- November 18, 2024
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The State Attorney's Office has dismissed charges against three Flagler County men accused of raping a woman on a beach and then taking her against her will to a remote cabin in the woods.
Charles Cowart, 30, Daniel Goggans, 28, Franklin Goggans, 32, and Kurt Benjamin, 26, were charged in connection with the crime in October.
“The charges were filed based upon the probable cause developed for the issuance of the arrest warrants, however, that is not the end of evidence gathering or case preparation in a complex case, but only the beginning,” said David Smith, chief of operations for the State Attorney’s Office. “In this case the assigned prosecutors after reviewing all of the statements and Discovery depositions, the evidence presented and the final results from the labs, determined that the case could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in court and therefore dismissed the charges.”
Charges against Charles Cowart and Daniel and Franklin Goggans have been dropped.
Benjamin had a plea agreement, and one of its conditions was that if charges against the other men were dropped, his charges would be dropped as well.
The young victim had told investigators that she had lost met the men at the bar, had a number of drinks, and then lost consciousness and awoke in the cabin in the woods. She believed she had been raped and told her mother, and the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office was contacted.
Detectives said Cowart had acknowledged meeting the young woman at Finn’s Beachside Pub March 20, 2013 and having sex with her. Cowart said it was consensual.
The investigation lasted seven months before charges were filed.
