The three men accused of raping and dumping LSU cheerleader Madison Brooks launch last-ditch bids ahead of next week's trial... after trying to ban family from wearing PINK in court

By RUTH STYLES, US SENIOR REPORTER Published: 13:36, 13 August 2026 | Updated: 13:37, 13 August 2026 The men accused of raping and dumping LSU cheerleader Madison Brooks have employed multiple legal wheezes in a bid to get off the hook ahead of trial, the Daily Mail can reveal. Casen Carver, 22, Desmond Carter, 21, and Kaivon Washington, also 21, are all facing a slew of rape charges over the January 2023 horror attack that ended with 19-year-old Madison being dumped on the side of a busy four-lane highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Carter's trial begins on Monday while Carver, who is charged with video voyeurism and first and third-degree rape, will face a jury on November 30. Tragic teen Madison was subsequently hit by an Uber driver unable to see her slumped in the road in pitch darkness and later died of her injuries in hospital. Now, with Carter's trial due to begin Monday, the Daily Mail can reveal the lengths all three men have gone to to stay out of court, with Carter's legal team even attempting to ban Madison's grieving family from wearing her favorite color to the trial. The 21-year-old's legal team had argued that the family dressing in pink constituted a threat directed at the jury and would violate his right to a fair trial. But furious prosecutor Sonya Cardia-Porter hit back, calling the move an 'absurd exaggeration' and 'unpersuasive' and noted that Madison's family are 'silent, passive spectators'. Last week, Judge Gail Ray ruled the family would be allowed to wear pink during next week's proceedings but banned photographs of the 19-year-old from being worn on t-shirts. Madison Brooks, 19, was fatally struck by a car after she was allegedly sexually assaulted in the back of a car by several men after a night out near Louisiana State University's campus in January 2023 Kaivon Washington, 21, Casen Carver, 22, and Desmond Carter, 21, are all facing rape charges. Carter's trial is set to begin August 17,  while Carver's has been pushed to November. A trial date for Washington is yet to be set The move is just one of a multitude of wheezes the defense teams have used to get off the hook and, despite the trial being imminent, have filed a motion trying to dismiss Carter's first-degree rape charge and try him only on a second charge of third-degree rape, claiming the two are the same and would thus cause him to face double jeopardy. Co-defendant Carver's trial has already been pushed back until November after the prosecution made repeated attempts to boot Judge Ray off the case after Carver was caught sending texts telling his father 'she (Ray) knows how to help us' after discovering her son is a convicted rapist. Ray's 46-year-old son Nelson Taylor was convicted in 1997 of multiple counts of rape and burglary involving teenage girls. Carver was also involved in another egregious legal maneuver when he attempted to sue Madison's mother Ashley Baustert for defamation over an interview she gave to veteran broadcaster Nancy Grace in 2024. The 22-year-old sued along with Washington's uncle Everett Lee, 32, who was also in the car on the night of Madison's death, although the rape charges against him were dismissed without prejudice by a Louisiana Grand Jury. According to Carver and Lee, Baustert defamed them by implying the pair are rapists in a July 2023 Fox Nation special program called 'Left For Dead: The Case of Madison Brooks'. Baustert had said when asked if she'd been to any hearings in the case: 'It's just too hard. I know what they're going to say. It's… 'Of course, they're going to say what they're going to say. They're going to victim blame and act like this was a consensual act. We all know it wasn't. It's very hurtful to listen to it.' A 29-second clip from the night of her death shows Madi appearing to tell the Desmond Carter, then 17, to 'get out' of the car so she can 'Uber on her own' Other footage released by authorities shows the student running after the group of men on the night she died The case was later thrown out by New Orleans judge Carl J Barbier. Madison's family are now planning to attend the trials of Carter, Carver and Washington – for whom a trial date is yet to be set. In an interview with the Daily Mail last week, Baustert said she believed it was her 'duty' to be in court for the legal proceedings. She said: 'My immediate family plan to attend every day of the trial. It's going to be hard, especially because I have two other children at home. 'Separating those feelings and then coming home and being a mom is going to be a challenge. 'Honestly, I don't know how I prepare. I'm just going to take it moment by moment, day by day.  'If I need to leave the courtroom, I'll quietly excuse myself. But I'm going to try my best to be there. I feel it's my duty to be there for her.' Madison died in January 2023 after meeting the four men in Reggie's Bar – a popular student hangout that has since been shut down. Louisiana born and raised, the sassy and adventurous cheerleader intended to major in communications Brooks's mother Ashley Baustert, will come face to face with one of the three men accused of attacking her daughter on August 17 The men had offered to give Madison a lift home after she lost her phone and friends, with surveillance footage showing the quintet leaving the bar in which the LSU student appears visibly drunk. Troubling video filmed by Carver and included in the prosecution case shows the now 22-year-old laughing and telling the camera: 'These guys are crazy! They finna [fixing to] rape her.' Prosecutors claim Madison's muffled voice can be heard above blaring music yelling: 'Get off!' And, they say, the men then dropped her off on Burbank Drive, alone in the dark at 3am, where she was hit by an Uber that killed her.