2 counts of rape dropped by state

Prosecutors have dropped two of the four rape charges against a former Walker Middle School student accused along with three schoolmates of using a broomstick and hockey stick to sodomize a student in a locker room.

The Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office won't comment on its decision to drop the two charges against Lee Louis Myers because the case is still pending, spokeswoman Pam Bondi said Monday.

Authorities say Myers and his co-defendants bullied another Walker Middle student for weeks in March and April before sexually assaulting their flag football teammate in a locker room at the Odessa school.

According to court documents, the two charges dropped against Myers - counts three and four - relate to an offense that occurred April 27, 28 and 29.

But Tim Taylor, one of two attorneys representing Myers, said they provided prosecutors with documents establishing that his client didn't attend the practices on those three days. On the first day, he didn't attend school because he was sick. The following day he attended a baseball game and on the third day there was no practice, Taylor said.

Taylor's co-counsel, Norman Cannella Sr., said prosecutors agreed with defense attorneys that "there is no possible way that my client was involved in counts three and four."

Counts one and two correspond to a seven-week period from March to April, Taylor said.

"We are hoping for a positive resolution," said Taylor, referring to his client. "From the beginning, he insisted that he was not involved in any sexual assault. And the sexual assault charges, we are confident that those are going to be ultimately dismissed."

Myers, who turns 15 on Tuesday, and co-defendants Diemante Roberts, 15, and Raymond A. Price-Murray and Randall John Moye, both 14, are free on bail while awaiting trial on adult charges.

All four have pleaded not guilty. Roberts, Price-Murray and Moye still face four counts each of sexual battery.