2 held in St. Paul rape released as police build case

Two suspects, one an adult and the other a juvenile, have been released pending further investigation in connection with the rape last month of a pregnant woman on St. Paul's East Side, authorities say.

Investigators are continuing to build cases against them, police spokesman Peter Panos said Tuesday. No other suspects were being sought, he added.

News of their release came a day after criminal sexual conduct charges were filed against Lord A. Kendrick, 20, of St. Paul. Kendrick, who is still being held, is accused of being one of two males to rape the woman in a garage in the 1200 block of Cook Avenue E. while at least three others watched.

Panos said that it was believed that all five of the young males were related.

The woman, who is six months pregnant, did not know her attackers, police have said.

She allegedly was shoved into a car while walking from her nearby apartment to a store, then driven around the block and forced into a van in the Cook Avenue garage.

According to a search warrant released Monday, the 22-year-old victim had been provided photo line-ups of five suspects, and was 100 percent certain that Kendrick was one of the assailants who had raped her. She was 60 percent sure, according to the document, that the other adult who since has been released also was in the garage that afternoon.

Brinkley Prescott, block club leader in the subsection of the neighborhood where the attack occurred, said that while the East Side has its pockets of trouble, she said that she was "flabbergasted" that such an attack could occur in her area.

There, break-ins and graffiti have been the biggest problems, she said. She walks her dog in the area without hesitation, she said, and isn't aware of any women who fear going out.