Police: People Watched Gang Rape Of Teen And Did Nothing To Help

RICHMOND, Calif. -- Police believe as many as a dozen people watched a 15-year-old girl get beaten and gang-raped outside her high school homecoming dance without reporting it.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that onlookers laughed, took pictures and even joined in the crime.

Two suspects were in custody Monday, but police said as many as five other men attacked the girl over a two-hour period Friday night outside Richmond High School.

"She was raped, beaten, robbed and dehumanized by several suspects who were obviously OK enough with it to behave that way in each other's presence," Lt. Mark Gagan said. "What makes it even more disturbing is the presence of others. People came by, saw what was happening and failed to report it."

The victim remained hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Manuel Ortega, 19, was arrested at the scene and was being held on $800,000 bail for investigation of rape and robbery. He is not a student at the school.

Richmond police Sgt. David Harris said he did not know if Ortega had retained an attorney.

A 15-year-old student also was booked late Monday on one count of sexual assault, Gagan said.

Police said the girl left the dance and was walking to meet her father for a ride home when a classmate invited her to join a group drinking in the courtyard. The victim had drank a large amount of alcohol by the time the assault began, police said. The girl's father was looking for her during the attack, according to the LA Times:

Police were finally called after a female student overhead people talking about the rape. She called 911 and told dispatchers what she had heard, Gagan said.

When officers arrived on the scene, the assault was still going on. Several suspects fled as officers found the girl naked from the waist up, Gagan said.

The victim was semi-conscious near a picnic table, police said.

Marin Trujillo, a spokesman for the West Contra Costa Unified School District, said there were four police officers and three school administrators monitoring the dance, but the assault happened away from the gym.

WATCH:

Comments

[Edogg62]

03:53 PM on 11/03/2009

This is truly a terribly sick nation... every time I THINK I've seen everything this culture is capable of, I read or hear of something that trumps what came before. The mass desensitization of our youth is tragic to be sure... whether it's at the hands of the usual suspects... "entertainment" that seemingly promotes violence, misogyny and gross materialism, or it's their "parents" that have failed them... we all pay the price. I am astounded to think ANYONE "watched" this occur without getting involved. To me it feels as if we as a country/culture are, to use an overused cliche, merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic so to speak culturally. We are going down so fast, and oddly enough, few seem to notice...

[lacollins26]

02:19 AM on 11/03/2009

The ones who took pictures should be charged. Isn't it still illegal to be in posession of lude acts involving minors?

[lacollins26]

02:04 AM on 11/03/2009

What in the hell is wrong with kids these days. As someone who has 2 boys, I have to say that if at anytime my kids even attempted to touch a woman without permission then they will answer to the woman who bought them into this world and it won't be pretty. They'll be begging for the police. Why aren't kids today being taught right? How do all these parents drop the ball when teaching there kids right from wrong? All those who stood by watching and laughing and taking pictures should be charged. Do they not realize that they will be labeled for life and it'll follow them everywhere they go in life?

[notsostimulated]

10:02 PM on 11/01/2009

This is what happens when you expose children to sex and violence 24/7. The cost of protecting one pervert's freedom of speech is the innocence of all children. This is the result of a nation losing it's moral compass. We are all guilty of this crime.

[Syncoptic1]

11:22 AM on 11/06/2009

Yeah. It has NOTHING to do with parenting, and getting involved in what your children are exposed to. It's much easier to pass the buck on to the rest of us. Why must the rest of us have our personal freedoms stifled because so many parents are dropping the ball on this issue? As far as I know, violence and sex existed long before the television. Yes, the subject matter on the screen is often reprehensible, but no one is forcing you to watch it.

[JustSayMaybe]

04:23 PM on 11/08/2009

You'll notice the "we're all guilty of this crime". I think the two of you are in agreement that we are all responsible for this. It is both individual parents and society. I've wondered how I will deal with limiting what my kids are exposed to. Sure, I can stop them from watching TV shows or movies and control what music they have in my home. But when they go to a friend's house and relish the freedom to play Grand Theft Auto or watch whatever those parents will allow, it further weakens me as a parent AND amps up the thrill of the forbidden media. So I can be as responsible as I please, and it won't make a lick of difference unless there is broad change in what we as a society consider acceptable.

[Steffletcher]

09:31 PM on 10/31/2009

This case is made more terrifying because of the large crowd of people who allegedly stood by and did nothing to help this young girl. Some of the remarks posted on other sites/blogs are disturbing because they either imply or outright state, she allowed the rape to happen because she consumed alcohol. Almost absolving the audience of people who stood around, laughing and/or watching, who did nothing as the alleged rapists beat her, spread her legs and repeatedly gang raped her.

There is no convincing argument, a person drinking alcohol somehow contributes to any violence committed against them. After 25 years as a trauma nurse there are few memories more horrible than of rape victims who ended up in our ICU. The cuts, bruises & abrasions tell part of the story & internal organ damage tells a little more. However, it is only when you look into a rape victim's eyes, you understand the entire story. It becomes painfully clear, they did not consent to a brutal physical, psychological and sexual assault.

No one asks to be a rape victim. Drinking alcohol is not a "yes" consent & it is not a get out of jail free card. The adult audience members should be held accountable for their behavior, whether indifferent or encouraging, they share a common bond; they did nothing. Their behavior is an ugly reflection of our society and our human condition or lack thereof; a social statement that should gravely concern all of us.

[wolfsvssarah]

01:16 AM on 10/31/2009

I am 63 years old in a wheelchair, use a cane, had I seen it, someone would have had the holy living hell beat out of them with my cane. What on earth is wrong with people?

[kate99]

11:20 AM on 10/30/2009

so one of the ones charged was 19 what was he doing anywhere near a high school dance the security at the school messed up big time

[Kamenskiy]

02:42 AM on 10/30/2009

Standing there, watching and doing nothing should itself be a criminal offense. Anyone who could have intervened or called the police, and didn't, bears part of the responsibility for this crime.

[Renee27]

12:03 AM on 10/30/2009

I just found these sites on the net. We should share it with all the women and girls we know if our lives

Forensics Talk: Profiling Rapists -

http://harfordmedlegal.typepad.com/forensics_talk/profiling_rapists.html

Gang Rape Profiling (Statistics) -

http://harfordmedlegal.typepad.com/forensics_talk/gang-rape-profiling.html

[Renee27]

10:56 PM on 10/29/2009

Article: Bulletproof vests for rape suspects in court

"Three defendants, all of them juveniles charged as adults, were wearing bulletproof vests when they were led into Superior Court by a corps of Contra Costa County sheriff's deputies. The three - one of whom had a black eye - looked morose and said nothing as relatives wept in the gallery...Morales' left eye was blackened, as if he had recently been hit."

Wow, they are going to have a hard time in prison. Rapist and child molesters are despised in the inmate population.

......"Peter's family accused prosecutors of having racial motives. Peter is the only black suspect named in the case. Smith is white, and the other suspects are Latino. Peter "didn't have anything to do with this," his aunt said. "He said everyone was just walking past, and he just kept moving when he saw something was going on."

Oh boy. SMH

How to help

Richmond High School is accepting cards and donations for the victim and her family. They can be mailed to the school at 1250 23rd St., Richmond, CA 94804-1011. Make checks out to the Richmond High Student Fund, with "for sex assault victim" written in the memo line.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/29/BALE1ACE6J.DTL

[G-guy]

06:54 PM on 10/29/2009

Where I come from, you see an atrocity on a girl or woman, you react.
I and most people I know would simply go in the trunk and grab a bat.
Then, return and use their walnuts for batting practice.
See how quick these punks lose "that mood", permanent.

These people that stood and watched......shame on them!

[Entitlement]

05:48 PM on 10/29/2009

This is predatory violence. Now, we get to watch the so-called system of justice in action. We will work far harder and expend far more resources to give the perpetrators a fair trial to protect their civil rights. What compensation will be afforded to the victim? How hard will she and her family have to work to get that compensation while attorneys are appointed to represent the fowl creatures that assaulted her?

How swift will our swift justice be? We will argue for a fair trial. We may ask for a change of venue. Yes, we have to protect those who might have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And, we will re-victimize the young woman to do that. We will have her go through it again and again and again. We will blame her. How was she dressed? Why did she allow herself to be there? Was she drinking? We live in a so-called "society." We are supposed to be able to trust one another. We are losing our trust at every level in this fine land of ours. There are no words to express the rage. And, what in our society has given license to this kind of behavior? Another girl called for help. And, we can't seem to get anti-rape laws through Congress? We seem to be losing ground on other women's rights fronts too. Is this rape case unusual, or part of a pattern?

[JayeSF]

08:14 PM on 10/29/2009

I agree with your thoughts on the inhumanity of the crime. I also agree that regardless of how much time a convicted rapist would ever serve, it in no way could ever make up for what the victim has experienced.

However, puleeease...drop the "victim's rights" BS. As if somehow providing the criminals with some sort of defense attorney is something unfair or ludicrous in itself.

The animals that did this will get tried, with representation, and they will get locked up. The criminal justice system should see to this. But the fact of a fair trial is not something to get rabid about. it is something we should expect as Americans. because even given the fair trial with an impartial jury and legal defense representation....the rapists would serve time.

The thing which is shocking about this is NOT that those arrested have a right to the criminal justice system...but rather, those who witnessed and DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will NOT have to stand trial.

....they will just have to live with their unconscionable acts of turning away when they could have done something....

[A R Wilson]

09:12 PM on 11/04/2009

We're dealing with a morally inferior group of people here.

[Tekd]

05:47 PM on 10/29/2009

Without knowing who the onlookers were I suspect that the reality is that they were either friends with the gang rapists (so really kinda part of the whole thing to begin with) or maybe some people thought it was some weird consensual public sex act.
That said the more people there are the less likely anybody will report it, so this is just classic Kitty Genovese psychology. The only way to get past that is for you to consciously think about Kitty Genovese every time you see something terrible happening and you see a lot of other people around you have to remind yourself that this just means that you have an even greater responsibility to report it since likely nobody did BECAUSE there's so many people.
Anyways judging the onlookers on the internet is easy but in real life most people don't report things they see if there's lots of other people around.

[seereene1]

08:10 PM on 10/29/2009

You're dating yourself a bit Tekd. I doubt if many people under 30 know who Kitty Genovese was, her story or the subsequent studies surrounding the event.
For those who want some background - http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/kitty_genovese/1.html

[JayeSF]

08:16 PM on 10/29/2009

I would imagine you are right. However, this doesn't necessarily excuse them from their inaction...unless...seriously...EVERYBODY who witnessed it had no sense of right from wrong...of legal from illegal. And honestly...I seriously doubt THAT.

[Wide Stance]

04:34 PM on 10/29/2009

Everyone that participated and those that failed to report it should be branded as s3x offenders. The good news, failing to report it will probably expose them to civil liability. I hope her family sues them blind.

[DesertShores]

04:02 PM on 10/29/2009

A society that now longer has moral values, now deemed to be old fashioned conservative, can expect to see more of this behavior. It's OK to commit a crime, but it's a sin to rat on someone.
A society that thinks the sex and violence on TV and electronic games has no effect on the behavior of our youth will never get this. If video images and sound have no effect there would be no advertizing.

[Truthdude]

08:08 PM on 10/29/2009

Yes! Because we all know that there was no rape before there were video games and TV- Oh wait that's a lie! The rapists are to blame not society. Stop spinning tragedy to suit your agenda.

[ladybug7]

06:51 PM on 10/30/2009

Yes, the rapists are 100% to blame but who failed to teach these kids a sense of decency? The parents have to take a share of guilt in this.