"Jane Doe" - 11 yo - Cleveland (NE of Houston) TX

At least 18 charged in alleged gang rape of Texas girl

March 07, 2011

By the CNN Wire Staff

Thirteen adults and five juveniles have been arrested as part of an investigation into the alleged rape of a Texas girl, police said.

Darrell Broussard, assistant police chief for the Cleveland, Texas, police department, said Monday that the investigation into the incident "is continuous," with more significant developments possible.

Cleveland is about 50 miles northeast of Houston.

"There have been leads during our investigation that have alerted us to other possible persons of interest," Broussard told CNN. "The investigation is ongoing."

The 18 individuals charged thus far are between 14 and 27 years old, he said.

On Friday, the Cleveland police department announced that four students in the Cleveland independent school district had been arrested on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14.

They appeared Monday in a Liberty County court, in the town of Liberty, to face the charges.

Police noted that some but not all suspects are students at Cleveland High School, though all those named thus far are from the town.

Mike Little, the district attorney in Liberty County, said police would likely decide whether more people would be charged. He offered few other details, saying, "We are very careful about pretrial publicity."

The incident allegedly happened late last year in Cleveland. The case has sharply divided the community, according to CNN affiliate KHOU, which reported the girl was 11 years old.

"It just seems like a dream," said Sherry Fletcher, whose 20-year-old son Devo Shaun Green is among those charged according to Cleveland police. "I just hope everything comes out well, because some of these kids are innocent."

Those adults arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony in Texas, could face 25 year to life in prison if convicted, according to the police department.

Just to clarify, and I agree with you Toes that Twinkle (nice choice of color)... until (and this is the sad part)
they have been tried and convicted the crime really did not happen in the eyes of the courts.
She may show signs of the occurrence (assault) but the crime(s) did not happen.
It's inanity, I know, but that's how the courts deal with these things.
In essence, a poor choice of construction on behalf of the writer.
The crime(s) are alleged, not the resultant injuries, both physical and mental.
I would have left alleged out altogether, as you suggest.

Thirteen adults and five juveniles have been arrested as part of an
investigation into the alleged rape of a Texas girl, police said.

Maybe this> A Texas girl who shows evidence of sexual abuse and rape has, through police investigation, led to the arrest of
thirteen adults and five juveniles...

I respectfully disagree. A robbery is not an alleged robbery. It is a crime. It happened. A gang rape of an 11 year old is not alleged, it happened. What is alleged is who committed the vile acts.

There are incidences where a rape can be "alleged". This is not one of those cases.

The crime occurred. All that needs to be established in court is by whom.

Alleged gang rape of girl, 11, ignites firestorm in Texas community

By the CNN Wire Staff
March 14, 2011 10:42 p.m. EDT


Police say 13 adults and five juveniles have been arrested related in their investigation.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• 13 adults and 5 juveniles have been charged for the alleged sexual assault
  
• At a meeting, a community activist casts responsibility on the girl and her parents
  
• A civic leader says that the girl and her parents are not to blame
  
• She believes the case is "segregating our community" of Cleveland, Texas
  

(CNN)-- The alleged gang rape of an 11-year-old girl has torn apart a Texas community, with some focusing on the girl and her parents as much as, if not more than, the 18 people accused of sexually assaulting her.

"It is segregating our community," Brenda Myers, the head of the Community nd Children's Impact Center in Cleveland, Texas, told HLN's Vinnie Politan on Monday. "There's a lot of anger, a lot of vicious remarks toward the little girl."

This month, police said 13 adults and five juveniles have been arrested related to their investigation of an alleged rape late last year in Cleveland, a community about 50 miles northeast of Houston.

Darrell Broussard, Cleveland's assistant police chief, said that the 18 individuals charged thus far are between 14 and 27 years old.

On Thursday, Quanell X, a community activist, traveled from Houston to help stage a town hall meeting called to address rising concerns -- especially in Cleveland's African-American community -- about the case.

Among other issues, he said that the girl didn't do enough to stop the alleged assailants.

"It was not the young girl that yelled rape. Stop right there -- something is wrong, brothers and sisters," Quanell X said.

And, speaking over yells of support from the crowd, he also questioned the role of the girl's parents.

"Where was the mother? Where was the father?" he said.

Soon after that event, community activist Linda Morales defended the girl.

"This was an 11-year-old child. And no matter what she did, did not do, how she dressed, how she talked, how she acted does not matter," Morales said. "This was a brutal and savage rape."

Myers said that she knows the girl, her siblings and her parents, and the entire family was active in her organization.

"These kids are good kids," she said. "These (the girl and her siblings) were in basketball, honors society, ROTC programs. So I feel the parents were doing something right in their lives."

In addition to her distress for the girl, Myers added she also was "devastated ... that our community and people in our community are saying (this) about an 11-year-old child. It breaks my heart, it really does."

Responding to a question of whether more arrests might be forthcoming, Broussard told CNN that investigators have been alerted to "other possible persons of interest."

Those tried as adults could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted on charges of sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony in Texas, the Cleveland Police Department said in a statement.

Affidavit: Texas girl's assault recorded on cell phones



As of Monday, 13 adults and five juveniles had been arrested as part of the investigation, authorities say.


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A video was circulating among students in Cleveland, according to documents
  
• Defense attorney says as many as 28 people could be involved
  
• Police say they've known about the case since December
  

(CNN)
-- An alleged sexual assault of a Texas girl involving nearly 20 people was recorded on cell phones, and a video of the alleged incident was circulating among students in her school district, according to court documents obtained Tuesday.

As of Monday, 13 adults and five juveniles had been arrested as part of the investigation, authorities said. A defense attorney for one of the suspects told CNN affiliate KPRC that the number of suspects could increase.

"I don't know the exact number of people involved," James Evans said. "I've heard as many as 28 or more."

The case has sharply divided the community, according to CNN affiliate KHOU, which reported the girl was 11 years old.

Darrel Broussard, assistant police chief for the Cleveland, Texas, Police Department, said Monday that the investigation into the incident "is continuous," with more significant developments possible. Cleveland is about 50 miles northeast of Houston.

"There have been leads during our investigation that have alerted us to other possible persons of interest," Broussard told CNN. "The investigation is ongoing."

The 18 individuals charged thus far are between 14 and 27 years old, he said. Those who are adults were indicted last month on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

On Friday, the Cleveland Police Department announced that four students in the Cleveland Independent School District had been arrested on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14. The juveniles appeared Monday in a Liberty County court in the town of Liberty.

Police noted that some but not all suspects are students at Cleveland High School.

Mike Little, the district attorney in Liberty County, said police would likely decide whether more people would be charged. He offered few other details, saying Monday, "We are very careful about pretrial publicity."

The incident allegedly happened November 28 at two residences in Cleveland, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by CNN on Tuesday.

The girl told a school district police chief about the incident, who notified Cleveland police on December 3, the affidavit said. The chief then interviewed employees of the Cleveland Independent School District who had heard of the incident, according to the documents. One employee spoke with several students "who had seen the cell phone videos or heard of the incident," according to the affidavit.

The girl told a forensic interviewer from a child advocacy center that one suspect called her "and asked if she wanted to ride around" on that day, the affidavit said. Three of the suspects picked her up and took her to one residence where a fourth suspect lived. The fourth suspect told her to take her clothes off, she said, adding that "he would have some girls 'beat her up' or she would not be taken back to her residence if she did not comply." the affidavit said.

The girl said she engaged in sexual acts in the bedroom and bathroom of the residence. While in the bathroom, she said, she heard one suspect on the phone inviting other people over to have sex with her, and said when she came out of the bathroom four men she did not know were there, the affidavit said.

The aunt of the suspect arrived home, however, and "the victim and the other individuals left the residence in haste through the rear window of the house," according to the affidavit. After leaving, the girl said she and the others went to an abandoned trailer where the sexual acts continued, the affidavit said.

"Victim stated that digital still images and digital video images of the sex acts were recorded by one or more individuals using cellular telephones," according to the affidavit.

Broussard told CNN on Tuesday that it took authorities months to investigate the incident and obtain indictments and arrest warrants. "To put together the case, it takes time to do that," he said.

Republican lawmaker blames 11-year-old victim of alleged gang rape


Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 -- 4:19 pm

Elected officials should know better than to blame the victim of a sex crime.

While it's a common tactic of abusers, it's something no one expected of Republican Florida state Rep. Kathleen Passidomo.

During debate over a bill that would legislate a dress code for Florida students, Passidomo blamed the alleged gang raping of an 11-year-old in Cleveland, Texas on the way the young girl was dressed.

"There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gang raped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed like a 21-year-old prostitute," Passidomo declared. "And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students," she added.

Broward/Palm Beach New Times' Brandon Thorp was shocked.

"Whoa!" he wrote. "As a genus, politicians aren't the brightest wicks in the candelabra, but they usually possess sufficient self-awareness to shield the public from the horrorshows of their minds. Blaming the rape of an 11-year-old girl on her parents' sense of fashion -- and to do so out loud -- smacks of rank amateurism."

Another man has been charged, bringing the total number of boys and men
charged in the girl’s rape to 19. It’s also been discovered that the
girl was attacked not just once, but on several occasions during a
three-month span beginning in September 2010; that her mother suffers from tumors
on her brain that have gone untreated for a year because she doesn’t
have healthcare; that her father, a carpenter, has suffered severe
depression since injuring his back and being put out of work last year;
that the little girl is still being hidden in a foster care home while
the town gnashes its teeth and implicates this 11-year-old child in her
own rape; and that the family, poor and destitute, has been forced to
uproot their other kids and move to an undisclosed location where they
have no furniture and little money to survive.