Steubenville, OH (BTSNews) -- Members of an Ohio high school football team have been charged with serially gang-raping an intoxicated 16 year-old West Virginia girl at an end-of-summer party last year. The online hacker-activitist group Anonymous has alleged that the football town of Steubenville is conspiring to protect the high school athletes from criminal prosecution, and is holding a rally today to protest that alleged conspiracy. A live feed of that rally can be viewed here.
Two Steubenville High School football players -- Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond, both 16 -- have been charged with rape and kidnapping in the case and are set to stand trial on Feb. 13.
According to the New York Times last month, the alleged rape came to police attention after players and students made references to it on Twitter, posted pictures on Instagram and also uploaded a video from the night to YouTube. The incident apparently began at a party in a volunteer football coach’s home.
The girl, who may have been unconscious, is alleged to have been dragged to different parties and raped over several hours by members of the football team, the Times said. In the 12:29 minute video which Anonymous posted online three days ago, one student claims the girl was urinated on.
The rally is set to take place at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Steubenville at noon, and has promoted on Twitter as #OccupySteubenville. Yet this is only the latest action taken by Anonymous to draw attention to this case.
Last month, Anonymous hacked the website Big Red, which is dedicated to Steubenville's celebrated football team. There, the hacker-activists demanded that the football players allegedly involved in the rape apologize to the girl and her family. If they did not, the group threatened to release the names, addresses, social security numbers and other private information of every player on the team, including its coaches, the principal and others. Although Anonymous said it would release the information on Jan 1, it has not yet done so.
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