Five of the six Florida high school football players have been charged after a brutal gang rape of a 16-year-old girl near their Central Florida School on November 2014, police announced Wednesday.
Two of the students — Deoante Stewart, who was 17 on the day of the alleged attack, and Marquis Pierre, who was 16 at the time, will both be tried as adults.
The other three are being tried in juvenile court, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
A sixth suspect, 18-year-old Torreano Batton, was an adult at the time of the attack. He already left the area before the incident.
The six were arrested after a 16-year-old girl told authorities they sexually assaulted her in a patch of woods near Winter Springs High, reports Deadspin.
She told police three of the suspects raped her when she was walking back from the school to a nearby McDonald’s. She was sexually assaulted again on her way back when two of the boys found her and pulled her into the woods where the others were waiting, according to the police report.
The victim was able to film part of the assault on her iPod. According to police, the video shows the boys asking her to perform sexual acts and her telling the boys, “No,” and that she wants to go back to school.
“The males are circling her and appear to be trying to intimidate her into performing the acts and keeping her from leaving,” according to the police report.
The girl said two of the suspects assaulted her twice.
Three of the suspects claim the act was consensual and two denied their roles in the incident.
Batton told investigators he was not involved, and was released in lieu of $35,000 bail. He was ordered to wear a GPS monitor and told to stay away from the school.
If convicted, the juveniles will be in juvenile detention until they turn 19. Those tried as adults — because they are “youthful offenders” — would serve four years in prison, reports the Orlando Sentinel. The maximum sentence for their charges is 30 years behind bars.
Sources: Opposingviews.com
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