Wednesday, October 28, 2009

3 arrested in Calif. in alleged gang rape of girl


Rape suspect Manuel Ortega (Richmond Police Department)


Three more people have been arrested in connection with the gang rape and beating of a 15-year-old girl outside her high school homecoming dance in an attack that has generated widespread outrage.

A man and two boys were arrested late Tuesday, including 21-year-old Salvador Rodriguez of Richmond, Calif., and two teens, 16 and 17. They were each booked on one count of gang rape and likely face other charges including robbery and kidnapping.

"These are people who played a significant role in the incident," Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan said Wednesday. "I'm confident that more arrests will be made."

The arrests bring to five the number of people taken into custody in the attack that occurred Saturday night at Richmond High School, located in the San Francisco Bay area. The attacks and its aftermath have rattled Richmond, Calif., a crime-ridden city of about 120,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Police believe as many as 10 people ranging in age from 15 to mid-20s attacked the girl for more than two hours at a dimly lit area near benches Saturday night. As many as two dozen people saw the rape without notifying police.

The victim, a sophomore, had left the dance and was drinking alcohol in a school courtyard with a group when she was attacked, police said.

Officers found the girl semiconscious and naked from the waist down near a picnic table. She remains hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Police also hope a $20,000 reward will bring more people forward with any information.

Gagan 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 girl had consumed a large amount of alcohol by the time the assault began, police said. Gagan said the girl's father tried to call her cell phone, but no one answered.

Police received a tip about a possible assault on campus from a young woman, a former student, who heard two males bragging about it.

The victim was found nearly an hour after the dance had ended.

During Friday's Richmond High School gang rape that now, according to new reports, lasted somewhere around two hours, only two suspects have been arrested so far. Manuel Ortega, 19, was arrested at the scene. He is being held on $800,000 bail at a Contra Costa County jail.

Another suspect, a 15-year-old teenager, was arrested at school the next day and booked on suspicion of felony sexual assault.

While classes resumes on Monday, Richmond High School counselors were in effect yesterday, helping students grieve.

"Everybody was distressed," Richmond High School principal Julio Franco tells SF Chronicle, whose very own daughter attended the homecoming dance. "Anybody who needed to be listened to went to speak to counselors."

While an open ear is always nice, one big lingering question is how this attacked happened on Franco's school grounds, and why it lasted as long as it did. According to CBS 5 sources, "two campus security guards who would have typically patrolled the area where the attack occurred were sent home as of 9 p.m. on dance night because the school district didn't want to incur overtime."

Police point out that "as many as six other men raped the girl over a two-hour period Saturday night outside the school." If you know anyone even remotely involved with the homecoming gang rape, it is your duty to call Richmond police at 510-233-1214.
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