Rape charges against two Marina men were dismissed on New Year''s Eve, but the truth of what happened in a Monterey motel room in the early hours of Dec. 14 still remain unknown to all but three people. Or maybe just two.

Valencio Williams, 23, and Ralphael Chubbs, 22, were arrested on Dec. 15 and charged with raping an unnamed 21-year-old woman, reportedly from Carmel. Both men pleaded innocent at arraignment Dec. 18, but spent two weeks in jail until charges were dismissed on Dec. 31.

The case received heavy media attention just prior to the Christmas holidays. The two black males were arrested on suspicion of raping a woman who authorities believed was drugged. The men are friends and sometime roommates with Seaside roots.

Valencio Williams'' attorney is now preparing to seek formal exoneration of her client. Deputy Public Defender Juliet Peck plans to file a motion asking that her client be found "factually innocent" of the charges. She says Williams deserves to have his name cleared. "If there''s more we can do for him, we should," she says.

Chubbs'' attorney, Terrence McCleerey, was not available to say if he''d seek a similar action.

However, Clare Mounteer, the director of the Monterey Rape Crisis Center, says she is very disappointed that the truth was not pursued through the court system. Mounteer says the fact that charges were dropped doesn''t mean there was no crime.

The alleged victim told police she could not remember what had happened prior to waking up naked in a motel room before dawn on Dec. 14. That, and her behavior-investigators said she was shaking and slipping in and out of consciousness-led officials to believe she''d ingested a so-called "date rape drug" such as GHB or Rohypnol, also known as "roofy." Both are used recreationally by some in low doses for their alcohol-like effects, but infamously by others to induce stupor and amnesia in unsuspecting potential rape victims.

The accuser has gone unidentified, and is referred to in official documents as Jane Doe. A lawyer familiar with the case says she is white.

According to police reports, Doe met the two men at Planet Gemini, a dance club on Cannery Row that features music and comedy acts. It''s not disputed that Jane Doe went to the club on the evening of Dec. 14 with an older female coworker. After reportedly drinking three Long Island Iced Teas, Doe left with Williams and Chubbs, with whom she''d shared cigarettes outside the club.

Doe told police that she had no recollection of anything that happened after she left the club.

An investigation by detectives that began almost immediately after her 911 call around 4am determined that the woman''s story was not consistent with other accounts and evidence. Investigators'' reports, through interviews with witnesses and review of surveillance videos, revealed that the woman appeared sober and lucid just before the alleged rape. A blood sample to test for the date rape drugs produced negative results.

Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon says charges were dropped because the evidence shows she was coherent, apparently sober and making decisions during the time span of which she had claimed to have no memory.

According to evidence collected by investigators, the trio departed Cannery Row and stopped at the Safeway on Fremont in Monterey. The accuser bought a bottle of Coke and 1.75-liter bottle of brandy. She paid with a $100 bill. The cashier who sold the liquor later told police nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"The clerk said she didn''t appear to be impaired in any way he could tell," Brannon says.

Minutes after leaving Safeway, at about 1:30am, evidence shows, Doe paid for a room at Motel 6 in Monterey. The clerk at the motel told police she seemed "totally sober" while arranging for the room.

Around 3:30, the clerk told police, Doe called from her room, saying she had woken up naked and unaware of how she got there. At about quarter to five in the morning, a Monterey Police officer was at the room, responding to 911 call that Doe has placed a few minutes earlier. In a report, the officer wrote: "Doe was crying and shaking uncontrollably." She told him she could tell she''d had sex and that she was "sore." The officer noted a bottle of brandy three-quarters full among other litter in the room.

"She knew she''d had sex and remembered the two men from Planet Gemini," Brannon says.

The police investigation began right away. The woman was taken to the Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula and eventually administered a sexual assault examination. According to reports it showed no evidence of forced contact. Initial urine tests showed no illicit drugs, but because of her behavior she was administered an antidote for opiate overdoses, which, according to reports, prompted a response. That led authorities to believe initially she''d been drugged in some manner. The blood test seemed to show otherwise.

"The only thing that was in her system was alcohol," Brannon says.

However, it was a healthy dose of alcohol. The three Long Island Iced Teas-a notoriously strong drink-and Doe''s share of the quarter-jug of brandy left her with a .16 blood alcohol content (BAC) several hours after her last drink. In California, a level half that (a .08 BAC) qualifies a motorist for a drunk driving charge.

Clare Mounteer of the rape crisis center also points out that date rape drugs can leave the system in three to eight hours. "That''s the nature of some of these drugs. They can pass through your system pretty quick," she says.

Still, the DA''s office dropped charges after reviewing the evidence against Jane Doe''s story.

"She made a decision to check into this hotel," Brannon says. "She wanted to take them to a room. All three of them had sex."

The story related by Chubbs seemed to match the evidence.(Williams did not talk to the detectives, and neither man would be interviewed for this article.)

According to an investigator''s report, "[Chubbs] said after he had sex with her they sat on the bed and talked for a while and she told him about her family and that she had lived in Florida in the past."

The level of detail Chubbs was able to relate led investigators to believe he was not being evasive.

Chubbs'' attorney, Terrence McCleerey, says his client took a polygraph test as to whether the woman had been drugged or appeared drugged. He passed the test.

What is unknown is whether or not the accuser was conscious or in an alcoholic blackout. Sex with an incapacitated person is a crime whether they''re passed out from drugs or passed out drunk. Without the woman being able to recall what happened-and against the evidence that she appeared sober and able to buy alcohol and a motel room shortly before the alleged incident-the prosecutors felt they could not convince a jury a crime was committed.

"I can''t prove it," Brannon says. "I can only say she doesn''t remember."

Although the men were released from custody and charges were dismissed, public defender Juliet Peck wants her client exonerated from the stigma of being identified in the local media as a rape suspect.

"The charges are some of the most serious an individual can be accused of, and as it is now, for the rest of his life, any time an inquiry is made, he was accused of these serious crimes," Peck says.

Peck plans to file a motion for "a finding of factual innocence." She''s awaiting the police toxicology report and other information from the state before moving ahead.

"The bottom line is there was consensual sex and everybody knows it," Peck says.

In the aftermath of the dismissal, prosecutor Brannon says he considered charging the accuser with filing a false police report, but concluded it would be difficult to prove whether she was lying or really just could not remember.

But Clare Mounteer of the Rape Crisis Center remains unconvinced that the woman was not incapacitated, and points out that, if the woman had been very drunk during the acts, it''s still rape under California law.

"They couldn''t prove that she was unconscious," she says. "That''s the problem."

Mounteer says that drugs and/or alcohol are involved in 75 percent of rapes, either in use by the perpetrator, the victim or both. It makes the details in many cases fleeting and often changing.

She''s concerned that this dismissal will discourage rape survivors from reporting the crime if all the details are not certain. "Our fear is that this will make people reluctant to come forward," she says.

"Just because something can''t be proven in a court, doesn''t mean it didn''t happen or that the person isn''t traumatized," Mounteer says. "The lesson to be learned from all this is if you use drugs and/or alcohol, you heighten your risk of either being raped or being accused of it."