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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Prosecutors have agreed to drop charges against former Brigham Young football player Karland Bennett, who accepted a plea bargain in a purported rape while two teammates went on to trial and were acquitted.
Deputy Utah County Attorney Donna Kelly said she will file a motion to officially close the case.
Bennett, 21, had been allowed earlier to withdraw his plea in the 2004 case.
The decision to drop charges came Monday after the then-17-year-old Sandy girl who accused the football players of rape told prosecutors she didn't want to take the stand again in another trial.
Bennett was one of four BYU football players charged in an August 2004 incident after the girl told police she had been given liquor and raped by several men in a Provo apartment. Two others present at the time were charged with lesser offenses and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of lying to police, with the charges to be dismissed after successful completion of probation.
Ibrahim Rashada and B.J. Mathis were acquitted by a jury. William Turner, who was 17 at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty in juvenile court to forcible sodomy, got no jail time and testified for the prosecution that the players took advantage of a "barely conscious" girl.
After the acquittal of Mathis and Rashada, Bennett's attorney, Greg Skordas, filed a motion to withdraw Bennett's previous guilty plea. Skordas said Bennett, when he agreed to a plea deal, was promised a sentence no harsher than what Rashada and Mathis would face.
After the plea withdrawal in January, the case sat dormant for several months.
Nothing was decided until a routine housecleaning session in 4th District Court on Monday. Judge Samuel McVey told his clerks to contact Skordas and Kelly to start a resolution process.
Kelly had spoken with the teen several times before. While on the phone with her Monday, the woman was ready to be done.
Skordas said Bennett, who is living in Texas, has received some scholarship offers from schools interested in having him play football and is looking forward to continuing his education as well.
"It will be nice to finally know that (Karland) can get on with the rest of his life," he said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
