TX - 21 arrests in gang rapes of 11yo girl, Cleveland, 2010

[Missizzy]

I just hope that the community members and families take it seriously. If the defense uncovers any discussion amongst families or friends, the testimony can be considered tainted and inadmissible. And you'd better believe that each witness will be asked this under oath. Private journals and handwritten notes will be subpoenaed.

It seems heartless to expect children to only be able to speak in private with trained therapists or detectives for the two-three years this will take to come to trial but the families MUST commit themselves. The children will have to be supervised, taped, and surveilled at all times. We had to have each room audio-monitored and the children had to have full time aids at school to prevent talk. They couldn't even sit next to each other on their special bus. It's brutal but it's the way it has to be.

Hopefully, the DA's can bring in some counsellors who will help the kids understand the great importance of this order. Otherwise, the trial will fizzle.

Over the years, this particular element of a child sexual abuse trial has seemed to shock more people than any other detail. Parents just cannot accept that they can't comfort their children or answer questions honestly.

 

[sfbaynancydrew]

Adding this article to the mix:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/03/a_lot_of_people_in_cleveland_t.html

 

[Missizzy]

This is a public call for prayers for the child victim. Just what other children are "disappearing"? That concerns me.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/carol...that-we-have-found-out-abou/10150430239340321

"...She hears from kids who's friends have disappeared "for their safety" and are now burdened with the worry if those left behind...."

 

[Missizzy]

Very poignant and moving. Oh, but if only this wise man would travel to Cleveland and speak out:

http://moms.today.com/_news/2011/03...ne-fathers-open-letter-to-a-young-rape-victim

Little girl loved: One father's open letter to a young rape victim

The full letter:

http://mybrownbaby.com/2011/03/blac...year-old-gang-rape-victim-in-cleveland-texas/

 

[lonetraveler]

By engaging in trying to show the good side of the family or the child, by dignifying it with a response is a subtle admission that their point is some sort of mitigatable argument.

None of it matters. If that 11 year old child, who was, from reports from a defense attorney on the case, no less, that these young men KNEW she was underaged, was running down the street begging for it, NONE of it matters. That child was 11 years old. EVEN if she threw hereslf underr them, she is a child! If a child behaves in taht way that would (should be) a huge red flag that this is one very troubled child! Not fair game.

Again though, the woman's heart was in the right place, she merely felt badly that these people she KNEW were being portayed poorly by the perps support group. She just opened the door for debate when the door is locked. no debate here. 11.

I've been so angry over this case. The child said that she was order to disrobe and that if she didn't she would be beaten up. How can anyone consider this as willing??????:banghead:

 

[LCoastMom]

I've been so angry over this case. The child said that she was order to disrobe and that if she didn't she would be beaten up. How can anyone consider this as willing??????:banghead:

I suppose by the same sickness that thinks an 11 year old is a willing participant. They will see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear, but for the 11 year old child - they are blinded to her pain, misery and loss of innocence. It is appalling, I hope somehow, someway they grow to know this.

 

[Missizzy]

I found this to be a very measured and thought-provoking blog post about the incident:

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/03/earlier_this_week_i_wrote.html

Now will Dr. R. L’Heureux Lewis please please please travel to Cleveland and do some lectures? As the mother of five black men, I found Dr. Lewis' words to be very wise. Each of my nine sons just received an email from me with a link to this post.

 

[tlcya]

thank you Missizzy, I am linking this blog on my FB and twitter. This is important and needs to be out there.

Now, how do we get this Dr. Lewis to Cleveland? This is the sort of voice of reason IMO those folks need in their town.

 

[Missizzy]

You know, when I started to send it out to my sons, I sent it to only the ones of color. To heck with that idea!! All men need to hear these words. There's nothing groundbreaking for our sons as they've had these lessons preached at them since they were young boys. But I think many many young men have not heard this instruction from a voice of authority....especially another man of color, a father figure, a man of respect.

 

[mysteriew]

Very poignant and moving. Oh, but if only this wise man would travel to Cleveland and speak out:

http://moms.today.com/_news/2011/03...ne-fathers-open-letter-to-a-young-rape-victim

Little girl loved: One father's open letter to a young rape victim

The full letter:

http://mybrownbaby.com/2011/03/blac...year-old-gang-rape-victim-in-cleveland-texas/

Having seen so much and read so much and cried so much, I find that now I cannot cry. It has been a very long time that I have cried for someone I didn't know. But this did it. I had forgotten people like that existed. Beautiful letter.

 

[Missizzy]

I've been busy looking up other pieces that this dear man wrote. What words of solace...spoken by a man, a father, a grandfather, and an uncle. We need more men like this. If this little girl could take only a single letter written to her during this horrid ordeal, I would choose this one.

And young men, LISTEN to your elder. He's speaking to you!!

 

[Steely Dan]

Sorry if this has already been posted.

JVM on people blaming the victim. http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/03/19/velez-mitchell-gang-rape/index.html?hpt=T2

The horrific event occurred in a small Texas town about 50 miles outside of Houston. Reports are that the town has become deeply divided with some blaming the girl and her parents. Some residents told reporters that the girl hung out with older boys at the playground, liked to dress older than her age and wore makeup. And the relevance of those claims to the crime of her being raped would be... what exactly? Perhaps she looked a little older? Say... 13?

Is someone actually suggesting there could be any justification for any human being getting gang raped, much less an underage girl? Sadly, pathetically, yes. That seems to be exactly what some people are suggesting.

First, an attorney for some of the suspects described the girl as someone who had a "desire to be a willing participant." That was followed by the arrival in town of a Houston-based community activist named Quanell X who stood before a group of local parents and exclaimed, "It was not the young girl that yelled rape! Stop right there. Something is wrong brothers and sisters... Where was her mother? Where was her father? Where was her family?"

Seriously, I mean seriously?! There are people who believed the 11 year old was asking for it. What a sad world we live in.

 

[Missizzy]

Sadly, Steely Dan....seriously.

 

[Missizzy]

I think we need a header change, sadly:

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Deputies-19th-suspect-arrested-in--118598649.html

Deputies: 19th suspect charged in alleged Cleveland gang rape

"Another suspect has been arrested in the alleged gang rape of an 11-year-old Cleveland middle school student, deputies said Thursday.
Deputies said Walter Harrison turned himself in to authorities Wednesday night after he saw his photo on the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office 10 Most Wanted List. Harrison was charged with aggravated assault and denied bond.

Cleveland ISD police said the girl, who has since turned 12, reported the alleged assault to her principal’s office in early December. She told school officials she was raped by as many as 20 men and boys, and it happened in an abandoned mobile home over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Texas Rangers and Cleveland police searched a mobile home near the corner of Ross and 2nd Street after the girl reported the alleged assault. Police said they also processed a second, unnamed scene for evidence...."

more at link (plus some head-shakingly cruel comments....really??)

 

[sfbaynancydrew]

This article is so sad. At least it attempts to do some justice to the victim.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/us/29texas.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

3-Month Nightmare Emerges in Rape Inquiry

A year ago, the 11-year-old girl who the police say was the victim of repeated gang rapes in this East Texas town was an outgoing honor roll student, brimming with enthusiasm, who went on hikes and planted trees with a youth group here.

A TROUBLED HOME: The initial assaults occurred in the Rayford T. Ellis home, the affidavits say.

“She has always been a really bubbly child,” said Brenda Myers, director of the Community and Children’s Impact Center, who worked with her. “She always had a smile on her face...

 

[peeples]

According to indictments, one man accused of participating was Kelvin R. King, 21, who was out on bond while awaiting trial on rape and robbery charges. Another was Marcus A. Porchia, 26, who worked at a local mental health clinic. Yet another, Isaiah R. Ross, 21, the son of a local school board member, was also present at the Nov. 28 rape, according to a search warrant affidavit for his telephone.

I"m sick.. just sick..

 

[peeples]

the whole thing is just sad

Both parents are plagued with health problems. Juan injured his back in November 2009 and has not held a steady job since. A diabetic, he receives disability checks of $700 a month. His wife, 42, was told last year that she had a mass in her brain, and a doctor had said it should be removed, friends said. She suffers frequent headaches and fainting spells.

Yet she put off surgery and continued to work at night at a cashier at an underground gambling parlor, friends said.

 

[jjenny]

I realize that many people are upset at the parents being blamed, but here in the article the father is quoted saying that the child told them she was raped, and claims the mother reported it THREE DAYS later, but court records show it was the school that reported it. So, what gives? Why would the mother wait three days to report something like that (and maybe not even then, since court records say it was the school reporting it).

 

[believe09]

Well, I would imagine that realizing your own action/inaction regarding who your child is hanging out with and what they are doing with them...much less what is being done to them may be cause to try and figure out how you are going to report it. For the reasons we are seeing here-the parents are going to be shredded.

I remember a case out of CA where a man was charged with statutory rape and child sexual abuse. The girl was 14 and he was 26. Her parents never reported it, because it was acceptable in their South American culture to have this kind of disparity in age. They were "engaged".

I am not saying this is the case here, but I can think of a number of odd reactions to a criminal case against a child which ultimately led to someone else as the perp, but where the parent didnt report or come clean for days. Jonathan Foster is also an example, also out of TX. His parents didnt come clean with police until Monday-IIRC, Jonathan disappeared on Friday. Turns out that mom, who had previously been under watch by DSS, didnt want anyone to know she left him home alone so she could go to work.

 

[jjenny]

I realize that many people would not report a situation where a teenage girl who is legally under age is hanging around/having sex with an older boyfriend. And police might look the other way too in such situations unless somebody complaints. But in this case the situation is nowhere near that, and the girl is only 11.