3 teens held in sex assault of girl who killed herself

[Judi Lynn]

Source: South Bend Tribune

3 teens held in sex assault of girl who killed herself
By a Times Staff Writer
11:27 p.m. EDT, April 11, 2013

Three teenage boys were arrested Thursday in Santa Clara County on suspicion that they sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide eight days after she was attacked last fall.

The boys, all 16, were taken into custody at two different high schools and booked into juvenile hall in connection with the attack on Audrie Pott, who hanged herself, authorites told Northern California media organizations.

Robert Allard, an attorney who represents the victim's family, said students shared photos of the attack on their cellphones. Pott posted on her Facebook page that her life was "ruined" and that she was enduring the "worst day ever" shortly before she took her life, Allard said.

The family created a foundation in Audrie's memory to support youths by awarding scholarships.

"She was compassionate about life, her friends, her family and would never do anything to harm anyone. She was in the process of developing the ability to cope with the cruelty of this world but had not quite figured it all out," a statement on the foundation's website says. "It would have been her wish that we could all learn from her unfortunate and tragic passing that somehow through the lessons learned that this tragedy could provide an impetus for change."


Read more: http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-la-me-ln-teens-held-sex-assault-of-girl-20130411,0,1198457.story

[defacto7]

1. Correct me if I am wrong...

but aren't the rapists in Canada whose victim also committed suicide still on the loose?

[Earth_First]

2. I believe so...

I opened this thread hoping it was related to this story.

[BainsBane]

5. Yes, and the police there refused to act

[Selatius]

6. Their claim was that there was insufficient evidence to indict anyone.

Despite that, there's a good possibility that pictures and other information is still currently being passed between students at the school. It would make sense for the police to quickly hunt down that information before it is buried or destroyed.

The hacker collective Anonymous has intervened in the situation and has warned the RCMP that if they don't act, they'll release photos and information on several of the alleged attackers that they've no doubt scoured the internet and facebook/twitter profiles to obtain.

[Posteritatis]

24. The police investigation got reopened 45 minutes ago due to people coming forward. (nt)

[secondwind]

3. America has children who have no boundaries.... parents are at fault!!!!!

[defacto7]

4. For the most part, I agree...

Society in general has been no help to either the parents or the kids as I see it.

[lunatica]

12. And when the police do nothing to arrest the perpetrators who's fault is that?

[One_Life_To_Give]

14. Ours

We get the Law Enforcement we demand. Just as we get the crimes we are willing to tolerate.

[cosmicone]

7. To all those who commented on

the so called "rape culture of India", some even refusing to travel there....

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Very good point. Always lots of ninnies. nt

[Le Taz Hot]

8. The fact that they were

SHARING these photos with others tells me that there is a culture in which people think this is entertainment. When did we start raising sociopaths?

[TxDemChem]

9. I feel for both the California and Canadian families

Although nothing can bring these girls back, we can still call for justice to be done. I am sick and tired of hearing about stories like these. These things should never happen. And any judge or prosecutor involved should make an example out of anyone involved.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Amanda Todd, Rehtaeh Parsons, Audrie Pott. (Rest in peace.) Three too many. nt

[Beacool]

19. You said it!!!

[Doctor_J]

13. It is getting more and more difficult to be anti-death penalty

crimes like this really test my resolve

[Chemisse]

16. They would not get the death penalty for a rape anyway.

In addition, they are 16 years old.

[frylock]

21. i'm perfectly content with scum like this getting their ass beat down in prison on a daily basis

[Kelvin Mace]

23. Can't say I am a fan of children

getting "beat down" in prison.

And yes, I am calling 16 year olds "children".

These boys need to be tried and if convicted, punished humanely.

[Kelvin Mace]

25. Don't let it

Again, unless we have the will, wisdom and ability to punish all equally and be 100% certain of guilt, we have no business executing anyone.

[blackspade]

15. Despicable

This young woman deserved much better from her community and society at large.

All of these events are failures of a system that disarticulates our social structure, parents from children, men from women, etc.
All young people make mistakes, but there should be no tolerance socially for sexual assault and rape.

[a la izquierda]

17. I read this a little while ago.

And I started to wonder where on earth we as a society went wrong. I was 16 not too terribly long ago (well, nearly two decades ago, but it still seems so fresh); I cannot imagine even the worst of the boys I went to school with doing something so revolting. Maybe I'm naive. I don't know. But this publicizing of privacy is really weird and concerning.

I feel so terribly for this girl's family.

[Beacool]

18. Good, but they should have done this before she hanged herself.

Does the victim have to die before the authorities do something about it?

I'm heartsick about the wave of gang rapes in high schools. We are only hearing about the tip of the iceberg. It doesn't seem to be only a US problem either. WHAT IS GOING ON????

What makes boys think that it's acceptable to assault girls? If these were my children I would be beyond disappointed. I would be furious and disgusted that a child who came out of my body would so disrespect another person that they would sexually assaulting them. I also don't get how some of these boys thought that there wasn't anything wrong with what they had done.

Have we failed as a society? Why are these things so prevalent. The one factor that I noticed most of them had in common was the consumption of alcohol. Too young to be drinking and too young to be having sex indiscriminately, let alone raping someone.

I also don't understand the glee taken by non participants who receive pics or videos of what took place. Instead of labeling the girl a "slut" why not realize that she was the victim? Do other kids think that boys are supposed to behave that way and that it's the girl's fault? If they do, we have serious problems as a society.

[SunSeeker]

20. Why did it take the police 6 months to make the arrests?! nt

[alp227]

22. the source is actually the LA Times

I got curious when I saw my county as the place where the boys were arrested in a story from an Indiana newspaper. And it was because the LA Times (in addition to AP or Reuters) is one of those national news providers. LA Times link http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-teens-held-sex-assault-of-girl-20130411,0,7545775.story

Another story: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sex-assault-cyberbullying-suicide-20130412,0,3629780.story

All I can say now is I've got no mercy for these stupid boys and wouldn't shed a tear if I heard about something happening to them behind bars. (You get the idea, I won't get too graphic)

San Jose Mercury News story: http://www.mercurynews.com/saratoga/ci_23008220/south-bay-teens-arrested-rape-case-tied-girls

[smirkymonkey]

26. This is just sickening and so tragic.

What is happening in this world? I cannot believe the unimaginable cruelty of these little sociopaths. I hope they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

[Quantess]

27. Tragic. So sad. (no text)