Steubenville, Ohio is know as a town in love with its football teams. They hold they’re high school athletes at an untouchable level. In December of 2012 the hacker group Anonymous released tons of information, pictures, and videos to the public and media about the rape of an unconscious 16 year old female student. I will not go into detail about the nights events (you can search) which are truly too disturbing to go into, but I will say it involved several of the high school’s football players acting out in revenge for a fellow teammate. The entire thing is sickening. According to the Anonymous hackers the girl wasn’t the first to be violated by the team, others had been and police had just swept the incidents under the rug. Currently a trial is underway for two men accused of participating in the act. Even though it is still in the early stages, the out come will have no winners. The girl who was violated will be publicly dragged through the mud to look like something she isn’t and the two young men if convicted will only receive a sentence as juveniles (will be released when they turn 21, currently are 17 and 16). It really doesn’t seem like a punishment. A couple of years maybe if they aren’t released early for ruining someones life. Anyone who has been violated should speak up no matter how embarrassing it might be, by stopping an offender you protect someone else. NBCNews The two Ohio high school football stars accused of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl humiliated “somebody who was too impaired to say no, somebody who was too impaired to say stop,” a prosecutor said Wednesday. In her opening statement at a trial that has divided the football-obsessed town of Steubenville, prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter also said that the girl was “soft-spoken, mumbling and not participating” in the assault. Two players, quarterback Trent Mays and wide receiver Ma’Lik Richmond, are accused of using their hands to violate the girl in a car and in a basement during a night of victory parties last August. The case became national news because graphic cellphone photos and video, including a YouTube posting of a party goer cracking crude jokes about the alleged rape, spread on social media. In a brief opening statement, Brian Duncan, the lawyer representing Mays, said simply: “Trent Mays did not rape the young lady in question.” The lawyer for Richmond declined to make an opening statement. The girl, who told police she didn’t remember the incident, will be among dozens of witnesses taking the stand. Three players who have not been charged but allegedly witnessed the encounters are expected to testify for the prosecution. The prosecution’s evidence also includes a photograph posted on Instagram of Mays, 17, and Richmond, 16, carrying the teen out of a house by her arms and legs. The prosecution called six witnesses on Wednesday, including two 17-year-old girls who knew the alleged victim. Questioned by prosecution and defense attorneys about how much the teen girl had to drink, the first witnesses testified they saw the alleged victim on the night of Aug. 11. One of the girls, a Steubenville High student, said alleged victim was having difficulty walking but never appeared to pass out. She also testified that after midnight, Mays and the victim, who said she was OK, left a house party. That came despite efforts by the witness to stop her. Prosecutors appeared to try to show how drunk and nonparticipatory the alleged victim was, while the defense attempted to show that she was making decisions that night and at one point told friends she was fine and able to take care of herself. The other 17-year-old witness said she had never seen her friend so intoxicated. The final witnesses of the day were the Steubenville police detectives involved in confiscating phones and other devices from people involved in the case and getting them to the state lab for analysis. The defense on cross examination was able to get police to concede it took 16 days before the accusers shirt and pants were taken to the lab for analysis. The trial has put the town, where “Big Red football” dominates life, under a harsh spotlight. Town officials and business leaders have taken to the media to say that the case doesn’t reflect Steubenville. In a sign of the tension surrounding the case, Richmond’s grandmother has said she has been threatened. If convicted, Mays and Richmond could be held in a juvenile jail until they are 21.

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