Posted on 09/06/2014 6:53:50 AM PDT by csvset
A Franklin student who sexually assaulted two fellow volleyball team members on a school bus after a trip to a game in Northampton County was escorted to jail in tears after she pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery.
Aerial Darden, who was 17 at the time of the offense and a senior team captain, organized a group that held down a 13-year-old teammate, placed a pillow over her face and touched her inappropriately.
The victim was on her first trip with the team.
The attack came after Darden and others held the arms and legs of a 15-year-old teammate, covered her mouth and attempted to remove her underwear before the victim freed herself.
Darden, now 18, will spend six months in jail and was tried as an adult.
"You were in a leadership position," said Judge W. Revell Lewis, III. "You used your leadership skills to commit a crime."
Lewis said victims' impact statements showed they are being harassed so severely at Franklin High School in the wake of the assaults that they were thinking of transferring.
Darden was charged with nine counts, both felonies and misdemeanors, including aggravated sexual battery while being part of a mob and carnal knowledge of a child.
Commonwealth's Attorney Bruce Jones said the victims and their parents endorsed the plea agreement. They were glad their children would not have to testify had the case gone to trial, he said.
Four other girls, all juveniles, faced similar charges and pleaded guilty in juvenile court. Each was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
The incident occurred Aug. 26, 2013, as junior and senior varsity teams from Franklin High were returning after games against Northampton High.
Evidence presented showed Darden enlisted the aid of other team members and sexually assaulted the girls soon after leaving Eastville on the bus ride back home.
According to court documents and evidence offered by Jones, Darden sought to have sex with the 15-year-old girl. When the girl refused, she and a senior team member hatched a plan to hold them down and assault her.
When the bus arrived in Franklin, one of the girls who assisted Darden in holding the girls down said, "What happened on the bus, stays on the bus."
A few weeks later, one of the perpetrators told her cross-country coach and the school principal that girls were held down and assaulted by Darden.
During the school investigation that followed, the victims came forward and told officials what happened to them.
He said there was a possibility Darden would have to register as a sex offender. That would be decided by the state police, Jones said.
Defense attorney Justin Bush said his client had a clean record and was an honor student who had been accepted to college.
You know what’s really sick? I just realized that the MeetMe page says she is 20 and that she posted her profile over 1500 days ago (more than 4 years ago) but the article says she is only 18. Could she have posted that profile page - where’s she’s look for a “wiffey” - when she was only 14?!?
If you had asked me even 10 years ago, I would have thought that it was impossible, but now? Not at all. Anything is possible now.
IMHO, all rape should be treated equally. She should get the same treatment that I as a 31 year old man would get for raping a teen girl.
Decades ago, when I was a child, we were required to remain in our seats facing forward - every single one of us. If someone got up, the bus driver warned ‘em back and if they didn’t obey, the bus pulled over and the driver restored order. So how is it a group was able to pin down a student? Yes, I’d say failing to protect children is lawsuit worthy.
Odd that “one of the perpetrators” reported the main attacker - did they hope to protect themselves or didn’t see themselves as the one doing any harm. I mean, just what kind of a “captain” can get other girls to hold down someone so she can sexually assualt them?
Yes. A gang rape should get more time than this.
Aerial
Are they sure she was named after rabbit ears on an old TV and not Ariel after the cartoon mermaid?
Yep.
There are a few freepers who don’t think anything at all has changed in 50 years except the reporting. No seriously. Stop laughing.
:p
It’s ridiculous.
I thought schools had a "ban bullying" campaign coordinated with the faggot lobby. I guess when a dyke rapes young girls and happens to be the team captain, the rah rah spirit of the school rallies around the protected class jocks.
Maybe the victims will grow up to be "Feminazi haters" instead of man haters.
This happened on the bus ride. Where were the coach and the adult chaperons?
What language is THIS?
If ONLY high school kids could get married, she wouldn’t have to resort to raping unwilling partners...
>> What language is THIS?
Bill Clinton can read that. He made the extra effort to learn the lingo of sleazebag.
I have no idea. When fights broke out, when I was on a bus. Even the driver got cued in by hearing the shouts of people seeing the fight in progress.
One of the perps purposefully blew the whistle because reporting suggests that you aren’t complicit or condoning of the action.
arth ping!!
“He said there was a possibility Darden would have to register as a sex offender.”
A possibility?
Crazy violent deviant...
Well, the poster says he’s from Germany, so maybe that’s it.
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