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Three teenagers allegedly involved in the Richmond High School homecoming dance gang rape -- where a 15-year-old girl was beaten and raped on school grounds for at least two and a half hours, due in part to the school's lack of security -- could, hopefully, spend the rest of their lives in prison. According to KTVU, they will be "charged as adults with an enhanced rape count."
A Contra Costa County Deputy district attorney filed charges yesterday against Manuel Ortega, 19, and three unidentified juveniles. Richmond resident Salvador Rodriguez, 21, has yet to face charges. KTVU reports:
A friend of Rodriguez's told KTVU Wednesday that the victim was given alcohol by her attackers once she reached the alley."They had liquor there," said the friend, who asked not to be identified. "She got way too drunk and she fell out [passed out] and that's when they took advantage. He left when she passed out."
The friend claimed Rodriguez did return after the assault and attempted to help the girl.
"When he came back, it was after the girl had been raped," the friend said. "He was trying to help her. He helped her up and put his shirt on her. When the police showed up, his first instinct was to run. He's basically a petty criminal."
Also, during an "emotional" school board meeting last night, a female Richmond High School student slammed the board for the security measures, or lack thereof..
"At the dance, there were four officers -- none of them patrolling the area. I looked outside of the gym and I saw 12-15 guys sitting there with no (student) IDs," she told the committee. "The officers not only did they not check the IDs of those students or men sitting outside of our campus, but the security officers who are employed here do no job checking. The assistant principal looked outside and saw those men, but he did nothing about it.”
The gang rape, if you recall, was witnessed by an estimated 20 adults, students, and passersby who did nothing to stop the attack.
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Couldn't we just dig a big moat around Richmond and fill it will alligators, then build a 40 foot concrete fence around the moat, and designated the entire hellhole as one giant jail?
No we can't in fact we will hear all about subjects being poor,maligned boys(not men)How it is society's fault.!!!!But it is their parents fault for not raising them with morals or respect for females .Morals start in the home.Respect starts there too! Both don't cost money!Just a little time. Life is just choices and they were never taught to make the right choices and now they choose prison life!
But that never happened in Escape From New York!
Speaking of respect, tired66, can we stop referring to women as "females"? We are people, not animals.
Hopefully they find a way to include a daily ass-raping in the sentencing for all these guys.
I agree and from what I read they will get raped and have to be in protective custody,something the victim was not given!Even in prison rapists are considered the lowest type of animal.Not considered human!
Hmmf, at least in a departure from the usual "LOL THEY'LL GET RAPED IN PRISON" comments that I tend to see on SFGate, you've given a nod to due process!
Rape as part of sentencing. Hmm. That would be almost fair!
This poor girl needs to sue the school for them not doing their job,also her life is ruined due to their laziness not patroling the area and not checking ID's.All who took photos/film on cell phone can be charged with possession porno material and more,just like the girl that sent her boyfriend a nude photo thru her phone.They can be charged with encouraging and blocking her escape.These people that watched should be seen by pschs and evaluated.They should be suspended from school due to no morals and girls are not safe around them.They definately have something missing in there morals and intelligence.Their parents should ground them forever and should be ashamed of them even if the witnesses can not be charged due to the victim being 15 and not 14.All those cops and security should return their checks for not doing their jobs.They were possibly dancing and oogling the young woman and dancing.They all seen 15 guys outside the dance and not one checked on them! WHY! Even they were afraid to check them out!
I contacted the high school to see if there was somewhere to donate for the victim's treatment or college fund or something..and to send well wishes. The High School has set up a fund and anyone who wants to send something along can mail it to:
Richmond High School
c/o Assault Victim
1250 23rd St
Richmond, CA 94804
checks made to: Richmond High Student Fund
And yes, writing a check to Richmond High seems a little unsavory to me, but not sure how else to help.
Thanks for posting this!
Also, I applaud the unnamed Richmond High student who publicly embarrassed the school. I'd like to contribute to her college fund, too!
Thanks for keeping up on this Brock. I fear this story falling to the wayside. And I do hope that every boy charged is charged as an adult and given as many consecutive life sentences as possible.
I don't think you're going to have to worry about this story falling by the wayside, FWIW. It's going to dominate local news as long as it's going on.
I am not going to make excuses for the criminals, but am I really the only one who's bothered whenever someone under 18 is charged as an adult, seeing as how they don't have the right to vote? Granted, all minors are subject to a criminal justice system over which they have no influence; but applying adult charges, while it satiates our need for retribution, doesn't necessarily seem in the end to serve justice or the needs of society. Thoughts?
The problem is that when you charge them as a minor, the sentencing only sticks until they're 18 (or 21 maybe, not sure). Besides, these kids were drinking and having sex - they weren't acting like minors, so why should they be tried as such? You wanna act like a big kid, you'll get treated like one.
drinking and having sex, activities historically the exclusive domain of those over 18.
this was a heinous crime and i don't (yet) have a problem with them being tried as adults, but lets not make a mockery of the justice system. minor status is there for a reason and there has indeed been a push to charge as adults more and more minors over the years.
I'm not entirely sure I follow your latter logic. I certainly agree that their sentences should be longer than a cutoff of 18 or 21 would allow, but I am not sure how the notion that drinking and sex are "adult" activities, has any bearing. Ideally, I don't think we would charge based on whether the crime is "adult" or "adolescent" or "infantile"--we would charge based on the age of the accused. Vandalism is a child-like crime--often literally involving scrawling one's moniker on a wall--but we don't treat adults accused of vandalism as children. Perhaps, as you suggest, there's a lack of middle ground and trying as adults is the lesser of two evils. Either way, I'm unconvinced that this way is the best way.
i personally think that it must be applied carefully, but is ultimately done not for 'retribution' but rather to distinguish between "he was a dumb kid who used bad judgement" and "this is a dangerous pyschopath who pretty much is a lost cause already."
honestly, if by 16 years old you haven't figured out that gang rape is wrong, then are you really gonna be taking the time to re-evaluate your opinion of that when your 18th birthday rolls around?
you can also say kids deserve lighter sentences because they are a product of their environment or poor parenting or whatever, and while that's often true, it still doesn't excuse them of the basic personal responsibility of not raping stuff. and you could easily argue that many adults who commit crimes ended up that way for the same reasons.. while this is really sad and terrible, the alternative say of giving them a slap on the wrist and setting them free on the streets after a year or two doesn't really sound any better to me. i'm no expert on recidivism rates or such so i don't really know, just a .02 on the matter..
That's my question, really: Are the minors who participated in this heinous act truly such lost causes as to require incarceration for the rest of their lives?
I'm no criminologist, so I can't say. I'm just worried by the increasing tendency of the justice system to default to locking kids up and throwing away the key. While we might feel in our gut that this is appropriate as both punishment and safety measure, I just wonder whether, in the end, it truly is the best or only option.
I'm not saying that drinking or having sex are exclusive to those 18 and older. What I'm saying is that if you're 16 or so and you haven't figured out that raping someone is wrong, then you have some serious issues that are not going to be worked out by the time you're 18.
I grew up with a police officer as a father and so of course laws and consequences were drilled into my head from a young age, but at the same time, its been proven again and again that violent juvenile behavior is a predecessor to violent adult crimes.
If these kids had broken into a home and stolen some stuff, then fine, charge 'em with petty crime as a minor. But they raped and assaulted a 15 year old girl whose entire life is changed now for the worse. Shouldn't their entire lives be changed for the worse?