On Sunday, two football players from Steubenville High School in Ohio were found guilty of raping a drunk 16-year-old girl, according to The Associated Press. The students, Trent Mays and Ma’Lik Richmond, face potential sentences in juvenile jail until they are 21.
Both boys were charged with digitally penetrating the West Virginia girl. The first occurrence came in the back seat of a moving vehicle after a party on August 11 and the second occurrence came that same night in a home’s basement. Mays was found guilty on the charge of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material as well.
On Saturday, the girl testified, saying that she could not remember what happened that night. She did say she remembered waking up naked in an unknown home after drinking at an earlier party. She said she left the party holding hands with Mays and when she awoke, her underwear, shoes, phone and earrings were all missing.
“It was really scary,” she said. “I honestly did not know what to think because I could not remember anything.”
She testified that she knew she was assaulted after she saw text messages and a photo of herself from that night. She also saw a video that made fun of her and the purported attack.
“They treated her like a toy,” said special prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter.
The girl said that she remembered being in a vehicle with the two boys and asking them what had happened. “They kept telling me I was a hassle and they took care of me,” she testified. “I thought I could trust him (Mays) until I saw the pictures and video.”
CNN covered the story extensively this past weekend, and as reported by The Raw Story, the network discussed how the lives of the guilty boys are now ruined. Here is text from CNN reporter Poppy Harlow’s report from the courthouse:
“It was incredibly difficult” to watch “as these two young men — who had such promising futures, star football players, very good students — literally watched as they believed their life fell apart.”
“One of the young men, Ma’lik Richmond, as that sentence came down, he collapsed,” the CNN reporter recalled. She also said that Richmond said the following to his attorney: “my life is over, no one is going to want me now.”
“I was sitting about three feet from Ma’lik when he gave that statement,” Harlow said. “It was very difficult to watch.”
Candy Crowley led the breaking news report on the network and she spoke with CNN legal contributor Paul Callan and asked, what this verdict means to “a 16 year old, sobbing in court, regardless of what big football players they are, they still sound like 16 year olds.”
“What’s the lasting effect though on two young men being found guilty juvenile court of rape essentially?” Crowley wondered.
“There’s always that moment of just — lives are destroyed,” Callan remarked. “But in terms of what happens now, the most severe thing with these young men is being labeled as registered sex offenders. That label is now placed on them by Ohio law.”
“That will haunt them for the rest of their lives.”