Posted on 03/17/2002 8:52:10 AM PST by Artie_Kay
BALDWIN, Pa. (March 17, 2002 12:36 p.m. EST) - Police said they will file charges against at least seven children, ages 8 to 12, for allegedly invading the apartment of two young women, groping them and stealing their food.
Paperwork will be filed Monday to schedule juvenile court hearings on charges including robbery, indecent assault, trespassing and conspiracy, said officials in the suburb of Pittsburgh.
"I've never seen anything in 20 years where you have a group of kids this young who would act up in this fashion to go into a house or an apartment and remove food and sexually assault the people living there," police Sgt. Dan Turner said.
Police were still investigating Sunday and said it was possible more children could be charged.
The children remain in their parents' custody.
The women, ages 18 and 21, said they opened their door Wednesday evening after hearing pebbles being thrown against their windows and a knock on the door.
Five boys surrounded the women, overpowering them and groping them, while two girls helped themselves to food in the refrigerator, police said. The women yelled for help and their boyfriends chased the children away.
The women were not seriously hurt, Police Chief Christopher Kelly said.
Kelly said that in addition to filing charges, police will seek to have the children's families evicted from the Green Meadows housing complex where the incident occurred.
Reports of drug abuse, vandalism, child neglect and unsupervised children are rampant at the 1,071-unit complex, police said.
"There's a lot of young kids around here, and when it's dark they think they can do whatever they want," said Nick Staab, 16, who has lived in the complex for four years. "The other night I was walking my dog and a group of little kids picked up chunks of brick and tried to beat me."
Borough officials said they've complained to the owner, Home Properties of Rochester, N.Y.
Nobody answered calls seeking comment at the company's headquarters on Sunday
It's like anything ---even with your own kids you see it ----people don't appreciate that which is handed to them, they take care of things better if they work to get them and pay for it with their own money.
Jesse wanted to go inside for some groping, but Al told him to wait outside so the children could have their chance.
Didn't they used to call this "wilding" anyway, isn't this sorta common?
6 children charged in attack on womenSaturday, March 16, 2002
By Cindi Lash and Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
Confronted by a horde of children that swarmed through their door and into their apartment, two Baldwin Borough women thought at first that they had become victims of a bizarre practical joke.
But within minutes, the roommates realized that the pack of children intended something more sinister. While some of the children ransacked the kitchen, police said, others surrounded, then overpowered and molested the women before the women's boyfriends could chase them back outside.
At least seven and possibly as many as 14 children, ages 8 to 12, are expected to be charged with robbery, indecent assault and possibly trespassing and conspiracy in the attack on the women Wednesday night at the Green Meadows apartment complex in Baldwin, police said.
Six children -- four boys and two girls -- were charged yesterday, and Baldwin Police Chief Christopher Kelly said police expect to file more charges after interviewing more children on Monday. Police also will seek to have the children's families evicted from the complex, Kelly said.
The victims, who are 18 and 21, shared an apartment at Green Meadows complex after recently moving here from out of state, Kelly said. They were not seriously hurt in the attack but plan to move elsewhere, he said.
The Post-Gazette does not identify victims of sexual assault. Kelly said the women did not know the children involved.
Police believe all of the children are residents of the privately-owned 55-acre apartment complex where up to 40 percent of the residents in the tidy, two-story, red brick apartment and townhouse units receive federal rent assistance.
In recent years the complex has been the scene of frequent violent arguments, escalating drug use, vandalism and problems with unsupervised children, police said. In the past year, police said, 40 percent of the calls for assistance they've handled have come from Green Meadows, even though complex residents make up about 10 percent of the borough's population.
"I'm certainly not surprised. There's a lot of young kids around here and when it's dark they think they can do whatever they want," said Nick Staab, 16, who was hanging with some friends yesterday evening outside the Uni-Mart convenience store on Knoedler Road in the racially mixed apartment complex they have ruefully dubbed "Green Ghettos."
"The other night I was walking my dog and a group of little kids picked up chunks of brick and tried to beat me," Staab, who has lived at the complex for four years, said. "The parents don't care what their kids do at night. I don't let my sister walk the dog alone at night."
Staab and his friends said many of the young children are outdoors in warm weather until midnight or later, cursing residents of the complex and misbehaving. Although there is a Baldwin police substation in one of the apartment buildings near the Uni-Mart, they said police make few patrols and drug use around the complex's basketball courts and park is common.
"That's scary," Penelope Pillette, 45, said when told about the assault. "I moved here a month ago from New Kensington, and thought it was quiet. This is not good."
The victims told police they were visiting with their boyfriends at 8:45 p.m. Wednesday when they heard children playing behind their apartment building, then heard pebbles hitting their rear windows, Kelly said.
The women "exchanged pleasantries" with the children through the window, then went back to their living room, Baldwin Juvenile Officer Tony Cortazzo said. Moments later, one of the women answered a knock at the door.
"The kids rushed in and ran all over the place," Kelly said. "At first, [the victims] thought it was a joke or a prank, but then the kids started raiding the refrigerator and taking things."
One of the women told police that children sat down on either side of her on the couch, then began fondling her. She said she tried to get away, but they held her down and kept groping her.
The women's boyfriends told police they tried to stop the children but couldn't corral them all while they ran around the apartment, yelling and snatching objects, Cortazzo said.
The other woman panicked and ran to a bedroom, followed by about five of the children, Kelly said. There, a young girl stood outside and tried to keep the door barricaded while others inside pinned the woman down, fondled and cursed at her and threatened to rape her, police said.
Eventually, the women and their boyfriends were able to fight off and chase the children out, the officers said. The women then drove to the Baldwin police station and reported the attack.
The children will remain in the custody of their parents because they are considered to be too young to be held at the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in East Liberty, Kelly said. Paperwork will be filed Monday to schedule their hearings in Allegheny County Juvenile Court.
"Given their young age, we have no option but to have them stay under parental supervision," Kelly said. "Although I have to question the effectiveness of that supervision when you hear that something like this happens."
The incident has shaken the police department's veteran officers, who over the years have investigated many sexual assaults and serious crimes but seldom have confronted suspects so young.
"We're still trying to figure out the motive behind these acts, what they were thinking," Cortazzo said. "Then maybe we can make a recommendation to juvenile court about what they need -- counseling or detention or treatment."
The children who were charged yesterday include an 8-year-old, three 9-year-olds, an 11-year-old and a 12-year old.
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Staff writer Jane Elizabeth contributed to this report.
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