|
| Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announces indictments against four additional people in relation to the 2012 rape of a high school student, on Monday, Nov. 25, 2013 in Steubenville, Ohio. The charges against Superintendent Mike McVey include felony counts of obstructing justice, DeWine said. An elementary school principal, Lynnett Gorman, 40, and a strength coach, Seth Fluharty, 26, are charged with failing to report possible child abuse. A former volunteer coach, Matthew Bellardine, 26, faces several misdemeanor charges, including making false statements and contributing to underage alcohol consumption. |
STEUBENVILLE,
Ohio (AP) -- An Ohio school superintendent and three others were
charged Monday with lying or failing to report possible child abuse
after an investigation prompted by the rape of a nearly passed-out
16-year-old girl by two high school football players.
The
investigation included crimes committed in connection with the case
against two members of the celebrated Steubenville High School football
team as well as a separate alleged rape that happened in April 2012,
four months before the assault that drew nationwide attention over
allegations that prosecutors should have charged more players.
Hacker
activists helped propel coverage of the rape case and press allegations
of a cover-up, including reposting of a 12-minute Internet video made
within hours of the attacks in which a former Steubenville student joked
about the victim.
Ohio Attorney General Mike
DeWine convened the grand jury to look into the behavior of school
administrators and other adults in the community after the two players
were convicted last March. Under the law, educators are required to
report allegations of child abuse.
Two people
had already been charged before Steubenville Superintendent Mike McVey,
strength coach Seth Fluharty, volunteer football coach Matthew Belardine
and elementary school principal Lynnett Gorman were charged Monday.
McVey's
charges include felony counts of obstructing justice and tampering with
evidence and a misdemeanor charge alleging he made a false statement in
April 2012. McVey wasn't immediately available for comment, and
messages were left for his attorney.
Belardine,
whose house authorities said was the scene of the underage drinking
party that preceded the rape last summer, faces several misdemeanor
charges, including making a false statement and contributing to underage
alcohol consumption. Belardine's father, Tim, said his son wasn't
commenting immediately while he worked out legal representation.
Fluharty
was charged with failing to report possible child abuse in August 2012.
Columbus attorney Tom Tyack said he had been contacted to represent
Fluharty but could not comment.
Gorman is
charged with failing to report possible child abuse in April 2012. Her
attorney, Stephen LaMatrice, said she will plead not guilty and the
charge isn't connected to the football players' case, but declined to
elaborate.
DeWine announced the grand jury's
creation March 17, the day a judge convicted Ma'Lik Richmond and Trent
Mays of digitally penetrating a West Virginia girl after an
alcohol-fueled party that followed a team scrimmage.
The
grand jury earlier charged the Steubenville schools' information
technology director with tampering with evidence, obstructing justice,
obstructing official business and perjury. The panel also indicted that
man's daughter on theft and receiving stolen property charges unrelated
to the rape case. Both pleaded not guilty.
The
case has long been marked by allegations that more football players
should have been charged and that police and prosecutors tried to cover
up aspects of the case early on. Authorities counter that the two teens
were arrested and charged within days of the attack.
DeWine
said he believes the grand jury's work is done, barring any new
evidence, and acknowledged people may wonder why still others weren't
charged.
"It is simply not sufficient that a
person's behavior was reprehensible, disgusting, mean-spirited or just
plain stupid," DeWine said.
A group of about a
dozen Steubenville High School students spent their lunch break at the
curb outside the scene of DeWine's news conference, chanting the
school's "Big Red" cheers at passing cars: "We love Big Red, yes we do.
We love Big Red, how 'bout you?'"
The students said they were expressing their support for their school, not any party involved in the investigation.
Big
Red football is a big deal in the economically depressed city of about
18,000, a former steel town that shed thousands of jobs in past decades.
Michael
Moore, 21, who had attended the school, said it was disturbing to hear
the investigation reached the upper levels of the community's
educational leadership.
"These are people we are supposed to look up to," said Moore, 21. "They can't be doing stuff like that."
Derek
Smith, 47, whose son is a fifth grade student at the school overlooking
the stadium home of the football team, said he was upset that school
leaders might have been involved.
"Of course,
it's always disturbing when you find out that the people that are in
charge of your kids at school have been charged with this kind of
thing," he said.
Richmond, 17, was convicted
of rape and sentenced to a year in the juvenile prison system. Mays,
also 17, was convicted of rape and of using his phone to take a picture
of the girl naked and sentenced to two years in juvenile detention.
