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Statutory rape charge filed in lingering case highlighted by WWLTV/Advocate report

Sources close to the case said DNA tests revealed Cowell's DNA was found in Phares's bathing suit bottoms.

The St Tammany Parish District Attorney filed charges against the man accused of raping 16-year-old Amelia Phares.

20-year-old Blake Cowell faces one count of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, a misdemeanor violation of Louisiana's statutory rape law.

Phares told police Cowell raped her in his truck in Covington on May 21, 2016, but it took St Tammany Sheriff’s detectives nearly two years to conclude their investigation into the case. During that time, Phares took her own life.

Phares’s family pushed to get detectives to take action on the case and described their difficulty in getting answers from investigators in a recent investigative report by WWL-TV and the New Orleans Advocate.

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MORE: Two years after she said she was raped, family seeks justice for Amelia

About the charge, Phares’s father, Tim Phares, Jr. said, “I wish it was more.”

17 is the age at which someone is old enough to consent to sex under Louisiana law.

Phares reported the incident to sheriff’s deputies the night that it happened and because of her age, they told her parents to take her to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans for a rape exam.

Handwritten notes on medical records from Amelia's treatment read, “I was raped by somebody I didn’t know.”

On May 22, 2016, Phares told investigators that she and two friends had climbed into Cowell’s truck because they were cold after an afternoon of swimming.

At some point, Phares said the other two girls got out of the truck leaving her alone with Cowell.

Additional notes written on Phares’s medical records read, “When I tried to leave, he pushed me back and he raped me.”

Sources close to the case said DNA tests revealed Cowell’s DNA was found in Phares’s bathing suit bottoms.

While Amelia made it clear that she was reporting a rape, sheriff’s deputies ultimately issued Cowell a misdemeanor summons for misdemeanor carnal knowledge instead, with prosecutors agreeing that was the appropriate charge.

Misdemeanor carnal knowledge doesn’t require them to prove Amelia did not consent to sex.

“In rape cases, what we see is that the whole system understands that juries are not great about convicting in these cases. They tend to want to put the rape victim on trial, whether she behaved properly or not in some fashion, and police and prosecutors sometimes anticipate that discrimination by refusing to charge the cases that they know will be hard to win,” said Tania Tetlow, a Tulane law professor.

Crimes that are misdemeanors must be prosecuted within two years of the date they happen, according to Louisiana law, so Monday is the last day prosecutors could have charged Cowell with a misdemeanor case.

Cowell’s attorney declined to comment.

Slow-moving police work and conflicting answers from detectives led Tim Phares, Sr., Amelia’s grandfather, to file an internal affairs complaint against the two detectives who handled the case, but he said he had difficulty doing that as well.

“My father attempted to file an internal affairs complaint. He was told he couldn't do that until he spoke with the major. He spoke with the major and the major still wouldn't take the internal affairs complaint from him,” Tim Phares Jr. said.

His father eventually sent a certified letter to Sheriff Smith to file the internal affairs complaints. In that letter, Phares Sr. writes, "I have no great faith that internal affairs is independent enough to review the actions of the deputies involved. But, maybe you'll offer some explanation for the various failures of the Sheriff's office and the reason for all the misinformation and lies my family has endured."

In response to a public records request filed for the results of any internal affairs probe into the two detectives, a paralegal for the STPSO said they found no record of an IA investigation into either detective.

The Phares family recently started a Facebook group called “Justice for Amelia Phares.”

They said they’re hoping it will be a place of support for their family and others who have survived sexual assault.

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