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GREENSBORO Another delay has emerged in the process of charging or clearing three officers accused of sexually assaulting a fourth officer.

A recommendation on whether to pursue criminal charges against the three officers, on paid suspension since Dec. 18 , was expected Monday . But instead, District Attorney Doug Henderson encountered a further delay: Physical evidence in the case still awaits analysis at the State Bureau of Investigation .

Henderson on Monday asked the SBI to expedite its analysis, a request he expects will hasten the return of the agency's report from several months to a few weeks.

How long the analysis will take now depends on how many other expedited investigations the SBI is working on, but Henderson said results would likely come in a few weeks.

"When it will be done, Lord only knows, and we won't make a final decision until it is," Henderson said.

Neither Henderson nor police would say what evidence the SBI is analyzing.

Capt. Janice Rogers , commander of the police department's Criminal Investigation Division , said detectives sent the evidence to the SBI per their normal procedure after getting statements from all witnesses and according to the department's normal schedule for sending evidence to Raleigh .

"We could make special arrangements for one item," Rogers said. But that would not result in any faster analysis by the crime lab, she said.

Henderson said that although he first learned of the evidence Thursday , when he received the last of the documents he requested, he did not think the police department was responsible for any undue delay.

"It is not unusual for the investigation of an alleged sexual assault to take this much time or considerably more," Henderson said. "This has not been abnormally slow in its development, in my estimation."

On Dec. 18, a female police officer reported she was sexually assaulted by other officers after they picked her up near the Four Seasons Town Centre. The assault was reported to have happened between 11 p.m. Dec. 14 and 1 a.m. Dec. 15.

Sgt. A.S. Wallace, 43; officer J.O. LeGrand, 37; and officer C.S. Stevens, 42, members of the police department's Tactical Special Enforcement Team, have been suspended with pay since Dec. 18.

Greensboro police do not release the names of people who report being sexually assaulted. The News & Record does not identify people who claim to have been sexually assaulted unless they give their permission.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja. elmquist@news-record.com