Junior High Party Results in 5 Arrests for Gang Rape

It was on a school day a little more than a month ago that a 15-year-old boy at Fleming Junior High School in Lomita invited his friends to come to his house for a ninth-grade “ditch” party.

The 25 teen-agers brought chips and 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor. With their host’s mother away at work, they crowded inside the home on Lucille Avenue.

But what began as a relatively innocuous day of truancy and drinking ended with the gang rape of a 15-year-old Fleming student, according to sheriff’s investigators. Five boys, including three 14-year-olds, have been arrested in the past week and charged with rape or attempted rape.

Detective Marquel Salyer described the case as shocking; those involved were young and most were not considered troublemakers. Salyer said she hopes the case will serve notice that an assault cannot be justified simply because the victim is too intoxicated to resist.

The girl had a blood-alcohol level of 0.25--more than twice the legal limit for driving--seven hours after the party.

“She wasn’t able in that condition to give informed consent,” Salyer said.

The youths were arrested under a section of the rape law that protects those “prevented from resisting by any intoxicating or anesthetic substance.”

Two 14-year-old boys and an 18-year-old were arrested on suspicion of rape, while a 17-year-old and another 14-year-old were arrested on suspicion of attempted rape.

The district attorney’s office is expected to decide within a week whether to file charges against the 18-year-old.

County probation officials will review the cases against the four boys because they are minors. Their names have been withheld.

The suspects have told investigators that the junior high school girl was a willing participant in the sexual encounter, police said. Some other teen-agers who attended the party have also sided with the accused.

The host of the party, who has not been charged and spoke only on the condition that he not be identified, said: “We saw what she was doing and there was no way she was putting up a fight. She just told them (police) it was rape because everybody found out about it.”

Other students at the party made statements against the five teen-agers, despite anonymous phone callers who urged them to remain silent, Salyer said.

The girl told police she only had a little to drink at the party and went to lie down in a bedroom, according to Salyer. Witnesses said that at least five persons entered the room, Salyer said, and two were seen having sex with the girl. Another admitted doing so and two others said they attempted intercourse with her, Salyer said.

“She remembers trying to get away and people pushing down,” Salyer said. “She remembers her brain was Jell-O at this point. She remembers something very bad happening but not being able to do anything about it.”

Boys gathered around a partially curtained window to watch and prevented girls from entering the room, police said. But the host said this week that he “didn’t feel right” about what was happening and told his friends that police were on the way as a ruse to get them to leave.

Most of the teen-agers left, and a friend who arrived at the party late escorted the girl home.

Her parents called deputies and they took the girl to Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Doctors there found physical evidence of intercourse, Salyer said.

The girl stayed home for three weeks and has now enrolled at a new school, according to her mother. “Right now she is not really herself,” the mother said. “She is scared.”

One of the accused boys has been transferred from Fleming Junior High School to another school because of excessive truancy, another transferred voluntarily and the third remains on campus, according to Principal Patrick Cragin. The 17-year-old suspect attends Narbonne High School, and the 18-year-old is not a student, according to police.

“These are typical kids,” Salyer said. “They got caught up in a very, very bad situation. I think this was the first time the victim drank very seriously. This was the first time she really partied. That was the situation for most of them.”

Salyer said she has been disturbed by the reaction of the suspects’ parents.

“They said there’s a lot of peer pressure,” she said. “Their excuse is peer pressure forced (the boys) to do this. That’s unsatisfactory as far as I’m concerned.”

Sheriff’s deputies said that, if convicted, the teen-agers will probably only serve short jail terms because of their age and lack of criminal records.

The girl’s mother is worried that the juvenile justice system will be too lenient. “She is going to be scarred for life,” the woman said. “I do think they should go to jail for that.”