7 Gang Members Arrested in Girl’s Rape

Sheriff’s deputies arrested seven gang members Thursday on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old Compton girl at gunpoint after a December birthday party. Two other suspects remain at large.

Three of the suspects are also believed to have been involved in a similar rape that took place in January, 1989, said Sheriff’s Department investigator Tom Kerfoot.

Kerfoot, who investigates sex crimes against children, described the recent case as an especially violent, traumatizing rape.

He said the girl was taken to a Carson motel, threatened with a revolver, and slapped and raped repeatedly by nine gang members during a two-hour ordeal. In addition to the assault, he said, the attackers stole the jewelry that the girl had worn to the party.

Arrested Thursday in the case were four juveniles and three adults, all from Compton. The adults are Durel Thomas, 19; Eric Callis, 21, and Robert Scott, 19, who was in jail on an unrelated charge. Still at large are Kenny Henry, 20, of Compton, who is alleged to have driven the car to the motel. The victim was unable to identify a ninth male. Bail was set at $25,000.

The attack allegedly took place after the victim, whose identity has not been disclosed, was offered a ride home from the birthday party. A male friend of the girl had vouched for the reliability of the man, the investigator said.

The two drove off with two other male party-goers and soon arrived at the Dare-U-Inn motel in the 17300 block of South Main Street, Kerfoot said.

The girl thought they had stopped to make a phone call, he said. “They told her to get out. She refused and they forcibly took her into the room,” where the three gang members raped her, he said.

After a while, six other gang members, who had been summoned by a phone call, arrived and continued the assault, Kerfoot said. Several in the second group had also been at the birthday party.

After two hours, the attackers left, leaving the girl at the motel, Kerfoot said.

The girl managed to get home and immediately called Compton police, who turned the case over to sheriff’s investigators.

Using a computerized data base of gang affiliations, crime analysts were able to identify a list of possible suspects among members of two mutually supportive gangs who control turf in an area of West Compton near Carson, Gardena and an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County.

The victim was able to identify suspects in the list through photographs, Kerfoot said.

Although police are saying little about the background of the suspects or the victim, they did provide information about the motel where the victim said the rape took place.

Kerfoot said the Dare-U-Inn, which rents rooms by the hour, is where an 18-year-old female reported being raped by four men in January, 1989. Three of the four who are suspected in that case also are suspects in the December rape, he said. In addition, there was another, unrelated rape at the motel recently, he said.

The day manager of the motel declined to comment except to say: “It is quiet in the day.”