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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 63 - October 30, 2009 Arrests and arraignments in alleged gang rape of teen...The number of people arrested in the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside a high school dance in Northern California has increased to six and could get higher, authorities said. AP News story here 
Jose Carlos Montano, 18, was arrested Thursday evening outside his San Pablo home. He was being held on $1.3 million bail, on suspicion of rape, rape in concert with force and other charges, Richmond police said.
Authorities were still looking for suspects, and have said as many as 10 people ranging from 15 to the mid-20s may have attacked the girl for more than two hours Saturday in a dimly lit area. Montano's arrest came after three other teen suspects appeared in court for the first time Thursday. Cody Ray Smith, 15, pleaded not guilty, while Ari Abdallah Morales, 16, and Marcelles James Peter, 17, did not enter pleas during their arraignment in Contra Costa County Superior Court. Smith, Morales and Peter each were charged with rape in concert and sexual penetration with a foreign object. They were being held without bail and could be eligible for life in prison, if convicted. Another suspect, 19-year-old Manuel Ortega, was arraigned separately but did not enter a plea. He is charged with rape, robbery and assault causing great bodily injury, and is being held on $1.2 million bail. Salvador Rodriguez, 21, also remained jailed but has not been charged. Peter's aunt, Monica Peter, said before Thursday's hearing that her nephew told her he was only a bystander and didn't participate in the attack. She said he didn't do anything to stop the attack because he feared "he would get his ass kicked." Police said the victim left the homecoming dance at Richmond High School and was walking to meet her father for a ride home when a classmate invited her to join a group drinking in the school courtyard. The girl had consumed a large amount of alcohol by the time the assault began, police said. Her father tried to call her cell phone, but no one answered. Police said they received a tip about a possible assault on campus from a former student, who heard two males bragging about it. Officers found the girl semiconscious and naked from the waist down near a picnic table. As hundreds of students gathered in the school gym for the Saturday night dance, outside in a dimly lit alley where the victim was allegedly raped, police say witnesses took photos. Others laughed. CNN News story here "As people announced over time that this was going on, more people came to see, and some actually participated," Lieutenant Mark Gagan of the Richmond Police Department told CNN. Criminology and psychology experts say there could be a variety of reasons why the crime wasn't reported. Several pointed to a problematic social phenomenon known as the bystander effect. It's a theory that has played out in lynchings, college riots and white-collar crimes. Under the bystander effect, experts say that the larger the number of people involved in a situation, the less will get done. "If you are in a crowd and you look and see that everyone is doing nothing, then doing nothing becomes the norm." explains Drew Carberry, a director at the National Council on Crime Prevention. Carberry said witnesses can be less likely to report a crime because they reinforce each other with the notion that reporting the crime isn't necessary. Or, he says, witnesses may think another person in the crowd already reported the incident. The responsibility among the group becomes diffused. "Kids learn at a young age when they observe bullying that they would rather not get involved because there is a power structure," Carberry adds. Dara Cashman, head of the Contra County sex assault unit, told ABC News that witnesses who did not come to the girl's aid or call police were unlikely to be charged with a crime unless they aided the assault. ABC News story here Experts told ABC News.com that most states do not have laws compelling witnesses to report crimes to the police. But in some cases, the line between being a witness and an active participant can blur - particularly, when onlookers even passively encourage suspects to commit crimes - opening the door to prosecutors to press charges against bystanders. "Maybe this crime wouldn't have been so brutal, or so prolonged if not for the audience," said Eugene O'Donnell, a law professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which is part of the City University of New York, and a former district attorney. "These people were not at the aquarium looking at this through glass. They were actually standing there and creating the environment that allowed this to take place." California is one of the few states that has a law on its books in which witnesses are required to report a sex crime against a minor or risk prosecution. However, the law, which was passed in 2000 and was named for 7-year-old victim Sherrice Iverson, applies only to minor children younger than 14 years old. "Unfortunately, California law does not allow you to arrest a person for witnessing a sex crime if the victim is over the age of 14," Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond Police Department told ABC News KGO-TV. Police ask public for help in finding Somer's killer... Police in Florida urged the public to be suspicious of changes in behavior and appearance among the people they know - because one of them could be 7-year-old Somer Thompson's killer. Fox News story here 
Somer's body was found buried under a mound of garbage in a Georgia landfill on October 21, two days after she disappeared as she was walking home from school in Orange Park, Florida. The little girl was buried on Tuesday.
"Yesterday was about Somer Thompson," Clay County, Fla., Sheriff Rick Beseler said during a brief press conference Wednesday. "Today is about her killer." Beseler, who gave a prepared statement and took no questions, said he needed help finding Somer's murderer from "certain people" who live nearby. "We have reason to believe there are individuals in the community who have information pertinent to this case who have not come forward ... people who may know or associate with the offender," the sheriff said. He asked the public to be on the lookout for friends, relatives and acquaintances who have shown changes in their patterns or behavior since Somer was killed. People who have suddenly left the area, missed work, suffered unexplained injuries or changed their appearance - by shaving or growing head or facial hair, for example - should arouse suspicion, Beseler said. He also encouraged people in the community to identify anyone who has abruptly hidden or sold a car, acted increasingly nervous or irritable, shown unusual interest in the case or altered his or her alcohol consumption or sleep patterns. The Clay County Sheriff's Office has investigated about 1,700 leads, but it has not named any suspects or people of interest. Authorities say they have ruled out all 161 registered sex offenders who live within a 5-mile radius of Somer's home. See more on this story at vol7_iss61.php and vol7_iss62. In other news... 
A 38-year-old man from a polygamist sect sexually assaulted a teenager less than half his age at the Yearning For Zion Ranch, a prosecutor charged Wednesday to open the first criminal trial since the ranch was raided. Fox News story here An attorney for defendant Raymond Jessop disputed the allegation, telling jurors there is no evidence Jessop sexually assaulted the girl in Schleicher County. The location is critical, since prosecutors must prove they have the jurisdiction to prosecute the alleged crimes. Jessop was one of 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints charged after authorities raided the ranch last year and swept 439 children into foster care. The children were later returned to their parents after an appellate court intervened, but documents and DNA seized during the raid resulted in criminal indictments on charges ranging from failure to report child abuse to sexual assault and bigamy. (For more on that story see vol6_iss78.) Both sides presented opening statements Wednesday evening in Jessop's case after 12 jurors - seven men and five women - were culled from a pool of 300, the largest ever called in this tiny county 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols said Jessop was 33 when he had sex a 16-year-old girl, who later gave birth to a daughter. Under Texas law, generally, no one under 17 can consent to sex with adult. Nichols did not discuss the relationship between the two in his opening statement, but prosecutors have said in court documents the teen is one of Jessop's nine wives. Jessop has also been indicted on a bigamy charge that will be tried later.
Federal prosecutors say a Colorado man charged with sexually abusing nine boys at a school he founded in Haiti was using his computer while in the United States to search for boys. AP News story here Authorities made the accusations in court papers as they argued that 39-year-old Douglas Perlitz should not be released from prison while he awaits trial. A judge kept him detained after his attorney said at a hearing Wednesday that he needed more time to come up with a large bond package. Authorities say Perlitz enticed children at the Project Pierre Toussaint School in Cap-Haitien into sex acts by promising them food, shelter, cash, cell phones, electronics and shoes. Perlitz has pleaded not guilty. His attorney says he did nothing illegal in the U.S. For more on this story, see vol7_iss51. For information on keeping kids safe on the internet, see eGuide/online safety and eGuide/MySpace.
The Catholic Diocese of Savannah has agreed to pay more than $4 million to the alleged victim of an abusive former priest in order to avoid going to trial. Savannah Morning News story here The Diocese released a statement announcing the $4.24 million agreement reached with former St. James Catholic School student Allan Ranta Jr. Ranta had filed a complaint in a Jasper County, South Carolina civil court stating he was molested from 1978 to 1983, starting when he was 10 years old, by former priest Wayland Y. Brown. Ranta claimed former Savannah Bishop Raymond Lessard and other diocesan officials knew Brown posed a danger to children but failed to take action. Brown, 66, was convicted in 2003 of sexually abusing two Maryland boys, ages 12 and 13, in 1974. He was released from prison in April 2008 after serving half of his sentence and now is listed on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry as living in Baltimore. Meanwhile, a bankruptcy hearing scheduled for Monday, November 2nd for the Diocese of Wilmington (DE) was postponed.
A San Diego man admitted kidnapping a 3-year-old boy he was babysitting, selling the toddler to an alleged pedophile and helping capture images of the boy in a sex act with his "owner'' in an El Cajon hotel room. Fox5 San Diego story here Aaron Zendejas, 24, agreed to a plea bargain on the day his trial was to begin. He pleaded guilty to committing a lewd act on a child and production of child pornography, and admitted that he kidnapped the toddler in June 2008 for a couple hundred dollars so his co-defendant could molest the boy. Judge David Danielsen will sentence Zendejas to 15 years to life in prison on December 1. "Justice was done today, as it relates to Mr. Zendejas,'' Deputy District Attorney Matthew Greco said outside court. "His plea reflects the evidence in the case.'' The defense attorney said his client had a very difficult childhood, as well as some "unfortunate prior interactions'' with co-defendant Jared Yaffe. Yaffe, 30, is charged with multiple felony counts, including child sexual assault and kidnapping charges involving three children. Yaffe quit his job and fled the country in October 2008 after San Diego police searched his home and allegedly found numerous photos of children engaged in sex acts on his computer and cell phone, according to court documents.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed thousands of juvenile convictions issued by a judge charged in a corruption scandal, saying that none of the young offenders got a fair hearing. MSNBC News story here The high court on Thursday threw out more than five years' worth of juvenile cases heard by former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, who is charged with accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks to send youths to private detention centers. The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which represents some of the youths, said the court's order covers as many as 6,500 cases. The justices barred any possibility of retrial in all but a fraction of them. "This is exactly the relief these kids needed," said Marsha Levick, the center's legal director. "It's the most serious judicial corruption scandal in our history and the court took an extraordinary step in addressing it." After being found delinquent, the youths were often shackled and taken to private jails whose owner was paying bribes to the judge. Federal prosecutors have said that Ciavarella and another Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, took a total of $2.8 million in payoffs. The judges pleaded guilty in February to honest services fraud and tax evasion in a deal with prosecutors that called for a sentence of 87 months in prison. But the deal was rejected in August by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward M. Kosik, who said the two hadn't fully accepted responsibility for the crimes, and the ex-judges switched their pleas to not guilty. A federal grand jury then returned a 48-count racketeering indictment against the judges, who await trial. The Supreme Court had previously overturned hundreds of juvenile convictions involving low-level offenses. Thursday's ruling covered all cases heard by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, including ones involving more serious crimes. Berks County Senior Judge Arthur Grim, whom the justices appointed in February to review cases handled by Ciavarella, will consider any retrial requests made by the DA's office and forward his recommendations to the high court. Meanwhile, the two ex-judges have asked to be dismissed as defendants in a series of civil lawsuits filed in the wake of the juvenile justice scandal. For more on this story see vol7_iss22.
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