DEAF-RAPE JUDGE ORDERS DNA TESTS

From: New York Post, NY - Sept 9, 2003

By DENISE BUFFA

September 9, 2003 -- A Brooklyn judge yesterday ordered that blood be taken from two teenage suspects in the rape of a deaf woman in a vacant house in East New York to compare it with DNA found as a result of the crime.

Judge Neil Firetog said, "Blood will be taken from you for DNA analysis," as the 18-year-old suspects stood before him yesterday at Brooklyn Supreme Court.

The judge noted that there was no need for the use of force to obtain the blood samples because the suspects, Kelvin Hercules of Blake Avenue and Suliikhann Rowe of Sutter Avenue, had consented to the search.

Defense lawyers maintained the sex was consensual. But police have said the woman was gang-raped in May at the building at Blake Avenue and Pine Street and wasn't able to scream for help because she can barely speak.

But the defense lawyers maintain the woman could have yelled. "She can be understood. She talks," said Fred Spiegel, who represents Rowe.

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