4 Teenagers Are Charged as Adults in Gang Rape

Four teenagers were charged Thursday in connection with the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl in a Pico Rivera park restroom last week, officials said.

Two 15-year-old boys were also arrested in association with the July 6 assault, according to Sandi Gibbons of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. One was released with no charges filed, and the other will be evaluated for possible charges in a juvenile court.

Gilbert Anthony Viera, 19, of Whittier; Ricardo Gonzalez and Nathan Edward Red, both 16 and of Pico Rivera; and Ruben Marquez Jr., 17, also of Pico Rivera, were charged as adults on multiple felony counts. Each is being held in lieu of $720,000 bail.

Sheriff’s deputies said the girl, an incoming freshman at El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, had accepted a car ride from four male teenagers. She knew at least one of them. They drove to nearby William A. Smith Park, where 12 to 16 other male teenagers met them.

The young men began drinking, authorities said, and forced alcohol on the girl. Deputies said the girl was dragged into the restroom and attacked for about 20 minutes while the other males watched and cheered.

Among the charges each defendant faces are forcible rape while acting in concert, rape with a foreign object while acting in concert, forcible lewd acts on a child under the age of 14 and false imprisonment by violence.

Gibbons said the four are scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 5 in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Norwalk.