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Day Two Of The Steubenville Rape Trial – ‘Reno Took Care Of It’
Please note that the following may need a trigger warning for those of you who are survivors of sexual assault, abuse, or rape. Thank you.
Day two of the Steubenville rape trial involved a lot of evidence regarding cell phones and other electronic devices and methods of retrieval of these devices by law enforcement. A forensics expert with Ohio’s crime lab, JoAnn Gibb, testified about texts that were involved with the incidents that took places on the evening of August 11th and the early morning hours of August 12th, and the subsequent aftermath when the 16-year-old rape victim attempted to piece together what occurred during the parties. To try and put this all in perspective, the crime lab retrieved 362,972 from 17 different cell phones about the dates in question.
The young victim’s texts mainly focused on her trying to piece together what happened to her the night before. From an August 12th exchange between the victim and her ex-boyfriend:
Ex-boyfriend: Are you alright? (He sent this message numerous times until she replied)
Jane Doe: I’m good I need to find my phone tho and Trent went through my phone and looked at all our sh*t but what happened last night?
Ex-boyfriend: You were like dead. Then they took you to Mark’s. I went there and left when I saw you naked on the ground. I seriously felt so bad for you and I couldn’t do sh*t about it. I’m so sorry.
Jane Doe: WTF? Who was there? Who did that to me?
Ex-boyfriend: The kids who you woke up with and Idk (I don’t know) you’ll have to ask them.
Jane Doe: You couldn’t have told them to stop or anything?
Ex-boyfriend: You don’t think I did? I flipped out on them and they just said they were going to put you to bed and I don’t know what happened after that.
Jane Doe: Thanks. I hate my life. I don’t even know wtf happened.
The following texts took place after the victim discovered there was a photograph of her with semen on her stomach being passed around:
Jane Doe: OMG please tell me this isn’t f***ing true.
Ex-boyfriend:Â WTF let me find out.
Jane Doe: OMG
Ex-boyfriend:Â You ok?
Jane Doe: Not at all
Ex-boyfriend: You’ll be all right but I mean did you do anything at all with them? If you remember anything at all you have to tell me. I promise I won’t be mad.
Jane Doe: Swear to God I don’t remember doing anything with them because I didn’t feel good after throwing up. I passed out. I remember Trent telling me to do something but I said no.
Ex-boyfriend: If there’s [semen] on you that’s fucking crazy.
Jane Doe: Please find out.
The Jane Doe in this case also had a text exchange with Trent Mays, who has been accused of rape, in which she told asked him “How could you let this happen to me?”
