An assistant district attorney prosecuting the case of a Penn State student accused of raping another student at a fraternity withdrew his plea offer after talking with the alleged victim's family.

Shawn Cornelius, who was 20 years old at the time of the alleged incident, is accused of sexually assaulting a then 18-year-old woman at Kappa Alpha fraternity, 234 E. Beaver Ave., on Oct. 28, 2005, State College police said.

Cornelius is charged with rape, sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault.

Centre County District Attorney Steve Sloane said he made a plea offer to Cornelius early last month. Under the proposed agreement, Cornelius would have pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for indecent assault, and the rest of the charges would have been dropped, Sloane said.

Sloane said under the plea offer he would have asked for a sentence of 90 days in jail, although the defense could have applied for at-home detention or probation. If convicted of all the original charges, Cornelius could go to state prison for up to 10 years, Sloane said.

Last Monday, Joseph Amendola, Cornelius' lawyer, confirmed that the offer had been made and said he expected his client to make a decision yesterday, when jury selection was scheduled for the case.

However, Sloane said after consulting with the alleged victim's mother and father over the weekend and early yesterday morning, he decided to withdraw the plea offer.

Sloane said the alleged victim and her parents had decided that they were uncomfortable with any plea agreement and wanted the case to go to trial.

"If he did what he's charged with doing, [the reduced sentence] would be very hard for anyone to swallow," Sloane said.

Sloane said the alleged victim would rather take the chance of Cornelius being found not guilty at trial instead of voluntarily allowing the sentence to be "watered down."

"She doesn't want to be a part of him getting away with it," Sloane said.

According to court documents, the woman passed out on a bed at the fraternity after drinking there and at another party. She told police that when she woke up at different times during the night, Cornelius was performing oral sex on her and having sexual intercourse with her, according to the documents.

Amendola said Cornelius maintains that the sex was consensual.

He said the case is now scheduled for jury selection on June 4 and is preparing the case for trial and is contacting experts.

However, Sloane said Amendola had stated at an earlier hearing that he had a connection to the victim's family and would only continue to serve as Cornelius' lawyer if the case was resolved before trial.

Amendola confirmed that "that's accurate if there's a trial" but said there was still a possibility that the case could be resolved. He said he was not sure when he would make a decision about whether to continue with the case.