Report: Cash witnessed Strohmeyer attack

Two of Cash's schoolmates say he told them that he saw Strohmeyer molest Sherrice Iverson. They reported the stories to authorities, the newspaper reported.

The accounts of the schoolmates may intensify campaigns to have Cash criminally charged and thrown out of University of California, Berkeley, where he is studying nuclear engineering. But prosecutors in Strohmeyer's case said it will do nothing to put Cash behind bars.

"It doesn't really change things -- it's not against the law to see a crime occur and not report it," said Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell. "Cash should have taken some action and had he, this little girl might be alive -- but not taking action is a moral transgression that is not against the criminal laws of the state of Nevada."

Several Nevada lawyers, however, said Bell could have prosecuted Cash for perjury because his account to the grand jury did not mention that he saw a sexual assault.

They also suggested that Cash could be charged as an accessory after the fact -- the crime of knowing a felony offense has been committed and helping the perpetrator avoid arrest or trial. Punishment ranges from one to five years.

"If Cash saw the sexual assault and lied about that, hid that knowledge, that would interfere with the state's ability to prosecute," said JoNell Thomas, a criminal defense attorney and board member of Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice.

Cash also told police that he urged students at school to remain silent about the surveillance video being shown on the news. The video showed Strohmeyer playing with Sherrice and then following her into the bathroom.

The fact that Cash urged anyone to keep silent provides more grounds for a charge, Thomas said.

Mace Yampolsky, a Las Vegas criminal defense attorney, said he believes Bell is interpreting the law rigidly because he cut an informal deal with Cash in exchange for his testimony, an assertion that Bell denies.

Cash has been the subject of widespread moral outrage for not going to police after Strohmeyer told him that he killed the child last spring when the two were high school seniors living in Long Beach.

Strohmeyer, who had faced a possible death penalty, will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. He pleaded guilty on Sept. 8.

Cash has said that he saw Strohmeyer carry the struggling girl into a bathroom at the Primadonna Resort & Casino near the California border, but left before his friend sexually assaulted and killed her.

But two of Cash's peers told police that Cash told them he witnessed the sexual assault.

Cash's attorney, Mark Werksman, said he hasn't seen the statements but Cash's legal liability remains unchanged.

"David doesn't bear any criminal liability for what happened," he said.

Jeremy Phillips, who lived in a Long Beach apartment with Cash for the summer, said he went to Nevada authorities last month in fear that Cash would lie about the incident during Strohmeyer's murder trial, according to an 83-page transcript of an interview with a Clark County district attorney's investigator.

Another fellow student, Justin Ware, said Cash told him that he watched Strohmeyer sexually assault Sherrice with his fingers in the restroom. Both Ware and Phillips said they were disturbed by Cash's inaction.

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