Two of 18 defendants plead guilty in gang rape case
Young men go on trial in Cobb incident
By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/met...alcharges.html
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/met...alcharges.html <------ (pictures of all the brothas)
Two of the 18 defendants in the gang rape trial in Cobb County pleaded guilty this morning and were sentenced.
Jamon Aiken, who was the first person to have sex with the 13-year-old girl on the day in question, pleaded guilty to aggravated child molestation and statutory rape and received a 10-year prison sentence and a two-year prison term for the statutory rape charge.
Aiken's attorney, Steven Cook, told the judge that Aiken takes responsibility for his actions and feels remorse.
Later in the morning, Taurean Green also pleaded to aggravated child molestation and statutory rape. He also received a sentence of 10 years in prison on the aggravated child molestation charge and a two-year prison term for the statutory rape charge.
Riding her bicycle by the Cobb County apartment complex, the 13-year-old girl spotted Aiken, a boy she liked. They started talking, then went to his apartment.
His mom was gone, and they had sex.
It just happened, the girl later told police, adding that she wanted to be with the 17-year-old boy "in a little sort of way."
But with that, police say, one of the nation's worst gang rape cases began. Over the course of the next 10 hours, authorities say, the girl was held down or confined while some 20 men, teens and younger boys raped and molested her.
The allegations that followed that October 2000 incident drew widespread attention not only because of the large number of defendants but also because the girl was reported to be mentally disabled, having the mind of a 7- or 8-year-old child.
Late this morning, jury selection was about to begin for the remaining 16 defendants. Legal experts say the trial is historic, perhaps unprecedented. They cannot recall a case in which so many rape suspects have been put on trial at one time, before one jury.
"It is very, very unique," said Peggy Sanday, a professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the book "Fraternity Gang Rape."
At the center of the case is a girl, now 16, whose credibility, memory and personal history are expected to be key aspects of the trial, experts say. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution does not name people who say they were raped.)
Defense lawyers say they will show the girl was a willing participant in the sex acts. In a trial that could turn on the issues of force and consent, defense lawyers will challenge the girl's ability to recall the incident and those who police claim were involved.
Court records paint a portrait of a complex girl who is deeply frustrated by her mental disability. She gets picked on at school but strives for acceptance. And she sometimes finds herself in trouble.
The girl, before
Those troubles began early. When she was 2, doctors diagnosed her with lead poisoning, according to a 1997 report included in court records.
She struggled in school, and, having an IQ of about 65, has spent years in special education classes, the report says. At the time of the incident, she was an eighth-grader, operating, authorities say, at the intellectual level of a second-grader.
Some children teased her and called her "retard." The girl became confrontational and was suspended from school several times, records show. She had "forced friendships," meaning she told students to like her or she would beat them up, the report said.
The girl offered troubling answers to a March 2000 test in which she was asked to finish certain sentences:
All my life I: "was bad."
I wish I: "was dead."
Things would be better if: "I was dead."
Days after the incident, the girl's mother told police Det. Monika Merrifield that the girl "has had oral sex with boys in the neighborhood before," a report filed by Merrifield, and now in court records, shows. The girl did this because the girl felt it was "the only way the boys will like her," Merrifield reported the girl's mother as saying.
At least one defense lawyer has filed a motion to make the girl's sexual past fair game during the trial, asserting that this reflects her "lustful" nature.
If the judge permits such debate, that could weaken the prosecution's case, said Michelle Anderson, associate professor at Villanova University's School of Law in Pennsylvania.
"The defense will try to prove that she failed to live up to the model standards of sexual propriety before," said Anderson, whose specialty is rape law.
If a jury is convinced the girl consented to the sex acts, there would be no case for rape, which requires the use of force. There would still be charges of statutory rape and child molestation, however.
But prosecutors insist there was force.
"It was against her will. She was crying," former Assistant District Attorney Francey Hakes said during a hearing early in the case. "She was afraid. She was afraid to let them see she was crying, because she was afraid they would hit her."
That day
On the evening of Oct. 13, 2000, the girl had just had sex with Aiken, and was about to leave when two other boys came into the bedroom and pushed her, a police report says.
"Where are you going?" they asked her.
After that, several young men had sex with her in an apartment in Forest Creek Crossing apartments.
"She stated that she did not want this to happen," the report says.
A videotape of some of the sexual activity has been seized by police. The 10-minute tape, allegedly shot by defendant Martin Cornell Lyons, shows four males having sex with the girl, authorities said. The girl does not say a word on the tape, according to Cobb County police Det. Mary Finlayson.
Defense attorney Derek Wright, whose client is not shown on the video, said he has seen it. "It does not contain any sign of force. There is no crying, no restraining," Wright said in an interview.
That evening, events switched to a vacant apartment in the Forest Creek Crossing apartments. The girl told police that young men pushed her into another apartment, where more rapes occurred.
Many of the 18 defendants lived in the apartment complex, and most were teenagers. At the time, they ranged in age from 15 to 27. Some had prior run-ins with the law. Some were high school students.
After the young men broke into the vacant apartment, the girl said Raphael Joseph forced her to have sex with him.
"She told him to stop. She tried to push him off [but] he had two boys holding her arm and leg, with the lights off," a police report says.
Later, she was placed in a closet, where, she said, more than 15 young men took turns sexually assaulting her.
"She told them to stop, that it hurt. The boys were laughing," the police report says. "She stated no one tried to stop this from happening."
The girl's account does not jibe with what Aiken told police. Police asked him what happened at the vacant apartment.
"We were outside when everyone started saying that there was some girl at the vacant apartment giving it," he told police. Asked if he had heard the girl say "no" during the incident, Aiken answered, "No, all I could hear her saying was, 'Cut the light off, cut the light off.' "
A woman who lived next door told police she heard a ruckus from the vacant apartment but there had been groups of young males in there before.
She said she never heard any screams and thought the boys were wrestling, according to a police interview with the woman.
She said she called the "answering service" to complain and was told to call 911. But she didn't, afraid the young men would find out it was her complaining.
The incident stretched to about 2 a.m. At one point, the young men ordered a pizza. One of the young men wore a helmet flashlight, authorities said.
One of them left to get his two younger brothers, ages 12 and 13, according to Assistant District Attorney Amy McChesney.
"Their older brother told them, 'You will have your first sexual experience. Come with me,' " McChesney said.
Those two adolescent brothers have pleaded guilty in juvenile court to molesting the girl. In exchange for two years' probation, the boys must testify against the others.
The aftermath
When the girl did not come home that night, her mother called police and rode around in a car looking for her.
She found her daughter the next day around noon crying by the side of their house, the woman told police. The mother said the girl looked dirty and "scary looking."
The girl told her mother what happened and led her to the vacant apartment. There, the mother surveyed a scene of scattered condoms, empty beer bottles, cigarette packs and T-shirts.
After the incident, the girl started receiving psychological counseling and was prescribed medication by a psychiatrist, according to an April 2001 psychological evaluation. She became more "clingy" to her mother and had a "suicidal crisis," the evaluation said. The family says it has received threats.
Most of the defendants have remained behind bars for the past 2 1/2 years, awaiting trial. The 60-count indictment against them includes charges of rape, statutory rape, sexual exploitation of children and aggravated child molestation.
District Attorney Pat Head has not said whether the girl will testify.
Early in the case, Cobb County police said the girl might not be able to fully comprehend what was happening to her. But at the time, Head said he had high expectations for her.
"I think she's going to be a good witness," he said. "I think we can work with her."
SICK BASTIDS: May they all be castrated and RAPED with their own __________. 
Willing participant?
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