Images and messages posted to social media that appear to depict
the sexual abuse of a girl in Steubenville, Ohio, have been taken out of
context, the attorney for one of the teenagers charged in the incident said
Friday. "One of the main concerns we have is that this matter has been, by
special interest groups all over the world, tried in the court of public
opinion," said Walter Madison, the attorney for defendant Ma'lik
Richardson. Richardson and another 16-year-old member of the town's highly
regarded football team, Trent Mays, are charged with raping the girl at a
series of back-to-school parties in August. Mays also is charged with
"illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material." Although the
teenagers are juveniles, CNN is identifying them because they have been
publicly named by a juvenile court judge, by defense attorneys and in media
accounts. CNN is not identifying the girl, who also is a juvenile, in
accordance with its policy not to release the names of alleged rape victims. Special
prosecutors from the state attorney general's office allege the teens
repeatedly sexually assaulted the girl while she was unconscious.
The case gained national attention after The New York Times
reported on it in December and an activist hacker group this week posted a
previously unpublicized video of teenagers in the small Ohio River valley town
cracking jokes about the case. The controversy has shaken the city, with some
residents accusing outsiders of trying to ruin the reputation of the town's
high school football team, one of the few bright spots in the economically
depressed community of 18,000.
Early hearings in criminal cases often hinge on the prosecution
showing it has sufficient evidence for the case to go forward, not to prove a
defendant's innocence.
Madison said more information will come out at trial, which is
scheduled for February 13.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, whose office is investigating
and prosecuting the case, declined Friday on "Starting Point" to say
if anyone else could be charged in the case.
But, he said, investigators are continuing to follow leads.
On Thursday, the police chief who initially investigated the case
before the Jefferson County prosecutor asked state officials to step in said
he's puzzled why no one intervened in the alleged assault. "Why didn't
somebody stop it?" Steubenville police Chief William McCafferty said.
"You simply don't do that. ... It's not done."
The case has attracted the attention of bloggers and even
Anonymous, a loosely organized cooperative of activist hackers. Anonymous has
released information about the town and the football team, and is threatening
to release more unless everyone comes clean about what happened that August
night.
"The town of Steubenville has been good at keeping this quiet
and their star football team protected," an Anonymous member wearing the
group's trademark Guy Fawkes mask says in a video posted to the group's LocalLeaks website.The
organization, he says, will not allow "a group of young men who turn to
rape as a game or sport get the pass because of athletic ability or small-town
luck."
The girl was assaulted the night of Saturday, August 11, and early
the next morning, according to authorities.
Police got involved on August 14, when the girl's mother reported
the alleged assault, according to McCafferty, the police chief. The family
provided a zip drive showing a Twitter page, possibly with a photo, the chief
told CNN. A kidnapping charge was dropped by the juvenile court judge at a
probable cause hearing last October, said McCafferty and Adam Nemann, who is
Mays' attorney.
I don’t think that everyone has all their “cookies”.
The whole thing seems very suspicious to me. You shouldn’t protect some guys
who decided to gang-rape a girl. That’s just plain wrong. Why in the bloody
hell would you go rape a girl, that you know, and then let all your friends do
it too. This just sickens me.
No comments:
Post a Comment