The State of California Attorney General’soffice agreed to review the rape case of a 17-year-old girl after Santa Clara County DistrictAttorney Dolores Carr received heavy criticismfor not pressing charges against membersof De Anza College’s baseball team.

“I want to let you know that I applaud thedistrict attorney’s decision,” said De AnzaCollege President Brian Murphy in an e-mailto campus faculty and staff. “The collegewelcomes the attorney general’s review andanother venue to ensure a full and fair resolutionto this case.”

Lauren Chief Elk and April Grolle, DeAnza women’s soccer team players, aretwo of the three women who witnessed andhelped the victim during the night the allegedrape occurred. In an interview with La VozWeekly, they said that they were very excitedthe case is moving forward.

“I think it’s a good decision,” said Grolle.”They also have new pieces of evidence thatcan be brought into the case a second time.”The third witness, Lauren Breayans, is ina study abroad program in France, and wasunavailable for an interview.

In early March, the women took the teenagerto a hospital after they found her layingdown, partially clad, unresponsive and surroundedby men at a party in San Jose.

The De Anza community, the district attorneyand women’s rights’ organizationspraised the women’s actions as “brave andcourageous.”

“At first it was not like that though,” saidGrolle. “People were harassing us saying’stop lying’ and ‘shut your mouth’ and ‘Iwant to see what kind of car you’re driving,’because they thought we were lying to try toget people in trouble.”

“And this came from people like our peers,friends and some people we didn’t evenknow,” said Chief Elk. “The police had to becalled because we were getting threatened somuch.” Despite the ordeal and harassment,the women refused to back down. “We reallydidn’t care because we knew what we weredoing was right,” said Chief Elk.

Grolle and Chief Elk also said they disagreedwith a comment made by SpencerMaltbie in an interview with La Voz Weeklyin April. Maltbie, one of eight players suspendedfrom the baseball team after the party,confirmed that the party was for his birthday,and said “I don’t drink or smoke.” But Grolleand Chief Elk said they saw him consume alcoholduring that night at the party.

According to the San Jose Mercury News,Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office canask Carr to re-evaluate the case if his officedetermines there was an error. If Carr continuesnot to press charges, then Brown’s officemay file charges in a state court.

Whatever the outcome, Grolle and ChiefElk said they will not give up as longas the victim wants to keep moving forward.Their bond strengthened over themonths and they consider the victim as”a little sister.”

Although the two women missedtwo weeks of school, became overwhelmedwith the media attention andlost personal relationships, they saidthey will not stop doing the right thing.”From day one, we said we would dothis. And we’ll keep doing it as long asshe wants,” said Grolle.

“We lost friends and boyfriends,too, but even though I lost these peopleit doesn’t matter because the most importantthing to me is April, Lauren andthe victim,” said Chief Elk.

During the May 30 protest outsideof the DA’s office, the alleged victimreleased a statement asking for the attorneygeneral’s office to intervene.