Day Three Of The Steubenville Rape Trial: Victim Says ‘I Was Drugged’
Day three of the Steubenville gang rape trial took place yesterday and Judge Lipps provided immunity from state prosecution to Evan Westlake, Mark Cole and Anthony Craig in exchange for eyewitness testimony of the defendants, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond engaging in various sexual incidents with the 16-year-old victim. Mark Cole testified that he had taped the victim being penetrated by Trent Mays’ fingers in the backseat of a car driven by Evan Westlake, which was deleted by Evan the following morning. “It was one of those moments you realize you did something wrong or stupid,” Cole said, explaining why he deleted the video. Cole also testified that he witnessed Mays trying to force his penis into the victim’s mouth while she was unconscious in order to get her to perform oral sex on him.
Anthony Craig took a photograph of the naked victim, and sent it to numerous people. When Cole received the image, he sent a text to Mays:
“No, like serious Trent, you can’t be doing that,” Cole texted. “And is that your [expletive] [semen] on her stomach?”
“Ha, ha, ha,” Mays texted back. “Yeah.”
Evan Westlake witnessed the victim unconscious on the floor of the basement, naked on the floor, motionless. Craig also witnessed this, and testified “She wasn’t moving, she wasn’t talking, she wasn’t participating.” The people who were “participating” were Mays, who was “smacking” his penis against the girl’s hip, and Richmond, who was penetrating the victim with his fingers “halfway the the knuckle.” The victim, a short time earlier, had just vomited. When asked by prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter why he didn’t stop it, Westlake said:
“Well, it wasn’t violent. I didn’t know exactly what rape was. I always pictured it as forcing yourself on someone.”
Because the judge granted immunity to these three boys, none of them
face any legal issues with the state of Ohio. Not for failure to stop or report a crime. Not for basically producing and distributing child pornography.
According to Laurie Conway, who has been closely reporting the case for WTRF news, new evidence surfaced where the victim stated she had medical tests which confirmed she was drugged.
If the Steubenville rape trial victim was drugged it would make sense considering this is what the victim has claimed all along. I have no idea if these tests have or will be submitted to the court as evidence, but I would assume they would. The trial continues to day, with the victim, Mays, and Richmond all expected to take the stand.
(photo: Twitter)
