The Buckingham

Photo Credit: www.theatlanticwire.com

A girl who was raped by two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio has gained national attention.

Steubenville is a typical small town, in which the high school football team is everything.  However, on the night of Saturday, Aug. 11, and early the next morning, during a series of end-of-summer parties, police say that some members of the Big Red football team allegedly assaulted and videotaped a teenage girl who had passed out.

The girl, who has not been named, did not remember the assault until the videos were posted to YouTube.

The two boys, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, both 16, have been charged with rape.  One has also been accused of “illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.”

The case has gained national attention due to the use of social media by other teammates, bloggers, and even Anonymous, a loosely organize group of hackers.

Anonymous has released information about the town and the football team, and has threatened to release more unless everyone comes clean about what happened that night.

As for social media, an image of the girl’s limb body being held hand and foot by two males who appear to be the two football players, has been circulating.  Another photo, of the girl naked, has also been found.  There’s also tweets from several members bragging about the incident, including calling the girl “sloppy,” references to rape, and even the suggestion that she had been urinated on.

A 12-minute video of another boy, posted by Anonymous, shows him making joke after joke about the girl’s condition, even saying she had to have been dead since she didn’t move during the assault.  Other male voices can also be heard off-camera, laughing about the incident.

Police became involved with the case on Aug. 14, when the girl’s mother came forward to report the alleged assault.  The family also provided a zip drive showing a Twitter page, with a possible photo.

On Aug. 27, authorities charged the two defendants with assault and kidnapping, which that charges was later dropped after a hearing in October.  That same day, Jefferson County asked for help from the attorney general’s office in investigating and prosecuting the case.

The case, which has been called out for protecting its football players and team, will go to trial before an Ohio juvenile court judge on Feb. 13.