As for the victim, she was drunk to the point of passing out and has no recollection of the events. There is NO physical evidence. She had showered at least once before going to the hospital eliminating any possibility of hair and even semen that may have been present.
The story speaks of penetration by the defendants fingers, constituting at least a sexual assault, but beyond eye witness accounts, which may or may not be reliable, the evidence is limited to here say and as most direct evidence seems to be deleted from cell phones and cameras.
The ‘smoking gun’ video on the Blaze is nothing more than vulgar humor on the part of a kid that may or may not have direct evidence of the actual events. The fact is that it is proof of nothing more than boorish humor.
The fact is that this type of incident is hardly surprising. A young woman goes to several drinking parties populated with the local jocks, drinks to the point of unconsciousness and ends up being assaulted and embarrassed.
This is probably a common occurrence in many communities. The difference is that in todays age gossip is now a Worldwide occurrence because of the Internet, cell phones, and Twitter.
The fact is this is exactly what parents should warn their teenagers about, particularly their daughters. Men are pigs. They are pack animals and if you are not always in control of yourself or are not with friends to add a layer of protection, bad things can and often do happen. This doesn't excuse the behavior.
As for the photo of the girl being carried. I may have several of them myself of both men a women that drunk who have never been raped or assaulted outside of having their faces drawn on with a Sharpie.
Unless they have an actual photograph of these boys sodomizing or sexually assaulting this girl they will have a very hard time convicting them. ALL the attendants eye witness testimony is suspect based ion the fact that heavy drinking was going on by all in attendance.
As for the football culture, it is no worse than the hero worship in many communities. High School Football in Massilon, Stubenville, Norton, the entire Mahoning Valley and many parts of the state of Ohio IS the culture. Outside of the High School team, not much else goes on. It is probably that way in many American towns.
If you go and read the link in post #52 you will see the story that the “anonymous” team has put together.
According to that site she was lured into meeting the attackers by a girl-friend, given a date-rape drug, and taken from location to location and raped and sodomized repeatedly by more than the two boys so far charged.
She was taken to the homes of several football coaches, and possibly the prosecutors house.
I take the Anonymous source with some caution, but they have done a lot more work than the authorities, and when you read their site you realize why: huge conflicts of interest with the Sheriff and Prosecutor both having involvement in the case.
It makes for very interesting reading.
In pretrial hearings witnesses said under oath that she was penetrated both vaginally and anally yet did not respond as if she was conscious.