Judge finds two Ohio teens guilty of raping girl


STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - Two high school football players from
Ohio were found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl at a party last
summer while she was in a drunken stupor in a case that gained national
exposure through social media.

Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, two members of Steubenville's
"Big Red" football team, were found delinquent in the sexual assault of
the girl in the early morning of August 12 when witnesses said she was
too drunk to move or speak.

The defendants could be heard sobbing after Judge Tom Lipps announced
the decision in the non-jury, juvenile court case. He began immediately
taking arguments about a sentence in the case.

Mays and Richmond had denied the charge and said any sex that occurred
was consensual.

Both apologized to the victim in short statements after Lipps found them
delinquent of all charges against them.

They could be sentenced to a juvenile detention facility until they turn
21, and be required to register as sex offenders.

The case drew national attention to the town, 40 miles west of
Pittsburgh, after a photo and video from the party that appeared to
document the assault were posted online.

The non-jury trial neared its conclusion late on Saturday after four
days of testimony capped by the accuser's tearful acknowledgment on the
witness stand that she had little memory from the night of the alleged
assaults.

Lipps said the evidence presented was profane and ugly at times and said
that alcohol consumption showed a particular danger to "our teenage youth."

Mays and Richmond, were charged as juveniles with raping a girl by
digital penetration while she was passed out from heavy drinking at a party.

In her testimony on Saturday, the accuser recounted drinking vodka mixed
with slushy-iced beverages the night of the party, then finding herself
sitting on a curb early the next day with her hands between her legs,
vomiting into the street.

She testified that she otherwise had no recollection of what happened
during the time span in between, when witnesses in the case have said
she was too drunk to move or talk.

Under its policy of keeping the names of accusers in rape cases
confidential, Reuters has not identified the girl.

Prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter argued that the things that made the
accuser "an imperfect witness (also) made her, in every sense of the
word, a perfect victim."

"She was substantially impaired, and they treated her like a toy," the
prosecutor said.

Defense attorney Walter Madison countered by highlighting
inconsistencies in the accounts of various witnesses, one of whom he
accused of taking part in assaulting the girl, then cooperating with
prosecutors under a grant of immunity.

- - -

This is a sad case for all concerned, but at some point, perhaps, high
school, college, and professional athletes may realize that their
"prowess" on the athletic field doesn't entitle them to take advantage
of girls.

This was *not* consensual sex among teen-agers, to which I have no
objection.