Sunday, March 17, 2013
Steubenville gets its scapegoats
True the price was high, losing the star quarterback and wide receiver. But the upside is several other teammates were spared by turning states witness, the coach has not been charged as an accessory or for obstructing justice and thanks to juvenile law, Ma’lik Richmond could get out in time to attend his senior prom.
The verdict came after four days of testimony that was notable for how Ohio prosecutors and criminal forensics investigators analyzed hundreds of text messages from more than a dozen cellphones and created something like a real-time accounting of the events surrounding the incident and aftermath.Even when throwing the book at juveniles, it all ends at age 21. Had either of these feckless lads been tried as an adult, he would have been making Bubba happy for many years to come. In the end justice was required to give the victim a "Fuck You" and now the town can go back to saying all the malicious things about her and saying how the poor boys were railroaded.
Through the prosecution’s reconstruction and reading aloud of these messages, Judge Lipps heard Mr. Mays in texts from his cellphone state that he had used his fingers to penetrate the girl, who he also referred to in a separate message as “like a dead body.” In another text message, Mr. Mays admitted to the girl that he took the picture that had already circulated among other students of her lying naked in the basement with what he told her was his own semen on her body, from what he stated was a consensual sex act.
Other text messages read before the judge suggested that Mr. Mays grew increasingly worried within the first day or two, urging a friend to curb dissemination of a video related to the assault. He also seemed to try to orchestrate a cover-up, telling a friend in a text, “Just say she came to your house and passed out.”
UPDATE: Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has said he would convene a grand jury to consider the broader complicity of numerous people in this case. Apparently the evidence trail in this case is as big as a super highway.
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