A rape case scheduled to be heard in Athens County Municipal Court today was dismissed due to “criminal procedure.”
Though he was scheduled to appear in Athens County Municipal Court on Tuesday afternoon, John Hyland wasn’t there.
Hyland, who was charged with rape, had his case dismissed by Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn on Monday due to “criminal procedure,” Blackburn’s assistant Kim Withem said on his behalf.
Withem was not able to elaborate on the exact reasoning behind the dismissal or what “criminal procedure” specifically meant.
According to a Cornell University Law School website, criminal procedure "deals with the set of rules governing the series of proceedings through which the government enforces substantive criminal law."
The case was dismissed “upon request of the State of Ohio, and for good cause shown," according to documents from the Athens County Municipal Clerk of Courts.
Though the case was dismissed out of municipal court, Withem said that doesn’t mean it could not be picked up by the Athens County Common Pleas Court. She added that she could not speak to whether or not that would be the case.
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Hyland’s pretrial hearing was rescheduled for Tuesday after being pushed back from Oct. 27.
After being arrested on Oct. 4 in conjunction with an OUPD investigation, Hyland was charged with the rape of a female Ohio University student in Bromley Hall. Hyland had been previously identified by the survivor.
The penalty for rape, a first-degree felony, is a maximum of 11 years in prison.
This isn’t the first instance this year in which charges have been dropped for suspects of sex crimes.
Charges were dropped Sept. 14 against a former OU basketball player who was arrested and charged with gross sexual imposition.
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