Posted on 03/15/2013 1:30:50 PM PDT by Politicalmom
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Across a remarkable couple of hours Thursday, JoAnn Gibb, a slight but tough-minded forensic specialist for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, sat on a witness stand in a small, third-floor courtroom here and read the contents of hundreds of teenage text messages – explicit and vulgar, at times celebratory and at other moments desperate and pathetically sad.
They were culled from the cell phones of 17 kids, seized in the investigation that led to two Steubenville High School football players being charged with the August 2012 rape of a 16-year-old West Virginia girl after a night of partying. It is one of the largest cell phone culls in the state's history, and the contents of those messages intensified the trial in this football-mad, aging steel town.
"It was an extraordinary level of evidence and detail," said Katie Hanna of the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Assault and a veteran observer of sexual assault cases. "I've never heard of anything like it."
Seventeen-year-old Trent Mays and 16-year-old Ma'lik Richmond are facing rape charges. Mays is accused of using his fingers to rape the girl, who many have testified to being drunk, in a moving car while another passenger filmed the action. Later, in the basement of a friend's house, prosecutors allege Richmond digitally raped the passed-out girl while Mays tried to force her to perform oral sex.
Both are charged as juveniles and could be sentenced to prison until age 21. Their closely watched joint trials began here Wednesday and should continue through the weekend. Each maintains his innocence.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
Madison, meanwhile, compared it to the longstanding tradition of young people laughing at friends who drink too much.
"She became the butt end of the joke because she was the drunkest," he argued.
It was a potentially fair bit of perspective until prosecutor Hemmeter quickly jumped to a one-question redirect of Pizzoferrato, pouncing on the chance to blow up the "she-wasn't-all-that-drunk-after-all" defense strategy.
"Mr. Madison asserted you always make fun of the drunkest person in the room," Hemmeter said. "Was [the girl] the drunkest person in the room?"
"Yes," Pizzoferrato said.
"No more questions, your honor," Hemmeter concluded.
Why are they being tried as juveniles? It is ridiculous!
Reading the sports section these days is almost like reading the FBI most wanted list in the post office.
Juveniles? They can’t hurt the football team with this kind of thing, can they? Spring practice starts in a few weeks. These upstanding young men have to ready themselves for spring practice! /s
Where were the parents?
Who lets their kids go to these kin ds of parties?
I can't understand these males but why females don't bother to protect each other is just beyond me..
I tried for so long to try to avoid hearing/reading anything about this. On Wednesday, it became inescapable to me. I saw a video, in a news story, of this jackass Michael Nodianos, referencing her as the dead girl: “Dude, she is so dead, she’s deader than OJ’s wife. She’s deader than Caylee Anthony.” He laughs and so does the jerk filming him. In that same video, he says that the victim is more raped than the Duke Lacrosse girl.
My heart goes out to Colin Finnerty, Dave Evans and Reid Seligmann all over again. They didn’t rape anybody, and Seligmann wasn’t even on the premises. But he was nifonged by a rogue prosecutor, and here, these jerks are only going to get 3-4 years. There were so many of them, and not a decent one in the bunch except for Sean McGhee, who wasn’t even in the bunch, per se.
Sickening! I don’t rightly know what I would do if Trent Mays were my son. Dumb, vile and ignorant as he is, would it be worth it to me to put my money up to buy him a defense? I think I would just let the chips fall where they may and make his way with a defense attorney that he himself could pay for. I want to believe that I would wash my hands of him.
Apparently, one of the girls there offered her a ride away from there. She vehemently said no, but then the question becomes, why didn’t any of the girls notify their parents, the girl’s parents, any adult or a law enforcement official?
Stunning, just stunning...
Dare I link the coarsening of our kids to stuff they see on TV and in the movies, sports figures who are idolized by many and have no manners in public, or even a President of the United States who messed around with an intern, was defended by saying it’s only his sex life, even by his own wife???
But we’re told we need to have more “liberty” in our social life...yeah.
I think I read when this first occured,that they didnt even charge the boys till after football season was over.Didnt want to hurt the season or the boys possible college scolarships.Anyone know if this was true?
One of her friends went to get her stuff so she could take the girl home, but the boys had taken her away when she got back outside.
I’m not sure of the exact timeline, but I do know that some were playing and were allowed to an attend awards dinner after being “suspended”.
Didn’t you always bring home color flyers of previews of the parties you were going to, so your parents could decide if you could go?
Kids have been lying to parents about the weekend agenda, for at least 100 years.
Goes all the way up to the NFL!!!!
“closely watched joint trials”
hmmm....more serious that first reported.
I have never liked parties so I wouldn’t know. I also have never seen a flyer for a party.
If I had kids, I would tell them when they are old enough to have sex, they have to move out.
Of course. They are impressionable and they see it on TV and in the movies and think it must be okay. It must be okay, it seems to be okay for those young people on TV and movies to do.
They probably also do not get any opposing views from parents.
Plus, they watch hours and hours of TV and then they get the leftwing view at school and from friends. Do you really think one or two minute talks from a parent will be able to counter all that influence?
Of course you haven’t seen flyers for parties.
That’s my point, the parents have no idea about “parties like that”, because the kids are spontaneous, and always on the lookout for the home where parents aren’t there.
Since the kids aren’t going to acknowledge they are having sex or contemplating sex, you’d be throwing them out at about age 14.
“Who lets their kids go to these kinds of parties...”
Sadly.. high school parties have changed DRAMATICALLY since when we were that age. Did we have drinking? At some and some snuck some in but not to the extent that high school parties consume the stuff now. Plus, there is always some other drugs. My high school kid has been asked to about forty or fifty parties since Freshman year... I finally asked him, “You don’t want to go?” (I was thinking that today’s parties are the benign ones of yesteryear). He said, “Mom, YOU don’t know what goes on at these parties”. He then explained how much sex occurred, how much drinking/drugs, and even girls “doing” multiple guys. Yes... much of the sexual contact/drunk behavior is captured via cell phones. So, he has chosen NOT to go (thank the Lord) and I’ve told my almost 13 year old daughter that it will be a cold day in hades before she EVER goes to a high school party.
Been following closely since early in the year. Looks like the defendants are in serious trouble in the trial.
Don’t forget that “date” and “prom” also means sex now
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.