Reminder: this case was buried. Evidence was lost. It was reallllly bad, way beyond “just rape.” NY Times, Anonymous, and many individuals through twitter, instagram worked to get this case public. This is a case of social media illuminating corruption and saving the day, such as it is. From two months ago (warning: graphic, horrible):

“When the family of the victim went to file the charges, Jane Hanlin was present. She strongly discouraged them from filing. Hanlin frightened not only the victim, but the parents as well. Telling them that her name was going to be dragged through the mud, she will be in and out of court for well over two years, the press wouldn’t leave any of the family alone once the crime was made public. Scared out of their wits, the parents said they didn’t want that and Hanlin then said not to worry just leave it up to her and the detectives on the case.”

And:

“…even going as so far as threatening victims. That’s right victims.

What is coming to light is something very dark. I won’t post any links, but it can all be Googled, and I know a lot of people are curious.

A 16 year old girl incurred the wrath of her ex-boyfriend and he initiated a revenge that resulted in her being unconscious, dragged from party to party, and being stripped, subject to rape, forced oral copulation, sodomy and being urinated on by multiple people. A 12 minute video was recorded and posted via social media. The police have since lost this video.

During this assault, witnesses made light of the incident and posted pictures to instagram, and joked, along with “play by play” accounts on twitter. One such example was “No one sleeps through a wang in the butt.” A small number of tweets have been preserved in various news articles, but there were a great deal more than is currently being shown.

The girl who originally tried t preserve the evidence in screenshots has been sued for defamation and her posted evidence has since been taken down. Three others are also being sued for defamation…”

Video of a young man bragging about the rape:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22UsHZXPi7Q

…And Basic Context, via a Redditor:

“Rape case at a high school.

Basic background: Video and photo evidence revealed that a girl was sexually assaulted over the course of several hours in front of a party, with no one intervening. Some football players did the assault, while others recorded it. She was unconscious, and until there was national media attention authorities in the town tried to bury the case.”

More, from Gawker (at its best): CNN Reports On The ‘Promising Future’ of the Steubenville Rapists, Who Are ‘Very Good Students’

“For readers interested in learning more about how not to be labeled as registered sex offenders, a good first step is not to rape unconscious women, no matter how good your grades are. Regardless of the strength of your GPA (weighted or unweighted), if you commit rape, there is a possibility you may someday be convicted of a sex crime. This is because of your decision to commit a sex crime instead of going for a walk, or reading a book by Cormac McCarthy. Your ability to perform calculus or play football is generally not taken into consideration in a court of law. Should you prefer to be known as “Good student and excellent football player Trent Mays” rather than “Convicted sex offender Trent Mays,” try stressing the studying and tackling and giving the sex crimes a miss altogether.

It’s perfectly understandable, when reporting on a rape trial, to discuss the length and severity of the sentence; it is less understandable to discuss the end of two convicted rapists’ future athletic and academic careers as if it were somehow divorced from the laws of cause and effect. Their dreams and hopes were not crushed by an impersonal, inexorable legal system; Mays and Richmond raped a girl and have been sentenced accordingly. Had they not raped her, they would not be spending at least one year each in a juvenile detention facility.”