Crabtree rape allegation not holding up

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree (15) looks on from the sideline during an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals in San Francisco, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) less San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree (15) looks on from the sideline during an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals in San Francisco, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose ... more Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Crabtree rape allegation not holding up 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The hotel-room sexual assault allegations against 49ers star wide receiver Michael Crabtree do not appear to be holding up under investigation.

San Francisco police said Friday that they were looking into a complaint that Crabtree had assaulted a woman in a hotel after the Niners defeated the Green Bay Packers in a playoff game Jan. 12.

According to a San Francisco law enforcement source, the woman who lodged the allegation was one of three women who joined Crabtree in a party at a room in the tony W Hotel on Third Street.

The other two women have told investigators that Crabtree didn't assault anyone, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

Police haven't found any physical evidence of an attack, the source added. It hasn't been disclosed whether the woman who said she had been victimized went to a hospital to be examined.

The woman went to Oakland police four days after the party; investigators there promptly referred her to San Francisco police, according to multiple sources.

Crabtree, 25, has denied any wrongdoing, the sources told us. He was accompanied by an attorney when he spoke Friday with police, who publicly described him as cooperative.

Police Chief Greg Suhr declined to discuss the case, other than to say that he hoped the investigation would be wrapped up within the next 10 days - in other words, before the Super Bowl.

"It will take as long as it takes, but we are going to do it right," Suhr said.

Incidentally, Crabtree and the Niners caught a break when police held off on releasing news of the inquiry until late Friday, after The Chronicle had asked about the allegation. By then, the Niners were on a plane for Atlanta - and had imposed a pregame blackout on player interviews.

State of Jerry: There's one thing Gov. Jerry Brown won't see when he gazes out over all the politicians gathered to hear the annual State of the State Address on Thursday - competition.

"He won't see any if he looks forward, backward or sideways," said Hoover Institution research fellow Bill Whalen, a former aide to ex-Gov. Pete Wilson.

Brown pretty much won the jackpot when he rolled the dice and won on Proposition 30, the sales- and income-tax package that is bringing in an extra $6 billion a year.

The result: No big deficit, no unpopular cuts, no angry labor unions - and no one on either side of the aisle with much traction even if they wanted to run against Brown next year.

"The first thing they would have to do is raise money," Whalen said. "And that would be tough going, considering that every moneyed interest in the state is lined up behind Brown."

And that's why Attorney General Kamala Harris will sit tight, as will Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom - and why outgoing Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will take a job with the Obama administration as transportation secretary if it's offered.

The only wild card is what effect Brown's recent bout with prostate cancer might have on his desire for a second term.

"My bet is that he runs," says former state Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres.

"At the end of the day," Torres said, "he can't survive without politics."

Mystery man: Chris Hansen, the boyish face behind the deal to move the Sacramento Kings NBA team to Seattle, is a San Francisco hedge fund manager who launched his own firm, Valiant Capital, as the economy was tanking in 2008.

As for why the San Diego State and USC business school alum isn't widely known around here, even in financial circles?

"He doesn't have the typical hedge fund pedigree" - namely, an Ivy League diploma or Goldman Sachs line on his resume - one prominent San Francisco investment banker told us.

Lone protester: Guests attending President Obama's inauguration Monday didn't have to put up with just the cold weather - some had to endure nonstop, top-of-the-lung heckling by an antiabortion protester who managed to elude the Secret Service by climbing to the top of a 60-foot tree.

Eyewitnesses tell us the man - holding a sign reading, "Pray to end abortion" - showed up three hours before the inauguration and ascended the tree, some 300 feet from the stage.

Secret Service brought in a ladder to try to grab him, but the protester only climbed higher until he was out of reach. So the Secret Service just left him there.

And the man made the most of it, screaming, "Democrats are baby killers!" and other taunts through the entire ceremony - making the day especially memorable for the $1,000-a-head guests standing right below the tree.

Folks like Coalition for Better Housing executive Brook Turner, who described him to us simply as "the jerk in the tree."

We're told the tree-sitter stayed there till well after the angry crowd dispersed and could safely leave under Secret Service protection.