A former university student accused of lying about being raped by two university football players is seeking to have the charges against her dismissed.
Nikki Yovino filed an application in court Friday saying she’s suffering from a psychiatric disability, the Connecticut Post reports.
The 19-year-old from South Setauket, New York, will undergo a psychological evaluation. A judge will decide whether she qualifies for a pretrial diversionary program. If she qualifies and completes that program she could have the charges dismissed.
Prosecutors say they’ll contest Yovino’s request. They previously offered her a plea deal with a two-year prison sentence.
Yovino accused two football players at Sacred Heart University – which she also attended  –  of sexually assaulting her during an October party.

Authorities allege Yovino lied because she was worried another student would lose romantic interest in her when it became known she had sex with the two players.
Her eventual recant came amidst a backdrop of insistence that she was the victim of a gang rape. As late as last month her lawyer said stood by her account that the two players from the university in Fairfield sexually assaulted her in a bathroom during an off-campus party.
In the face of Yovino’s about-face and pleas for leniency, Agustin Sevillano, the lawyer for the now-former football players, who are not being identified, described the ordeal his clients went through as a result of Yovino’s [false] rape allegations.
They athletes were scheduled for a school disciplinary hearing but, on the advice of legal counsel, opted instead to withdraw from the university rather than face the chance of being expelled and having that on their records.
In addition to the life long stigma of being branded rapists, one of his clients lost a football scholarship, Sevillano said.
Yovino, who also left Sacred Heart, is charged with second-degree falsely reporting an incident and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
The tampering charge is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
On Oct. 15, 2016 police were dispatched to St. Vincent’s Medical Center for a sexual assault complaint.
Police said a student, later identified as Nikki Yovino told them she had attended a Sacred Heart football club party the night before at a house at Lakeside Drive.
Police said the girl claimed the two men pulled her into a bathroom in the basement of the house.
“I don’t want to be in here, I don’t want to do anything. My friends are waiting for me outside, let me go outside,” police said she claims she told the men.
Police said she claimed the men held her down and each took a turn sexually
assaulting her.
Both men admitted having sex with Yovino in the bathroom, but said it was consensual, police said.
Det. Walberto Cotto Jr. later questioned Yovino again after others students told them it appeared Yovino had gone willingly into the bathroom with the men.
One student said he had overheard Yovino telling the men she wanted to have sex with them, the arrest affidavit states.
“She admitted that she made up the allegation of sexual assault against the football players because it was the first thing that came to mind and she didn’t want to lose (another male student) as a friend and potential boyfriend.
She stated that she believed when [the other male student] heard the allegation it would make him angry and sympathetic to her,” the affidavit states.