The link to this horrible story about a gang rape was given to me by reader Lya Kahlo [Thanks Lya, I'll gladly add a link if you have one.]
You need to register with the site to read the story, so I’ll include extended excerpts after the jump, along with my extended, expletive-filled rant.
The three, all soccer players at De Anza College, were about to leave [the party] around 12:30 a.m. when a girl they didn’t know gestured to a room off the kitchen and said, “Hey, there’s eight guys in that room with one girl.”
Thinking that was strange, the soccer players – April Grolle, Lauren Chief Elk, and Lauren Bryeans, all 20, knocked on the French doors to the room, which were being held shut from within.
A De Anza college baseball player opened the door about three inches. “You girls don’t know what the f— is going on,” they remember him saying. “Get the f— out of here.”
But a black sheet draped behind the door was lifted a bit at the bottom. As the lights flickered, Chief Elk bent down and saw a mattress, a girl, a man thrusting above her and a number of pairs of legs surrounding them in a horseshoe.
“We immediately knew what was happening,” recalled Chief Elk, 20, as she and Grolle told their story publicly Tuesday for the first time. “We knew it was not right.”
The three women, now “swearing like sailors,” in Grolle’s description, began knocking more fiercely, pushing their way into the room with all the weight in their slender but tall frames.
“You don’t even f—— know the girl,” they remember one young man telling them. “Mind your own business.” At that point, Grolle made up a lie, giving it credibility by saying – correctly – that the girl was wearing a yellow corset. “I do know this girl, she’s a friend of mine,” she remembers yelling.
What they found after the boys departed is etched in their memories forever, every last tawdry detail. On her back on the queen-sized mattress was a semiconscious 17-year-old girl, naked from the waist down. Her eyes were shut. Vomit covered her mouth and ran down the side of her face. Her jeans, panties and one shoe were all shoved down on one leg. The only thing the victim could mutter was “I’m sorry.”
The things that people do to one another make me cry.
Thank god those girls showed up when they did. They took care of the victim and drove her to the hospital. However, it seems that they did not call the police. I applaud what these girls did, but I think that this underscores the need to teach girls and women not only to look out for one another, but to not be afraid to get the authorities involved.
And while I in no way blame these young women, maybe if they had called the police sooner, things wouldn’t have turned out like they did. Because this story gets much, much worse.
The women have gone through rough times: In the first weeks, they were subjected to harassment on the De Anza campus for telling their story to sheriff’s deputies. They missed soccer practices and classes to talk to investigators. And this week, the decision of District Attorney Dolores Carr not to file charges capped the story in a way that’s been painful for them.
. . .
Though the DA isn’t explaining her call beyond a brief statement Monday, she obviously had good reasons. It’s well within belief that the victim’s lack of memory, or problems with witness statements, could fatally hamper the case. Nobody who followed the Duke lacrosse case can say Carr’s caution is wrong. There’s a difference between knowing something and being able to prove it in court.
Assistant District Attorney David Tomkins cautioned that the women’s accounts represent only a “snippet” of the entire investigation and do not address the legal issues that prosecutors had to weigh.
“People can draw any conclusion they want,” Tomkins said. “It doesn’t change what we looked at and it doesn’t change our decision on what we did.”
Look. I’m fucking pissed.
DO NOT, you crazy ass male reporter, tell me that there were “obviously . . . good reasons” to drop this case. Nobody who followed the Duke case can criticize this decision? MAYBE YOU CAN’T, ASSHOLE, BUT I SURE FUCKING CAN. I think it’s great that you, a MAN, who doesn’t face the threat of GANG RAPE if he gets drunk, can write this little article talking about how wonderful these girls are for doing what they did. But you know what’s not so great, fucker? It’s not so great to in no way condemn these boys, who, for the record, do not deserve to live on the same planet as the rest of us. It’s not great to praise these girls for doing the “right thing” and not denounce these boys with every ounce of energy you have. It’s sure as hell not great to fail to use the word “rape” a single time in your little article, let alone fail to call it what it was– gang rape. And it’s sure as fucking hell not okay for you to tell me what I think about it.
But lest I make the mistake of directing all my scorn to Mr. Scott Herhold, let me say that these 8 motherfucking pieces of scum deserve whatever shit they get in life. Intellectually, I am adamantly opposed to the death penalty– but damn, I’d sure as hell like to shut my intellect down sometimes. Fuck all of you. Fuck all of your friends who stood by you. Fuck your family for believing you. Fuck the school if they didn’t expel you. Fuck you for being horrible, horrible people who haven’t earned the right to your genitals.
You may leave any similar expletive-filled rants in the notes, if you’d like.
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I have been crying since I read the story earlier this afternoon. I’m am horrified, disgusted and absolutely heartbroken for this young woman. It’s crystal clear now – between this nightmare, the dungeon rapist, the fraud rapists the list goes on and on – that rape is not illegal in America. As long as the victim is female and especially if you get a gang of your buddies to watch, participate and film the attack – it’s all legal. Those viscious rapist pigs are free to do it again. Another young woman came forward and said that the same team did the same thing to her at the same house a few months before. They did it before and they will do it again. They know they won’t get in trouble – even when there’s witnesses.
The rapists told the intervening women to go away you don’t know her (as if that’s a valid reason to allow someone to be attacked), they said she wanted to be there, they said that it was her fault for getting drunk.
These are the boys this country is raising.
I fear for any woman who comes within 5 feet of these coward rapist pigs.
Perhaps it’s just the tremendous sense of depression, grief and rage I’m feeling right now, but if there were a place to go where there were no men, this shit would not go on. And I’d be the first to buy a plane ticket to get there.
Lastly, I don’t have a link yet. A friend of mine had a blog until a few months ago that she suggested I take over and I just might. As soon as I can breathe again, I just might.
It’s crystal clear now – between this nightmare, the dungeon rapist, the fraud rapists the list goes on and on – that rape is not illegal in America.
Yes. You’re right.
On days like these, I hate this world. I don’t hate all men, but I do agree that if there was a place where there was no men, this shit would NOT happen. It just wouldn’t.
And because of that, I firmly believe that it is the job of all non-rapist men, if they ever want to be taken seriously as not being rapists, to stand up and decry this and push strongly for a conviction every single time it happens.
So I call on the men who read me to post this on your blogs, if you have one, and say what it is you think of it, in plain view, for other men to read. I don’t give a shit if you link to my blog or not. That’s not the point at all. The point is that this is wrong. Every single thing about it as wrong. And as decent human beings, as a duty to yourself and to the women in your lives, you need to say so.
And Lya, your comments tell me that you should start a blog.
Wait, let me gets this straight… Is this De Anza College in Cupertino, California?… This story is in the San Jose Mercury News (the paper I read every day at home)? Because that’s like a 15 minute drive from where I live (I’m currently in college in another state, which is why if this was in the paper, I wouldn’t have heard about it).
What. the. fuck.
And the school probably didn’t expel them because it’s a community college where they don’t give a crap about who goes there.
Mercury News has a follow-up as to why charges weren’t filed here: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_5974317
And you can access the Scott Herhold story here without subscription (I think): http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_5964944
Now I’m really pissed that this happened over two months ago, in my freaking home town, and I NEVER HEARD ABOUT IT.
I hope you feel better in knowing that in our progressive and liberal town, the letters to the editor were probably smacking this case and decision down constantly for the past two months. I’ve read the Merc’s letters to the editor for YEARS and I can imagine a lot of them would be just as outraged as you are right now.
Thanks for the link, Shyva. But that STILL (obviously not your fault) does not explain how there was a “lack of evidence”. I don’t see how several eye witness accounts, as well as what MUST have been some DNA evidence could end up with a “lack of evidence.” If this was a murder case, there is absolutely no way in HELL that this would not have gone to trial. But luckily, it was “just” a rape.
(Now it won’t let me access it without registering. What the heck, Merc. -_-)
But yes, I am boggled as well. There is an editorial about this also saying that Carr needs to give a better explanation than “lack of evidence.” I don’t think she’s looking the other way just because it’s rape (I think one of the articles mentioned that she has prosecuted sexual assault cases to the fullest before), but something fishy is going on for sure.
If it had been ten women sodomizing a comatose underaged boy you can be damned sure there would be enough evidence to put them all in prison forever.
but the victim is just a girl. A fucksock worthless otherwise.
Cara, I don’t blame all men either. ACtually, I take that back, I do blame all men because even if they do nothing wrong, they aren’t standing up when other man make a joke of rape, or excuse rape. They are complict.
And so are all women who don’t speak out as well.
Those three women that saved her are more than heroes. They are good human beings – which is apparently a rare creature.
There’s a site that is on a mission to keep every player and coach on the team associated to the terrible event…
2007deanzacollegebaseballplayersaccusedofrape.com
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