Juvenile Rape Case

The article, “Steubenville rape: More Charges Possible with Grand Jury Probe” was published in the Los Angeles Times by Tina Susman, on March 17, 2013. Sixteen year-old Ma’Lik Richmond and seventeen year-old Trent Mays were convicted of raping a sixteen year-old girl. Both boys began serving time in juvenile detention Sunday. Even though these two were convicted, more people could face charges if a grand jury investigation determines that witnesses, who include the defendants’ athletic coaches, turned a blind eye to the assaults. Judge Thomas Lipps, who heard the case in court, found both boys guilty. Mays was also convicted of distributing nude material because he had pictures of the naked victim on his phone. Therefore, he received two years in a juvenile detention facility, while Richmond received one. Ohio’s attorney general, Mike DeWine, and his office stepped in to handle the investigation said that there were some witnesses that his investigators had come across. It included forty-three people, from which twenty even of them had been interviewed. Dewine stated that sixteen of the juveniles “refused to cooperate, giving various reasons” (Los Angeles Times). In addition to all these investigations, cyber-crime experts have analyzed thirteen cellphones. From those phones, they reviewed and analyzed 396,270 text messages; 308,586 photos; 940 videos; 3,188 phone calls; and 16,422 contacts. All of these cellphones were from the juveniles that had attended the party where the assaults took place. All of these investigations reveal numerous amounts of secrets among the teens, which will eventually lead to the truth. There is no question that investigators can find out any bit of information about teens and their actions nowadays. DeWine stated, “It’s going to be broad, and we will follow the evidence wherever that evidence takes us” (Los Angeles Times).