In May a USC student named Armann Karim Premjee was charged with rape after a sexual encounter with a female student. This week the charges against Premjee were dismissed after video surfaced showing the woman in question had signaled to her friend that she was going to have sex with him. From the LA Times:

On Monday, Premjee’s attorney, Harland Braun, said the judge tossed out the case after the defense presented video evidence that showed consent. Braun said Premjee and the woman were at Banditos Tacos & Tequila, near the USC campus, that night in April and that security footage showed them waiting for an Uber ride. “There was a camera outside that captured the girl signaling to her friend that she was going to have intercourse with my client,” Braun said. The woman, he said, made motions with her hands that indicated sexual activity. “There could never be any better evidence of there being consent,” Braun said. He added: “She was the aggressor.”

Premjee had been facing up to 10 years in jail. CBS News reports he was glad the tapes existed to clear him:

“I’m very grateful for these tapes,” Premjee said. “She put her arms around my neck, she started kissing me.”… After seeing the video, the judge dismissed the case saying, “I believe there was consent. There is a very strong indication that the alleged victim in this case was the initiator.”

USC is still conducting its own investigation so there’s no guarantee this is over yet. Here’s the video that led the judge to dismiss the charges:

For the record, I don’t doubt there are genuine instances of rape taking place on campuses around the country. I do believe these cases, as happened here, are best handled by law enforcement, not by campus kangaroo courts that have no procedures to protect the presumption of innocence or the accused’s right to confront his accusers.