Ohio school rape trial closing, verdict Sunday
Updated 10:39 PM ET
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio The accuser in the rape trial of two Ohio high school football players testified Saturday as the trial neared an end that she recalled drinking at a party last summer but could not remember what had happened when she awoke the next day naked in a strange house.
Testimony in the four-day nonjury trial against Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond ended after the judge heard from the 16-old West Virginia girl and others in the juvenile court case. Judge Thomas Lipps said he would announce a decision Sunday.
If found delinquent — the juvenile court equivalent of guilty — the two defendants could be held in juvenile jail until they turn 21, when they would be released.
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Mays, 17, and Richmond, 16, are charged with digitally penetrating the girl, first in a car and then in the basement of a house, while out partying Aug. 12. Mays also is charged with illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material. They maintain their innocence.
The case has riveted the small city of Steubenville amid allegations that more students should have been charged and led to questions about the influence of the local football team, a source of pride in a community that suffered massive job losses with the collapse of the steel industry.
The allegations were huge locally for weeks, then became the focus of Internet attention in the fall after hacker activists and bloggers began publishing the names of other students. Attention peaked again after a 12-minute YouTube video resurfaced in January in which a student jokes about the girl, calling her "dead" and making numerous off-color remarks.
On the stand Saturday, the girl said she remembers drinking at the party, leaving the party holding hands with Mays, then throwing up later. The next thing she remembers is waking up with no clothes on in a strange house, she said. She said she felt scared and embarrassed. Her phone, earrings, shoes, and underwear were missing, she testified.
"It was really scary," she said. "I honestly did not know what to think because I could not remember anything."
She recalled being in a car later with Mays and Richmond and asking them what happened.
"They kept telling me I was a hassle and they took care of me," she testified. "I thought I could trust him (Mays) until I saw the pictures and video."
She said she believed she was assaulted when she later read text messages among friends and saw a photo of herself that night, and the YouTube video. She said she suspected she had been drugged because she couldn't explain being as intoxicated as defense witnesses have said she was.
The girl testified in a quiet, sometimes hesitant voice, and broke down only once: when prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter showed her a second photo of herself naked that the girl had never seen.
Richmond observed the girl carefully as she spoke while Mays, as he often had during the trial, fidgeted, not appearing to focus on any one thing in the courtroom.
Prosecutors told the judge in closing arguments that the evidence was overwhelming. Hemmeter said that includes the girl's admission of being drunk that night.
"The thing that made her an imperfect witness, that she didn't remember anything, made her a perfect victim," Hemmeter said.
Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors hadn't proven guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
"The reality is, she drank, she has a reputation for telling lies," said Walter Madison, representing Richmond. "When she wakes up and finds out kids have submitted a photo of her on the Internet, she has two choices: saying, `Yeah, that's me,' or, `I was having an alcoholic impairment."'
Earlier Saturday, defense attorneys went after the accuser's character, calling two former friends of hers to the stand. They testified that the girl had a history of drinking heavily and was known to lie about things.
West Virginia high school student Kelsey Weaver said the accuser told her what happened two days after the alleged attack then, sometime afterward, told Weaver she couldn't remember what happened.
"So two different versions?" asked Mays' attorney Adam Nemann.
"Yes," Weaver replied.
Earlier, Weaver testified that the accuser was flirting at the party with Richmond.
Both Weaver and schoolmate Gianna Anile testified they were angry at the accuser because she was drinking heavily at the party and rolling around on the floor. They said they tried unsuccessfully to get her to stop drinking.
Anile said she also tried to get her friend to stay at the party rather than leave with others, including the two defendants.
"When I told her not to leave, I was trying to, like, pull her back into the party. She was trying to shrug me off," Anile testified. "She kind of hit me."
The day after the party, when Anile and another friend picked up the accuser from the house where she'd stayed, the accuser said she had no memory of the night before, Anile testified.
"'We didn't have sex, I swear,"' Anile said, describing the accuser's comment.
The accuser said in her later testimony that she does not remember making that statement, nor being photographed as she was carried by Mays and Richmond, an image that stirred up the community as it spread on social media sites. Others have testified the photo was a joke and the girl was conscious when it was taken.
Testimony Friday from three teenage boys granted immunity incriminated the defendants.
Mark Cole, Evan Westlake and Anthony Craig said the West Virginia girl was drunk and didn't seem to know what was happening to her that night. They said she was digitally penetrated in a car and later on a basement floor.
Cole testified that he took a video of Mays and the girl in the car, then deleted it later that morning. He testified he saw Mays unsuccessfully try to have the girl perform oral sex on him in the basement of Cole's house.
Westlake testified he saw Richmond's encounter with the girl in the basement, as did Craig. Westlake also confirmed that he filmed the 12-minute YouTube video, later passed around widely online, in which another student joked about the attack.
Craig testified that he saw Richmond's hand in the "crotch region" of the girl, a less descriptive version than he gave last fall in another hearing.
If convicted, Mays and Richmond could be held in a juvenile jail until they turn 21.
The Associated Press normally doesn't identify minors charged in juvenile court, but Mays and Richmond have been widely identified in news coverage, and their names have been used in open court. The AP also does not generally identify people who say they were victims of sex crimes.
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"I think that if rape is inevitable, relax & enjoy it" said Bobby Knight,
It is not this kind of attitude allowing athletes to think rape is all right?
He is a well respected Division I coach, a high paid analyst for ESPN,
And his commercials for Applebee's, with this attitude will it ever end?
Lawrence Taylor, a Hall of Fame Linebacker with a Super Bowl win,
Acquitted of the charge rape of an underage girl ok, here we go again,
Thousands of people sign a petition regarding news coverage by CNN,
Focusing on damaged lives of football players, is this where it begins?
9 state titles this Steubenville sports franchise puts the city on the map,
When this gross imposition happened last summer not even a wrist slap,
Attorney General Mike DeWine launches a probe via the Grand Jury,
A coaching staff fully aware is where citizens should address their fury.
"The promising futures" of the two convicted teens was injustice for sure,
Not enough emphasis on the 16 year old female who's forced to endure,
The video with these guys carrying her was accompanied amid laughter,
Therefore, they were not the only ones who deemed this, not a disaster.
A petition posted to Change.org was signed by over 30 thousand strong,
But, was the coverage by CNN and other news outlets criminally wrong?
If this act happened within the confines of a Spanish club or debating team,
Would any media outlet be consumed with the future of anybody's dreams?
It is reality, OJ beat Nicole unrecognizable before putting her 6 feet under dirt,
While the judge gave the, "Juice" a break to keep doing commercials for Hertz,
Is Steubenville isolated, not by a long shot & only because of cell phone videos,
Without posting on the social, "You Tube" would anybody really care or know?
A guilty verdict on Sunday 3/17/13 was only on the books for one single day,
When a Monday, "Tweet" had death threats to the victim delivered her way,
2 teen girls younger than her, related to the players vented frustration via hate,
The County Sheriff's Department took immediate action before it was too late.
Whereas, the rumors are flying faster than a 60 yard spiral touchdown pass,
About the victim's character pursuant to prior behavior and her lack of class,
Whether true or false is it pertinent to the lack of cooperation from day one?
So, where were the parent's of the daughter, likewise parents of the sons?
Is this behavior indicative of the TV series Friday Night Lights, take a look,
Coaches, parents, athletes, cheer leaders opened more booze than books,
Underage intoxication is a national trend and getting worse, what's the deal?
Thinking about Manti Te'o's girlfriend you cannot assault something not real.
Somewhere in life shouldn't responsibility intervene against alcohol and drugs,
As all involved were juveniles, mom & dad it takes more than kisses & hugs,
It was not until the guilty verdict was announced did anyone show remorse,
Incident in Steubenville, Ohio was it, "Innocence Lost or Par for the Course?"
You constantly post comments that invited gang rape by justifying it on females that don't fit your ideals of morality. It really si a sickness and I urge you to find help.
So, find your balls and tell me straight how you are not different from the Taliban and those disgusting pigs in Pakistan that advocate gang rape as a punishment for immoral females?
STILL NO REPLY? You boys are no men. Too damn afraid to answer.
So BLUDAPFEL have you found someone to play with your rectum yet? Was it really no big deal?
The world is going to come to and end because of that.
If they had both penetrated her with their members and had *** inside her, then, left her for dead on the side of the road with broken bones and a black eye then that might be rape - but only then if she said "No."
Putting fingers inside? That's foreplay. I guess "rape" happens billions of times every day then.
----------------------
I think you too need therapy. You need to get yourself to a sex offender program for rehabilitation.
Perhaps you need to understand that females have a different mentality or relationship to their bodies than males. Imagine someone playing with their fingers INSIDE of your rectum. I highly doubt that you would view that as no big deal. In fact, why don't you prove that theory of your's a get some guy to play with your rectum and then come back to us.