October 30, 2009 8:43 AM

Will Richmond High Gang Rape Gawkers Go Free?

By
Ryan Smith
Topics
Daily Blotter
(AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Photo: The picnic area at Richmond High School in Richmond, Calif. where police said a 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped and beaten.

RICHMOND, Calif. (CBS/AP) For two hours they watched the alleged gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside her high school homecoming dance.

They pointed. They laughed. They took pictures, say investigators.

But no one among the approximately two dozen gawkers called the police.

Now it is looking like they might not face any criminal responsibility, even after four teens, so far, face up to life in prison for the rape.

It is a crime in California to fail to report a crime against a child, according to the state's 1999 Sherrice Iverson Child Victim Protection Act.

But the bill only applies to victims who are 14 or younger.

The victim in the Richmond gang rape case is 15.

Dara Cashman, head of the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office sex crimes unit, said all is not lost and told the Contra Costa Times, a Bay area newspaper, that those who witnessed the alleged rape and did not report it could face aiding and abetting charges, if it can be proven that their actions facilitated or goaded the perpetrator.

It is not clear if those charges are being considered in this case.

It was not until a former student, who heard two males bragging about the attack, that police received a tip on the case. Officers found the victim semiconscious and naked from the waist down near a picnic table on the Richmond High School campus.

(AP Images)
Police cars sit parked outside Richmond High School on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009, in Richmond, Calif.

Margarita Vargas, who was watching television Saturday night with others at her home two blocks from the school campus, told a newspaper that she reported the assault as soon as she heard about it. The newspaper did not say whether Vargas was a student at the school.

"They think it's cool," Vargas said of those gathered at the alleged rape. "They weren't raised to respect girls."

Police Lieutenant Mark Gagan said that a "mob mentality" had taken over the night of the dance and that it only became worse as students spread the news, over time, that "rape was going on."

"More people came to see, and some actually participated."

When individuals do not offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present, law enforcement term the non-action the "bystander effect" or "Genovese syndrome."

Kitty Genovese was a 24-year-old New Yorker, who, after finishing the late shift at a Queens bar in 1964, was randomly attacked while walking home.

A subsequent report in The New York Times laid out the story of 38 witnesses, many portrayed as watching the homicide from front row seats in their high-rise apartments as Genovese cried in vain for her life.

"For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens," The Times article began. ".... Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead."

A recent investigation by ABC News of the old case suggests that very few of the thirty-eight actually witnessed the crime. And a group of neighbors actually helped to finally catch the assailant.

There's no word yet if heroes will emerge from this case. Details of the witnesses in the Richmond California gang rape case are still unclear.

"I still cannot get my head around the fact that numerous people either watched, walked away or participated in her assault," police Lt. Gagan said.

"This just gets worse and worse the more you dig into it."

Police hope a $20,000 reward will bring more people forward with information.

MORE ON CRMESIDER
October 29, 2009 - Richmond High School Gang-Rape: 4 Teens Charged Could Face Life in Prison
October 28, 2009 - Richmond High School Gang Rape: Three More Arrests in Homecoming Attack
October 27, 2009 - Richmond High School Gang-Rape in California: Others Watched and Did Nothing, Say Cops

More at CBS Affiliate CBS 5

Add a Comment See all 46 Comments
by dabows48 January 20, 2010 6:58 AM EST
it is a shame that most people are so upset with these people. Whenall you have to do is pray and ask god, to help these people get the justice they deserve, and watch the results of them and their loved ones because the law didn't step in.
Reply to this comment
by peregrinne November 7, 2009 4:46 PM EST
Expulsion isn't enough for what that pack of jackals did to that girl. Community service isn't enough, because it teaches them nothing. Becoming a jailhouse Bubba's newest piece might give them some inkling of what they did, though. The lot of them should also go through some intensive psychological evaluation and counseling at the very least. And I include the so-called "witnesses" in that. They're just as sick as the SOBs who perpetrated the phsyical part of the crime, because they enjoyed the rape and beating into semi-consciouness of a young girl the way a normal person might enjoy a free concert. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who could find entertainment in such a hideous act of wanton brutality is someone capable of doing it themselves.
Reply to this comment
by kilchis November 7, 2009 5:51 PM EST
Your rage is deeper than this incident,get help.We have due process in this country,it's the right of every angel and every scumbag,it ain't perfect but the best humanly possible.Focus on copassion for this poor girl and her healing.
by Jack_Norris August 13, 2010 2:10 PM EDT
kilchis, if you think that rage is "deeper than this incident", you obviously have never really thought over all the details of the incident, the trauma piled on TOP of the trauma. YOU need to get help, you are on the wrong side supporting absolute soulless tyrants, as demonstrated by what they did.
by imperfect001 November 5, 2009 2:20 PM EST
If I ever saw any of these people on the street, and knew who they were, I would slaughter them brutally and mercilessly then and there with my bare hands, and paint the street with their gore
Reply to this comment
by Jack_Norris August 13, 2010 2:11 PM EDT
I hear you brother. Some things are unforgivable. They didn't forgive Kramer for using the bad word he used, so why would they forgive this?
by sean7phil November 5, 2009 1:47 PM EST
It was aiding and abetting. The rape could never have occurred if these people had called the police. Charge every single one of them. I am so sick of people who just stand around and do nothing when someone else is being abused.

They contributed to what happened by doing nothing.
Reply to this comment
by BLThurlow November 4, 2009 3:16 PM EST
I know other before me have already said this, but I am shocked and horrified that the people who came and watched this sickening crime for their own perverse "entertainment" are being defined as "witnesses". That is not my definition of "witness". These people were participants, and should all be charged as such.

A man who sits in his basement looking at child pornography can be charged with a crime if it's found in his possession, but people standing around watching the gang rape and brutal beating of a 15 year old, even taking pics...they are just "witnsses"? Wrong. This should not even require a re-writing of the law...it just needs to be interpreted by someone with an ounce of common sense.
Reply to this comment
by Jack_Norris August 13, 2010 2:13 PM EDT
EXACTLY yes, I think the child pornography defense should work. I mean, they used it as a "show" anyways so that should definitely be a realistic charge.
by SoBit71 November 2, 2009 4:35 PM EST
This is just sick. Really anyone who either participated or watched should be publicly humiliated and castrated. Teens today as well as pre-teens are becoming more and more de-sensitized to others feelings, a sense of morality, and over all right and wrong in a social environment. Sure there has always been teen rebeling, I remember sneaking a cigarette from my dads dresser and showing off in front of friends. When I was caught I got my rear beat and grounded to a room with no tv, internet, cell phone, video games...etc. If these kids go to jail and later are paroled they will come out worse than they went in. Prisons don't reform, they create more informed and violent criminals. I seriously believe that for violent and obvious sex offenders such as this, public humiliation, chemical castration, and a lifetime of isolation from society should be implemented.

I feel bad for the girl, it makes me sick to my stomach...remember, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger... Hang in there, there are those of us in this messed up world who do care about the victims!
Reply to this comment
by Jack_Norris August 13, 2010 2:25 PM EDT
Stop talking as if this story reflects what an average "teen" is like. There is ONE school out there where the "teens" are especially cowardly and disgusting for some reason, and that school is Richmond High. Just like the Bible had Sodom and Gomorrah, this is the same thing.

You know, at the school I went to, the kids who watched would get the **** jumped out of them. We wouldn't put up with that crap, are you kidding me? You need to educate yourself on teen male culture. I assure you that at any other school, every teen male you meet will be VIOLENTLY opposed to sexual assault. "Prison justice" exists in juvie you know, we beat the **** out of rapists and you need to educate yourself.
by poorerobin November 2, 2009 1:02 PM EST
I am outraged and disgusted by how the school officials are responding to this horrific crime! Granted, I do not know the facts of this case, but if you called this school dance a success, you need to be FIRED! Teachers, security, and school officials that sat back and let these thugs congregrate outside of the school premises, while a school function is going on inside, and never stepped in to make them leave the grounds, should be fired as well! Many witnesses seen these boys there, but never once asked them to leave! It time to step up and take our streets back! The fact is, no matter what the race or religion of this girl, inebriated or not, I do not think anyone would consent to a GANG RAPE with as many as 20 or 30 onlookers to cheer them on. And to me, the witnesses who watched are just as barbaric as the ones who participated, and should be held as accountable as such! Maybe it was a gang initiation, who knows, but these perpetrators are our next registered sex offenders--there should be no rehabilitation, because if you think this was an idea of fun, then you don't deserve any kind of consideraton from rational human beings! They deserve death--no matter their age (I have no sympathy for teens committing these types of crimes) or lie in prison without possibility of parole! Once you let these perpetrators back on the streets, they would more of a danger to our innocent children and law-abiding citizens. I will tell you though, as angry as this makes me (and this is not my daughter), a little vigilante justice to these perpetrators would not make me lose any sleep. And yes, that probably makes me seem as lawless as these thugs, but our justice system has failed us many times in these types of cases! This innocent girl deserves justice and the faith that these inhumane creatures could never hurt anyone else again! And we, as law-abiding citizens, deserve the same!
Reply to this comment
by boltfan760 November 2, 2009 3:08 AM EST
Those Bystanders Who Agree To work With Law Enforcement and agree To Testify Against Those Who Committed The Rape, Should Recieve Probation and Counseling Those who Dont Should Have To Register Themselves As Sex Offenders (A Lifetime Registery) Along With A Stiffer Probation and Counseling....
Reply to this comment
by missme4 November 1, 2009 9:13 PM EST
Why report a crime? When you report a crime, the police turn to you as the #1 suspect! Police go for the easy target. Keep the cops number off your cellphone and they are less likely to come after you.
Reply to this comment
by Whydowe November 3, 2009 10:36 PM EST
I hope nothing ever happens to you where you would need the help from a witness! Think and use your brain.
by emontroy January 21, 2010 10:27 AM EST
you can report a crime annonomously brainiac. this girl could have been your sister, mother or daughter and you would hope for someone to help her. if we don't step in and help those whose lives are in danger right infront of our eyes, we are no more than animals with no compassion. the woman who did call the police is being reverrred as a hero, not a suspect. so your statement makes no sense or at all. please please please do not procreate.
by mrsherman November 1, 2009 5:58 PM EST
All witnesses who have not come forth by now are accomplices and should be treated as such.
I hate blanket statements like I just made, but if there is anyone witholding coming forward because of fear from someone else, I hope they realize it's better to come forward and state the name of their oppressor (probably one of the rapists themselves)than hide in what should be shame.
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