Trial Opens in Rape of Girl at Teen Party

Three teen-age boys took part in the rape of a 14-year-old girl during an unchaperoned party in San Marcos over the Labor Day weekend, seriously injuring her, a county prosecutor alleged in her opening statement Wednesday.

The three youths, ages 14, 15 and 16, are on trial in Juvenile Court, charged on several counts, including sexual assault with a foreign object.

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Cynthia Windsor, said the victim had become drunk and passed out at the party, which was held at a San Marcos teen-ager’s house Sept. 2 while his parents were away. The girl had been taken to a bedroom by friends. The three youths on trial, along with a 17-year-old and a 20-year-old, assaulted the victim there, Windsor charged in her opening argument.

“They were laughing while they performed these acts,” Windsor told Juvenile Referee Hideo Chino, who is presiding over the youths’ trial.

If convicted, the three could be sentenced to terms in the California Youth Authority until their 25th birthdays. Their attorneys will not present their opening statements until the start of the defense part of the trial.

After the prosecutor’s statements, the public and reporters were excluded from the courtroom during testimony by the victim out of concern that she might suffer psychological damage by the public exposure. However, a court reporter later read the girl’s testimony and cross-examination to reporters.

The girl testified that she consumed two glasses of vodka, with about 3 inches of liquor in each glass, and also a sip of tequila. She said she remembered sitting with two youths who were talking, then nothing else until she woke up the next morning in a hospital.

She testified that she had kissed one of the accused youths on the cheek during the party while she was drinking vodka, but denied any knowledge of what occurred later in the bedroom. She also denied that she had given any of the youths permission to do anything to her sexually.

The other two defendants in the case will be tried separately. The 17-year-old will be tried as a juvenile on a lesser charge of sexual assault. The adult, identified as Pasquel Rojero of San Marcos, faces trial in Superior Court.