Clyde Surrell

A woman who says she was raped in high school by one of the football players who ended up at the center of a University of Colorado recruiting scandal is asking a judge to force prosecutors to file criminal charges in the 2000 case.

A motion filed in Arapahoe County District Court says Carol Chambers, the district attorney there, is refusing to pursue a solid case against former CU defensive back Clyde Surrell because she doesn't want to get involved in a "three-ring circus."

The motion was filed last month by Boulder attorney Baine Kerr, who forced CU to pay nearly $3 million to two women who claim they were raped at a 2001 recruiting party. The settlement, in December, ended a years-long recruiting scandal sparked by the off-campus party.

Surrell -- who played for CU from 2001 to 2004 -- was among the players and recruits at that 2001 party, and a female soccer player later accused him of sexually assaulting her in a dorm room that night. Boulder County prosecutors never filed sex-related charges against any of the athletes. Surrell did plead guilty to providing alcohol to minors.

In a written response to the Arapahoe County motion, Chambers said charges haven't been filed because of "insufficiency of evidence and the desires of the victim." She did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday.

The 2000 victim and the motion her lawyer filed provide the following account of the alleged assault and the investigation:

The victim, then 18 and a cheerleader, said she was assaulted at a party of Eaglecrest High School students in Aurora in 2000. Surrell had just graduated from the school and been picked as a CU football recruit. The alleged victim drank too much and passed out, waking up to the realization that she'd been raped, according to police.

The woman agreed to have her phone tapped, and in those conversations, Surrell denied ever having sex with her.

"I swear I did not do anything to hurt you," he said then, according to a report from the Aurora Police Department.

The report also states that when the woman asked Surrell, "You didn't have sex with me?" he answered, "No."

But the report said DNA evidence collected from a rape kit linked Surrell to the alleged assault.

Then, in an interview with 9News last year, Surrell said he and the woman had consensual sex.

'It just wasn't right'

The victim, who's now a teacher in the Denver metro area, cites what she calls proof that Arapahoe County prosecutors were ready to charge Surrell in 2001 -- including an arrest warrant that was never executed and a letter from prosecutor Karen Pearson to Aurora police Detective Ronald Hahn that said she was ready to press charges.

But the victim said she decided she didn't want to proceed at the time. Her father had just been diagnosed with end-stage leukemia, which took his life a few months later. She attempted suicide and was hospitalized for a week.

Taking on a court case seemed too big of a hurdle, she said.

"I was trying to start a new life," she said.

In 2003, the victim said she was watching ESPN when she saw a story about allegations of CU football players involved in sexual assaults, and her heart sank. Hahn, the police detective, told her Surrell was one of the players suspected.

The victim said she felt she was partly responsible for other girls' being victimized.

"I felt like if I was able to prosecute in early 2001, I could have possibly prevented these other women from being hurt," she said. "That was a very hard thing to swallow. I put the blame on myself and felt really bad about it."

In early 2004, she said, she met with Pearson -- the same prosecutor who was ready to file charges against Surrell in 2001 -- and said she was ready to go forward. But, she said, Pearson had changed her mind.

She said Pearson gave several reasons for her decision: Years had passed since the alleged assault, and Pearson said she didn't know if witnesses were still available. But it was the last reason that the victim said was a bombshell.

"And the big one was that we don't want to look like we're jumping on CU's bandwagon," the victim said. "I really had a hard time with that. It's my case, I didn't go to CU -- why should I be personally affected by what happened up there?"

In November 2006, a reporter from 9News tracked the victim down and showed her the documents that showed prosecutors had been ready to proceed with the case in 2001. That steeled her resolve to move forward, she said.

"I felt like my case had been pushed aside for political reasons, and it just wasn't right," she said.

The motion asks a judge to intervene to stop "years of unjustified foot-dragging in the prosecution of a clearly provable case" by appointing a special prosecutor to take on the case.

In a motion responding to the victim's request, Chambers, the district attorney, said she asked Larimer County prosecutors to take an independent look at the evidence -- and they backed her decision not to file charges.

But attorney Kerr argues that Larimer County prosecutors have a conflict of interest in the case because they had previous dealings with Chambers' husband, Nate Chambers, who represented Tim Masters, a suspect convicted of murder in Larimer County in 1999 who has since been exonerated.

Chambers and Kerr did not return calls seeking comment. Surrell also could not be reached for comment.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Ryan Morgan at 303-473-1333 or morganr@dailycamera.com.