Sunday, January 13, 2013

New Steubenville cellphone pics show two more undressed girls in basement of rape house; three
more players could be charged


Jeff Stone of the International Business Times reports that Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has insisted in recent interviews with local media that
“We have offered nothing, made no promises to any witness in this case. … No deals have been cut with anybody,” DeWine said while refusing to make a statement about any evidence. “We're not going to try this case in the media. We're going to present our case in court, and the judge will make a decision.”
     Stone then reasoned that more people may be charged:
The potential involvement of Mark Cole, Evan Westlake, and Anthony Craig - named by Ohio’s Times Leader after an Oct. 12 hearing - has been rumored but largely overlooked because of a rumored immunity from prosecutors.
     This despite the fact that defense attorneys have already told reporters that immunity was granted to friends of Mays and Richmond in exchange for testimony and the citing of correspondence from DeWine in October, in which the attorney general wrote that Cole, Craig and Westlake “may not have conducted himself in a responsible or appropriate manner, his behavior did not rise to the level of any criminal conduct.... Therefore, we will not prosecute your client for his actions on August 11-12, 2012.”
     Prosecutors frequently leave themselves an out in such agreements by  cancelling immunity in the case of an "incomplete" and untruthful statement. Disclosure of more evidence (especially hacked social media documents and pictures) may have provided the attorney general with evidence that the witnesses did more than they admitted.
     Meanwhile Laura Collins of the UK's Daily Mail reports that more cellphone evidence has been either recovered or discovered, including the depiction of two more girls "semi-naked and face down in basement where 16-year-old was 'raped by Ohio school football stars" — on "distinctive" carpet "strikingly similar" to that in a different image which came to light in August.
    MailOnline says it has seen a 300-page transcript of the hearing about what happened the night of the alleged party rape.
     The photographs were stored on a cellphone belonging to a teammate and friend of the Steubenville case accused who is a fellow wrestler and foot player who cannot be named for legal reasons, but who was present on the night in August when the girl was allegedly raped by the two.
     He provided eyewitness testimony at the probable cause hearing last October at which the rape charges were upheld.
     The existence of these earlier photographs, retrieved by forensic analysts, emerged only under cross-examination and the witness repeatedly denied all knowledge of them in spite of their presence on his phone.
     In a tense courtroom exchange Walter Madison, Richmond’s attorney questioned the witness: ‘There is a photograph here of a woman on the same carpet as the carpet in xxxx’s basement. Do you recall that photo on your phone?’
     The witness replied ‘No sir.’ Asked about a second picture the witness claimed, 'I have never seen those pictures in my life.'
     The Mail also reports that a suspect in the case was allowed to go on Californian vacation while under 'house arrest'
    Two of the three teammates who gave testimony in the probable cause hearing admitted to having taken photographs and in one instant filming the alleged assaults. Both deleted the evidence from their cellphones before police seized them.
     In all police seized fifteen cell-phones and two iPods over a period of several days.
     According to Judge Thomas Lipps, the only reason neither of the youths who admitted recording events in this way are facing criminal charges is ‘because we cannot find the photos you took.’
     “Do you understand how lucky you are?’ he added.

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