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Can you believe this....it's horrible

It shows you how heinous people are...

RICHMOND, Calif. -- Police believe as many as a dozen people watched a 15-year-old girl get beaten and gang-raped outside her high school homecoming dance without reporting it.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that onlookers laughed, took pictures and even joined in the crime.

Two suspects were in custody Monday, but police said as many as five other men attacked the girl over a two-hour period Friday night outside Richmond High School.

"She was raped, beaten, robbed and dehumanized by several suspects who were obviously OK enough with it to behave that way in each other's presence," Lt. Mark Gagan said. "What makes it even more disturbing is the presence of others. People came by, saw what was happening and failed to report it."

The victim remained hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Manuel Ortega, 19, was arrested at the scene and was being held on $800,000 bail for investigation of rape and robbery. He is not a student at the school.

Richmond police Sgt. David Harris said he did not know if Ortega had retained an attorney.

A 15-year-old student also was booked late Monday on one count of sexual assault, Gagan said.

Police said the girl left the dance and was walking to meet her father for a ride home when a classmate invited her to join a group drinking in the courtyard. The victim had drank a large amount of alcohol by the time the assault began, police said. The girl's father was looking for her during the attack, according to the LA Times:

Police were finally called after a female student overhead people talking about the rape. She called 911 and told dispatchers what she had heard, Gagan said.

When officers arrived on the scene, the assault was still going on. Several suspects fled as officers found the girl naked from the waist up, Gagan said.

The victim was semi-conscious near a picnic table, police said.

Marin Trujillo, a spokesman for the West Contra Costa Unified School District, said there were four police officers and three school administrators monitoring the dance, but the assault happened away from the gym.

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Permalink Reply by Callie Leah on November 6, 2009 at 10:26pm

Yeah, I know you guys are right, but it's still argueable. I know they weren't his responsibility, but the least he could have done was warn them not to get in the car. He's gotta have SOME fault, right? Just a little bit, though.

scribbler said:

I've got to agree with Vivi on that one. He could have contacted their parents but the fault lay with the woman that got drunk. I would want to take them all home, however remember he's a man and the kids could have been female. I'm female. Their parents may not have liked a strange man bundling them into their car either although a woman could have been acceptable given the circumstances. It's a tough call on what would have been the right thing to do there. He could have called the police, true, and anonymously if he felt he didn't want to have his name involved.

Viviana Arteaga said:
I get what you mean but personally I dont think his responsible for them, the wife was, not him the right thing to do was to call thier parent or give them a ride but it wasnt his responsiblility simply because they werent his and he wasnt the one who said he'e give them a ride.
Callie Leah said:
That's terrible! I never understood why people did stuff like that. And there are ceratin things that I don't want to know. My mom's really protective, and if she saw that article, she's never let me out of the house again. But I would never drink. That reminds me of a story my teacher talked about. There a party at this school, and there was this one mom who was supposed to drive four of the teenagers home, and she got drunk. When one of the parents found she was drunk, he went to the school and said to his daughter, "You're mine, and you're coming home with me this instant." He just left the other three there. Did he have a responsiblity to protect those kids? yes Should he have at least called the police? yes Did anyone die? no, thank god Are the parents sueing him? yes and they have every right to