Chicago Sun Times Reports
Officers responding to a report of hysterical screams found an 8-year-old girl partially clothed and four boys, barely in their teens, running from an empty shed.
The boys, ages 9 to 14, face charges ranging from sexual assault to kidnapping, police said Thursday. Authorities in Phoenix say it's one of the most horrific cases they've ever seen.
Investigators said the boys lured the girl to an empty shed on July 16 under the pretense of offering her gum. The boys then held the girl down while they took turns raping her, police said.
"She was brutally sexually assaulted for a period of about 10 to 15 minutes," police Sgt. Andy Hill said.
The 14-year-old boy was charged Wednesday as an adult with two counts of sexual assault and kidnapping, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office said. He appeared in court Thursday and was being held without bond. He does not yet have a defense lawyer.
The other boys -- ages 9, 10, and 13 -- were charged as juveniles with sexual assault. The 10- and 13-year-old boys also were charged with kidnapping, the office said Thursday.
"This is a deeply disturbing case that has gripped our community," Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said. "Our office will seek justice for the young victim in this heartrending situation."
The outrage over the allegations has intensified when police said the girl's parents criticized her after the attack and blamed her for bringing shame on the family.
"The father told the case worker and an officer in her presence that he didn't want her back. He said 'Take her, I don't want her,"' Hill said.
Hill cited the family's background as the reason the family shunned the girl. All five children are refugees from the West African nation of Liberia.
In some parts of Africa, women often are blamed for being raped for enticing men or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Girls who are raped often are shunned by their families.
"It's a shame-based culture, so the crime is not as important as protecting the family name and the name of the community," said Tony Weedor, a Liberian refugee in Littleton, Colo., and co-founder of the CenterPoint International Foundation, which helps Liberians resettle in the United States.
"I just feel so sorry for this little girl," he said. "Some of these people will not care about the trauma she's going through -- they're more concerned about the shame she brought on the family."
In recent years, Liberia has made efforts to combat rape under the leadership of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who has sought to dispel the stigma associated with sexual assault by publicly acknowledging that she was herself the victim of attempted rape during the country's civil war.
The girl's healing process will be particularly difficult, said Paul Penzone of Childhelp, which aids young victims of crime. Authorities said the victim was in the care of Child Protective Services.
"These four boys used what was a ploy to entice her to a place where they could take advantage of her almost like a pack of wolves," he said.
"And what's so disturbing beyond the initial crime is the fact that a child needs to have somewhere to feel safe, and you would think that would be in a home with her own family," not in state custody, Penzone said.
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Former Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam artist Tru Life turned himself in to authorities last night (June 23) to face a charge of 1st degree murder, according to reports.
The charge is possibly tied to a brutal stabbing incident last week that left one man seriously injured, and an 18-year old teen dead.
As reported by AllHipHop.com, police were initially investigating Tru Life’s brother for a retaliation attack in the non-fatal shooting of Michael Slater.
The individual, whom police suspect is a drug dealer, was shot in the stomach outside of club Pacha.
Several hours after the crime, police claim five gang members ambushed 30 year old Jason Black and the teen at a Manhattan apartment complex.
Both men were stabbed repeatedly in the chest and face. Black survived the assault, while the unidentified teen succumbed to his wounds.
At the time, police theorized that the back and forth violence was the result of a feud between Jason Black and Tru Life’s brother.
1st degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life in prison under New York law.
If an official or witness is not the victim, the distinction can also be decreed for murders involving multiple parties or tortuous killings.
Tru Life’s last music effort, “Wet ‘em Up,” was heard as a selection on the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto IV.
At press time, Tru Life could not be reached for comment.
Source : ALLHIPHOPRead more…
HAWAIIAN GARDENS - Among the 147 Hawaiian Gardens gang members and associates named in five separate federal indictments, some 49 remained at large Friday, authorities confirmed.
The search, however, will continue, federal and local authorities vowed.
"Operation Knockout has led to federal indictments against 147 gang members, making it the largest gang sweep in U.S. history," United States Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said Thursday when the indictments were unsealed and the results of the pre-dawn raid were shared with media.
During Thursday's operation, a total of 88 defendants were arrested on federal and state charges. Of the 88 arrests, 63 were identified in one of five federal indictments.
With 35 defendants already in custody, there are now 98 people ready to be prosecuted in federal court and, if convicted, who will serve at least 85percent of their terms scattered among 118 federal facilities across the country, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The remaining 49 defendants named in the federal indictments are either fugitives being sought by authorities or individuals who investigators are working to identify and additional arrests are expected in this case, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Some of those being sought are
believed to be in the area while others are suspected to be out of state and out of the country, authorities said.
The indictments and subsequent roundup in Hawaiian Gardens - which included 1,400 law enforcement members from federal, state and local jurisdictions - were the culmination of almost four years of investigation into the tiny town's oldest and most notorious gang, authorities said.
Varrio Hawaiian Gardens waged a racist campaign to eliminate black people from the community through attempted murders and other crimes, according to the federal racketeering indictments unsealed Thursday.
The indictments detailed numerous alleged incidents, including a charge that George Manuel Flores, the lead defendant in the RICO indictment and a longtime member of the gang, allegedly ordered the murder of another gang member who was believed to be cooperating with law enforcement.
Flores also allegedly provided a young gang member with a weapon and instructed him to shoot African-Americans who lived nearby, according to the main indictment.
Included in the gang's plotting was the murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Jerry Ortiz, who was shot in the head in June 2005 by a VHG member while Ortiz was investigating the attempted murder of a black man in the city, O'Brien said Thursday.
It was the cowardly slaughter of Ortiz - a newlywed and father of two sons - that prompted investigators from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department to the FBI to launch "Operation Knockout," O'Brien said.
Gang experts and investigators testified at length about the local gang's efforts to remove all black residents from the community during the 2007 trial for the killing of Deputy Ortiz.
Convicted killer Jose Luis Orozco was found guilty of Ortiz's murder in the 2007 trial.
Ortiz had been investigating the attempted murder of a black man by Orozco when Orozco shot the deputy while hiding behind a door.
The victim, who was hired to do some yard work and fix up a vacant rental property, was targeted by Orozco simply because of his race and because he was in Hawaiian Gardens, witnesses testified.
Orozco is awaiting execution on death row.
Source:presstelegram.com
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