A grand jury about to be seated in eastern Ohio will investigate whether other laws were broken in the case of a 16-year-old girl raped by two high school football players last year.
Nothing is off the table for the Jefferson County panel expected to be selected Monday in Steubenville, said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
“The grand jury is a very good investigative tool as well as a very deliberative body,” DeWine said. It will investigate everything that happened before and after the rape, he said.
Some of the outstanding questions in the case include whether anyone knew about the rape early on but didn’t report it and how dozens of teens attending a party that preceded the attack got ahold of beer and other alcohol.
DeWine has also previously confirmed that the grand jury will look at allegations of another rape the previous April.
A judge last month convicted the two football players of penetrating the West Virginia girl with their fingers after an alcohol-fueled party, once in a moving car and later in the basement of a house.
Ma’Lik Richmond, 16, was sentenced to at least a year in the state juvenile detention system, minus about two months he spent in jail before the trial.
Trent Mays, 17, was sentenced to at least two years in juvenile detention because he was also convicted of photographing the underage girl naked.
One of the reasons DeWine wanted a grand jury is because, even though the teens were arrested within days of the August attack, charges of a cover-up have dogged the case.
Part of that related to inaccurate reports early on that the local prosecutor’s son, who plays on the football team, was involved in the attack. The prosecutor took herself off the case and DeWine’s office stepped in.
The influence of the Big Red football team on community judgment was also questioned, with the coach and district criticized for allowing boys who witnessed the attack to continue playing that fall.
Testimony during the March trial indicated head football coach Reno Saccoccia may have been aware of the rape allegation early on. The coach knew what
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/Wv9eqESDXZ4/




