ALBANY COUNTY — Seven months after a gang-rape was reported on the University at Albany campus, two of the three accused men pleaded guilty to felony third-degree rape yesterday morning.

All three were freshmen from the South on the university’s football team. The rape victim was also a first-year student.

Lorenzo Ashbourne and Julius Harris, both 19, accepted a plea bargain agreement from the Albany County District Attorney’s office and will now face a maximum of six months in Albany County’s jail, 10-years of probation, and will have to register as sex offenders.

The two men pleaded before Judge Thomas Breslin in Albany County Court and will both be sentenced Aug. 8, according to District Attorney David Soares’s office.
The third man accused of the on-campus rape, Charles Guadagno, is still free on $50,000 bail in his home state of Texas, according to Soares’s spokeswoman, Heather Orth, who added that his charges are "still under investigation."

Orth said that the rape victim and her family were involved in the plea deal for Ashbourne and Harris and that everyone involved is satisfied with the sentences.
"It’s been worked on by all members involved, including the victim’s family," Orth said about the agreement. "The victim is the most important party in the plea and she and her family were satisfied."

Because of the plea agreement, the two men avoided a grand jury hearing and the victim does not have to testify in court.
The three men were expelled from their athletic programs and the university following the allegations and university officials condemned the incident as "unacceptable behavior."

Following the on-campus rape, the 17,000-student university announced the formation of the Task Force on Acquaintance Rape to target preventing rape by an acquaintance rather than a stranger.

Ashbourne and Harris were originally charged with felony first-degree rape, a charge which could carry a sentence of up to 25 years in state prison. Ashbourne and Harris were out on $50,000 bail prior to taking the plea-bargain agreement.

The charge of third-degree rape is defined as the defendant not giving consent or not being able to give consent to sexual contact, whether impaired by alcohol or drugs, or other circumstances, Orth said.

Harris surrendered himself to custody immediately following yesterday’s court hearing and Ashbourne turned himself in later in the day. They will be remanded to Albany County’s jail until their sentencing and will remain in jail for a maximum of six months.

Orth said it is unknown what level Ashbourne and Harris will have to register on the state’s three-tiered sex registry. Level 3 offenders are deemed the most likely to re-offend. Level 2 and Level 3 offenders are subjected to community notification; their whereabouts and history of their crimes are posted on-line on a state registry.

The two men will be evaluated and issued a level at their sentencing.

Ashbourne’s and Harris’s 10 years of probation will be handled by the New York State Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives, Orth said, adding that she is unsure of where the men will reside after they serve jail time.

Chief District Attorney Mark Harris handled the case and Orth told The Enterprise that Soares’s office is satisfied with guilty pleas and sentencing of Ashbourne and Harris.

The accused

The three football players were all attending the University at Albany on partial scholarships.

Ashbourne is a 5 foot, 9 inch, 165-pound former cornerback who graduated from Coral Springs High School in Coral Springs, Fla.

Harris is a 5 foot, 8 inch, 165-pound former flanker who graduated from Palm Beach Gardens High School in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Guadagno is a 6 foot, 2 inch, 210-pound former tailback who graduated from Gregory-Portland High School in Portland, Texas.

Guadagno’s high school coach, George Harris, said he was stunned when The Enterprise informed him of the rape charge in October. He has been coaching for 47 years, and is the head football coach at Gregory-Portland High School.
"Charles was a wonderful kid here," Coach Harris said at the time, "one of the most dedicated kids I’ve ever coached in my life."
Several students on the university campus described the men at the time as being "respectful to women" and "nice guys."

Calls from The Enterprise to the three men’s attorneys yesterday were not returned.

The assualt

Last October, the young woman who reported the assault said in a statement to University Police that she was raped repeatedly in the early hours of a Sunday morning at 103 Onondaga Hall, the room that Ashbourne and Harris shared. Two days later, Guadagno was arrested.

The statement graphically described a series of rapes as the woman went in and out of consciousness early that October morning.
The victim described the drinks she had that night – shots of vodka and beer. The arrest report for Harris and Ashbourne, filled out by University Police, states under a box on "condition of defendant" that they appeared normal. That category is checked rather than "impaired drugs," "impaired alcohol," "mentally disturbed," or "injury/ill."

The victim told police that she tried to leave Harris and Ashbourne’s room but that the two men grabbed her wrists and they both started kissing and groping her.
"I kept telling them to stop," she said in the statement.

She told police that, when she was raped by Harris and Ashbourne, she was partially conscious. She said in the statement that she woke up and that a third man was brought into the room. Police later identified Guadagno as that man.

The victim reported that Ashbourne then raped her again, according to her statement.

After the woman returned to her own dormitory room in the Indian Quad around 5:30 a.m., her suite-mates called a cab and took her to St. Peter’s Hospital, the statement said.