ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Prosecutors dropped all 25 felony charges in their rape case against Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Darrell Russell on Thursday, saying they couldn't prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Russell, 26, had been charged with drugging a 28-year-old woman with the "date-rape drug'' GHB at a San Francisco night club early this year, and then recording her alleged rape by two of his friends. The alleged assault took place at the home of one of Russell's teammates on Jan. 31.

Russell, a former No. 2 overall selection in the NFL draft, was charged as an accomplice -- under California law, he could have been found guilty of crimes committed by either of his two friends if he did not intervene.

But prosecutors said Thursday it was their duty now to drop the charges -- not because they think Russell is innocent, but because they believe a jury would not convict him.

"I think that what we're doing is the right thing to do,'' Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Murphy said outside court. "It's not an easy thing to do.''

Judge Jeffrey Allen granted Murphy's request during a brief court hearing.

Murphy would not elaborate on why, after putting the alleged victim on the stand and pressing the case, prosecutors decided to drop it. He said there was no new or exculpatory evidence -- it was more prosecutors' assessment that their case wouldn't play before a jury.

Russell said outside court that was the just decision because he is innocent. He thanked prosecutors, said he was relieved and said he thought the case had not hurt his chances of returning to football.

Russell, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, is serving a one-year NFL suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy.

Russell's lawyers tried during a preliminary hearing earlier this year to cast the alleged victim as a groupie out for cash. Russell said Thursday he has become paranoid because of people who are willing to lie "so that their pot is as big as mine.''

"I'm a very trusting person and I just realized you can't trust everybody,'' Russell said, adding he wants to go through life "without having my heart turn black, unless it's bleeding silver, of course.''

Those are the Raiders' colors.

On the 21-minute videotape, which was shown in court during the preliminary hearing, the camera focused on the woman and Russell's two friends in a darkened bedroom strewn with debris.

The woman testified that she was feeling fine that night until Russell mixed a cocktail -- orange vodka, with orange and cranberry juices -- at Harry Denton's Starlight Room. She said soon after she blacked out and remembers little, except visions of "the red light, the camera, and somebody on top of me.''

The woman, who has said she was dating Russell and two other men at the time -- including Seattle Mariners pitcher Freddy Garcia -- testified she did not remember giving consent.

In an interview taped Feb. 1, Russell told police the woman could have been drugged, but added he couldn't envision how someone might have had a chance to spike her drink. He said the woman twice consented verbally to group sex -- once in the back seat of his Range Rover during the ride back to Alameda, and again before Russell produced his two friends.

All charges also were dropped against the friends -- Na'eem Perry, 25, and Ali Hayes, 27.

Courtroom action began in June but was delayed several times. The case was scheduled to resume several weeks ago but was again delayed after Russell's arrest last month in Nevada on suspicion of drunken driving and speeding.