SYCAMORE – Jurors in a rape case will hear how Northern Illinois University police officers initially withheld statements beneficial to the defendant – who is one of their former officers.

Presiding Judge Robbin Stuckert declined to dismiss the rape charge against Andrew Rifkin, who NIU police fired the same day an NIU student made the allegations against him. She stressed the importance of pursuing justice for the victim, as well as for the defendant.

But Stuckert said the trial could include details about how NIU police Lt. Kartik Ramakrishnan placed two witness statements in Rifkin’s personnel file, rather than giving them to prosecutors as required by law. Those witness statements show the victim told other NIU students that she had an ongoing consensual sexual relationship with Rifkin.