape kit administered. The accuser’s mother was the last person who left ECMC with the bag — the same one she claimed was anonymously dropped at her doorstep and the one Eoannou believed was a compromised rape kit.
Sedita said there is no evidence of tampering with the actual rape kit. He also the accuser’s mother would not be charged because what she did was “immoral, but not illegal” under New York law. The “hoax” also does not affect the Kane investigation and the accuser will not be held responsible for the actions of her mother unless it is determined that she was somehow involved.
This explains why Eoannou said Thursday that he was confident the bag was authentic but uncomfortable with the misrepresentation of information. The bag was authenticated by ECMC, but it was not the rape kit.
