Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson announced Wednesday that his office is dropping the charges against five teens accused of raping a woman on a Brownsville playground last month. NY1's Lori Chung filed the following report.



Speaking for her client, Ethan Phillip, one of five teenagers who learned they will not be prosecuted in the alleged gang rape of a young woman in Brownsville, Attorney Abdula Greene said "He's happy. The family's very happy. They're pleased."



"You can only imagine. He's 15. The trauma that he experienced, the embarrassment when this news story first broke," Greene said.



District Attorney Ken Thompson says he is dropping the case because the alleged victim has stopped cooperating after accusing the teens - Travis Beckford, Onandi Brown, Denzel Murray, Shaquell Cooper and Phillip - of raping her at gunpoint in Osbourne Playground last month, where she was drinking with her father.

Thompson says, "The complainant has recanted her allegations of forcible sexual assault and the existence of a gun," and that "She also refuses to cooperate with any prosecution against her father, who was engaging in sexual conduct with her."



Attorneys for the teens are now grateful that the case is being dismissed.



"They did what you would have liked the New York City Police Department to do. They did a thorough investigation," said Kenneth Montgomery, the attorney for Murray.

Montgomery represents the youngest of the five teens, who maintained that they found the 18-year-old having sex with her father before she agreed to have sex with them as well.

"The lesson to be learned is that, listen, even if someone offers you sex in that position, it's unhealthy for many reasons, and make a wiser choice," Montgomery said.



With the possibility of prison time no longer a threat, it's a thought community leaders hope everyone takes to heart.

"We don't think that there was a criminal issue here. We think that it was a moral issue. They had an obligation to pick that sister up and get her to safety," said community organizer Tony Herbert.



The district attorney said the behavior of those teenagers and the girl's father was both reprehensible and wrong, but a hearing is expected to be held next week to formally drop the charges.

For its part, the NYPD has closed its investigation on this case.