City backs growing Steubenville probe, official says

Updated 5:38 p.m. ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio A city already reeling from the conviction of two high school football players in the rape of a 16-year-old girl will back a wide-ranging probe that could target adults, including coaches, who failed to report the allegation initially, the city's top official said Monday.

Residents of Steubenville want to see justice done and the city will be better off going forward because of the investigation, city manager Cathy Davison said.

"Football is important in Steubenville, but I think overall if you looked at the community in and of itself, it's the education process, the moral fiber of our community, and the heritage of our community, that is even more important," Davison told The Associated Press in her first comments since a judge on Sunday convicted the players.

The announcement of the guilty verdict was barely an hour old Sunday when state Attorney General Mike DeWine said he was continuing his investigation and would consider charges against anyone who failed to speak up after the attack last summer. That group could include other teens, parents, school officials and coaches for the high school's beloved football team, which has won nine state championships.

Investigators interviewed the owners of a Steubenville house where a picture was taken of the girl being carried by her ankles and wrists, DeWine's office confirmed Monday. That picture, Exhibit No. 1 at the trial, generated international outrage.

The house is the same residence where later that night one student filmed a 12-minute video of another drunken student laughing and joking about the rape. There is no phone listing for the home.

A grand jury will meet in mid-April to consider evidence gathered by investigators from dozens of interviews, including with the football team's 27 coaches.

Text messages introduced at the trial suggested the head coach was aware of the rape allegation early on. DeWine said coaches are among officials required by state law to report suspected child abuse.

"I've reached the conclusion that this investigation cannot be completed, simply cannot be completed, that we cannot bring finality to this matter without the convening of a grand jury," DeWine said.

The attorney general, Ohio's top law enforcement official, also said the rape was not an isolated problem specific to Steubenville. Sexual assaults occur every Friday and Saturday night across the country, DeWine said, calling it "a societal problem."

Katie Hanna, the statewide director of Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said the victim's bravery in coming forward shows other victims they will be believed.

"She was so courageous and brave to come forward," said Hanna, adding that "the lack of action was really concerning. The one person who took action was the survivor."

Steubenville schools Superintendent Mike McVey released a statement Monday reiterating his position that the district was waiting until the trial ended to take action. The statement didn't address the grand jury investigation.

"What we've heard so far is deeply disturbing," McVey's statement said. "At this time, we believe it is important to allow the legal process to play out in court before we as a school district make any decisions or take action against any of the individuals involved with this case."

It's unclear what could happen to the school's sports programs if any coaches were to be charged. Sanctions against teams or programs typically involve violations of rules related to playing, such as improper recruiting of student-athletes or playing ineligible athletes, said Tim Stried, spokesman for the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

"The incident that happened was not during a contest, was not even at school. No playing rules were violated, and it didn't have anything to do with eligibility or recruiting," Stried said.

Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile prison in a case that has rocked this Rust Belt city of 18,000 and led to allegations of a cover-up to protect the Steubenville High School football team. Mays was ordered to serve an additional year for photographing the underage girl naked.

They can be held until they turn 21.

The two broke down in tears after the judge delivered his verdict. They later apologized to the victim and the community, Richmond struggling to speak through his sobs. (Watch the courtroom apology at left.)

"My life is over," he said as he collapsed in the arms of his lawyer.

The victim's attorney said her parents have forgiven the boys, according to CBS affiliate WBNS in Columbus, but that the victim is still working on it.

"The remorse (from the defendants) did come late in my opinion and this thing may not have happen had somebody approached the family in the beginning," said attorney Bob Fitzsimmons.

But Fitzsimmons says the victim has decided she will move past this.

The crime, which took place after a party last summer, shocked many in Steubenville because of the seeming callousness with which other students took out their cellphones to record the attack and gossiped about it online. The case came to light via a barrage of morning-after text messages, social media posts and online photos and video.

"Many of the things we learned during this trial that our children were saying and doing were profane, were ugly," Judge Thomas Lipps said.

Mays and Richmond were charged with penetrating the West Virginia girl with their fingers, first in the back seat of a moving car after a mostly underage drinking party on Aug. 11, and then in the basement of a house.

"They treated her like a toy," prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter said.

Prosecutors argued that the victim was so intoxicated she couldn't consent to sex that night, while the defense contended the girl realized what she was doing and was known to lie.

The girl testified she could not recall what happened but woke up naked in a strange house after drinking at a party.

"It was really scary," she said. "I honestly did not know what to think because I could not remember anything."

She said she believed she was assaulted when she later read text messages among friends and saw a photo of herself naked, along with a video that made fun of her and the alleged attack.

Katie Hanna, statewide director for the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said the victim in the case initially didn't want to come forward, according to the Herald Star, a local newspaper.

"Her voice has been the voice of others to come forward. Her courage and bravery has spoken volumes to this community," Hanna said.

Three other boys, two of them on the football team, saw something happening that night and didn't try to stop it but instead recorded it with their cellphones. Granted immunity to testify, they confirmed the girl was assaulted and said she was so drunk she didn't seem to know what was happening.

Evidence at the trial also included sexually explicit text messages sent by numerous students after the party.

In sentencing the boys, Lipps urged parents and others "to have discussions about how you talk to your friends, how you record things on the social media so prevalent today and how you conduct yourself when drinking is put upon you by your friends."

After the arrests, the case was furiously debated on blogs and social media, with some people warning of conspiracies and conflicts of interest. On Sunday, Hemmeter, the prosecutor, criticized efforts by the hacker collective Anonymous to publicize the case, saying the attention had a chilling effect on those willing to testify.

After the verdict, the accuser's mother rebuked the boys for "lack of any moral code."

"You were your own accuser, through the social media that you chose to publish your criminal conduct on," she said. She added that the case "does not define who my daughter is. She will persevere, grow and move on."

Echoing that, the judge said that "as bad as things have been for all of the children involved in this case, they can all change their lives for the better."