'GMA' Exclusive: Women Bond and Battle After Alleged Sexual Assault

Aug. 18, 2009— -- Julie Stene and Monique Gillaspie live hundreds of miles apart, but say they are bound together by their shared nightmare: being allegedly raped by the same man. Now the women are drawing strength from each other and fighting for justice they say was never served.

Nine years ago, Stene, now 27-years-old, says she woke up in the passenger seat of her car too drunk to remember what had happened the night before at her raucous high school graduation party.

"When I woke up I was wearing someone else's shirt," Stene said, adding she was half naked and caked in mud. "I mean, obviously something had happened. I was in severe pain."

Stene, a popular former cheerleader, immediately went to the hospital and reported the incident to the police. Investigators found evidence, including DNA, that tied one of her classmates, Clyde Surrell, to the alleged attack.

Surrell, a star quarterback on his way to the University of Colorado on a scholarship, and one of his friends admitted they had sex with Stene that night but claimed it was consensual.

Yet the investigation stalled. Stene said that the attack and her father's death around the same time left her without the strength to press charges, and her case was dropped.

"I feel like I've been hiding ever since the rape happened," Stene told ABC News. "When things like this happen, it's made to feel that you're the one that did something wrong."

Stepping Out of the Shadows

But now, years later, Stene is ready to show her face and use her name, after learning about other alleged rapes that she believes she might have helped prevent.

In 2004, a scandal erupted at the University of Colorado, one of America's football dynasties. Nine alleged sexual assaults were blamed on the university's football team, two of them allegedly tied to Clyde Surrell.

"That same guy that attacked me has also ended up attacking other women," Stene said. She said she felt guilty. "I thought, if I would have gone through with this prosecution, maybe he wouldn't have been at CU," Stene said. "Maybe these women would not have been assaulted."

One of Surrell's alleged victims was Monique Gillaspie, a star soccer player on scholarship at Colorado University. Gillaspie's case, like Stene's, was not prosecuted, probably because Gillaspie did not report the alleged incident at the time nor did she go to the hospital for a rape kit.

When Stene asked Colorado prosecutors to reopen her case, they refused. Unwilling to back down, Stene took them to court and won an unprecedented ruling.

Last month, Colorado District Judge Carlos Samour Jr. ordered a special prosecutor to revisit Stene's decade-old case and possibly bring criminal charges against her alleged attackers.

"That's very unusual to go against the DA's office and to say 'you didn't do what you should have done,'" defense lawyer Lisa Wayne told ABC News. "I've never heard of it, I've never seen it," she said.

The same special prosecutor recently decided to reopen Gillaspie's case as well.

Surrell, now reportedly working as a physical trainer in the Denver area, has repeatedly denied the attacks and his attorney declined to comment for this story. Surrell has not been charged with either of the alleged rapes.

Colorado University said in a statement that since the allegations of sexual assault were made against members of the football team, it has "undertaken some of the most comprehensive reforms in American intercollegiate athletics."

Gillaspie said that Stene's fight to get her case reopened inspired her.

"It gave me the strength, it gave me the courage to just say, you know what, this is what happened to me, bottom line, it was wrong," Gillaspie told ABC News.

Stene's bold initiative sent a message to Gillaspie. "It gave me the strength, it gave me the courage to just say, you know what, this is what happened to me, bottom line, it was wrong," Gillaspie told ABC News.

Now the two women support each other in their fight for justice.

"Julie has helped me in numerous ways. Her voice alone makes me smile. She's very strong. She's amazing, really," said Gillaspie.

Although the women are pleased their cases are being reopened, they acknowledge that the road ahead will be tough.

"Fact is, it happened, it shouldn't have happened and it wasn't my fault," said Stene. "So bring it on. I know it's going to be hard, I know it is, but I've been waiting for nine years for this."