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Young and Thomas were charged with rape the day after the Brooklet Peanut Festival in August of last year. The two turned themselves in when they learned police were seeking them, said Donnie Mincey, who was Brooklet police chief at the time.
"The case was no-billed by the grand jury," Ogeechee Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Scott Brannen said Friday. "The grand jury spent a lot of time on it and that was their decision."
"No-billed" means "it is not proper to have any further prosecution and the defendants stand innocent," he said. In effect, there was not enough evidence to proceed with a trial. The grand jury came to the decision " after lengthy testimony from witnesses and the complainant, the alleged victim."
In interviews last August, Mincey said the two met the 18-year-old victim at a friend's house on Cone Street sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m. on the Sunday morning after the festival "and took her to another residence ... on Mallard Lane."
He said the woman was so intoxicated she could not walk unassisted. During alleged sexual activity, the victim was reportedly unconscious at one point, but regained consciousness and ran from the two men, naked. Friends reportedly found her and called police, he said.