Man Charged In Gang-Rape Of Girl Expresses Regret (Thought She Was Older)

[matcom]

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The oldest man charged with participating in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl last week said Sunday night she was a stranger to him before the incident, "looked like she was 19 or 20" and was videotaped having sex with several people.

"She looked grown to me, man," said Freeman Gurley via telephone from the Milwaukee County Jail. He said he's sorry he got involved and didn't do anything to stop what was going on in his house.

Gurley, 40, faces a felony count of first-degree sexual assault of a minor and contacted the Journal Sentinel to describe the incident in detail. His identity was confirmed by an inmate known to a reporter, and Gurley gave details of the incident that have only been described in court records, including his date of birth.

He said that prosecutors' account of the assault in criminal charges filed last week is correct and that there were several other adults present during the rape. Officials have said as many as 19 might have participated. So far, one 18-year-old man, a 16-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy have been charged, in addition to Gurley.

Gurley said he got home from his job as a butcher at about 9 p.m. Sept. 4, used some cocaine, put the rest of his chicken dinner in the refrigerator and began drinking Milwaukee's Best beer. He went to a locked bedroom in his house in the 3700 block of N. 6th St. where he heard "moaning" from inside and eventually was let into the room, where he saw "12, 13 or 14" other men and teens present. He said the girl was freely having sex with several men during the hour he was present, but another man in the room had told her not to have sex with Gurley. She eventually acquiesced, he said, at someone else's urging. The criminal complaint says that person was the 15-year-old boy who is charged.

"I thought she was a boy's girlfriend," he said.

He said that he never spoke with the girl and that he didn't think about using a condom. The police officer who arrested Gurley broke the news that the girl was 11, and he later learned the girl had been born with HIV.

Gurley said he has resigned himself to believing he now has HIV and that he's sorry about participating - and allowing the incident to go on - now that he knows her age.

"That's terrible, man," he said.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=494435&format=print