With a flood of national media attention and the wrath of Anonymous nipping at his heels, one of the teens accused of rape in Steubenville, Ohio is trying to get his trial postponed and relocated. The lawyer for Trent Mays, the suspect, announced on Sunday that he would be filing motions to have the case moved on account of the exposure and "what we perceive as threats to individuals, perhaps witnesses, and also defendants and even defense counsel." He added, "We're concerned about safety issues at this point."

If you've been following the curious case, this shouldn't be terribly surprising. Although the rape first made national headlines last month, it was only in the last week when a massive document dump from Anonymous attached faces to the names of Mays and his co-defendant Ma'lik Richmond, both of whom are 16 and are charged with raping a 16-year-old drunk girl at a party last August. They also happen to be football players in the football-crazy town of Steubenville which gives the whole saga a fascinating Friday Night Lights plot line. Now, everyone's involved. There's talk that the high school football coach will resign as soon as Monday, while other students that saw the attack are taking fire after being caught on camera speaking freely about the rape. Then, on Saturday when an Occupy Steubenville rally collected in front of the courthouse, chaos predictably ensued.

It's unclear what kinds of threats Mays, Richmond and their legal teams have received, but you can imagine how they'd be disturbed, especially if you're familiar with the sort of antics that Anonymous tends to get up to. The trial was scheduled to take place on February 13 in Steubenville, and the local judge who was going to preside over the case has already recused himself, so a judge from Cincinnati is supposed to come in and hear the case. Unless, Mays gets his way and the whole case gets moved to Cincinnati or elsewhere. Of course, you can't hide from Anonymous.

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Adam Clark Estes