Nobody knows exactly what investigators were looking for when they raided Steubenville High School in Ohio this week. But as the grand jury kicks off next week looking for charges, all signs point to something big. And guess which Big Red football coach decided to speak out again?
Despite allegations that he knew about a rape and tried to protect his players who committed it, despite widespread criticism that he didn't punish his team enough and that he should be fired, and despite a grand jury that could charge him looming next week, Reno Saccocia has been approved for a two-year administrative contract, the city superintendent confirmed to The Atlantic Wire Monday afternoon.
The locals facing house arrest for threatening the victim online now have company in public shame — a prominent figure in town is calling into question the verdict and the victim's consent, while fans of Big Red continue to support a coach who may have known about the whole thing.
Even after pleas from their school officials and a week of national shame, the students of Torrington High in Connecticut are still taking to social media to defend one of the rape suspects who was the star of their football team.
According to newly surfaced video of police interviews, several teen witnesses had trouble coming to grips with what was unfolding in front of them, even as they came to understand that they should have stopped what would unravel into the most emotionally charged rape case in the country.
The hacker collective which turned the national spotlight onto a then little-known football town called Steubenville has now shifted its eyes onto Torrington, Connecticut and the a rape case involving two 18-year-old football players, two 13-year-old girls, and the student body of Torrington who bullied the alleged victims.
Tweets reveal a picture of young victims of alleged sexual assault by star football players in Connecticut and the social-media reaction they confronted in the weeks since they came forward — a picture that seems familiar to many online as tensions simmer following the Steubenville rape trial and that sent school administrators into tears on Wednesday.
Remember the CNN broadcast a few days ago, when Candy Crowley and friends bemoaned the fates of the Steubenville rapists? That didn't go over well, and nearly a quarter million people want the network to do something about it.
As the case heads for its next phase, questions are stirring from Steubenville and beyond as to whether the long-time football coach did what was right in the days that followed the rape of a 16-year-old-girl after one of his team's games, as well as who he was trying to help, how he used his power to help them, and whether he broke the law.
Since his defense strategy, claiming that a 16-year-old rape victim wasn't "so" drunk, has failed, the lawyer for one of the football players convicted of rape plans to appeal a guilty verdict, and is now claiming that the 16-year-old rapist's brain wasn't "developed" enough.
Thanks to a few ill-advised cable news broadcasts the world now knows the name of the Steubenville rape victim, but don't even think about sending her any intimidating messages — unless you want to go to jail.
You can blame CNN all you want for its reporters feeling sorry for the now convicted rapists in the ongoing case in Steubenville, Ohio, but MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN all just outed a 16-year-old rape victim to millions.
The bigger implications for the case — cover-ups, gross-out videos, and a too-powerful football program — have already been tried in social media, but a grand jury may now charge the people behind them, from the coach who "took care of it" to more players and maybe even parents. Here's a search for clues on what's next.
Heading into a weekend full of dozens of student witnesses and perhaps testimony from the victim herself, a new twist may see a Steubenville football player and the prime suspect's best friend making the best case for the 16-year-old girl yet.
A state investigator told the court on Thursday afternoon that one of the defendants, Trent Mays, told a friend via text message that Steubenville High's increasingly infamous Big Red football coach, Reno Saccoccia, said he'd keep the boys out of trouble.
As even more graphic cellphone photos and complex testimony emerged on the second day of the rape trial in Steubenville, Ohio, defense attorneys for the two teenage boys accused of forcibly penetrating and masturbating on an unconscious 16-year-old girl doubled down on their contention that the girl's judgment wasn't impaired.
After months of anonymous lobbying on her behalf, the 16-year-old girl had Ohio juvenile prosecutors tell her side of the story on Wednesday afternoon, as the prosecution delivered an emotional and graphic opening statement. The defense stayed quiet with its date-rape-doesn't-exist strategy, even as the suspects appeared in public together for the first time.
The spotlight returns to Ohio on Wednesday, and there's a new judge as hackers have returned, the 16-year-old alleged victim might testify after all, her friends can now testify against her, and the suspects are already speaking out.
With a month to go before the delayed trial of the so-called "rape crew" begins, the Ohio attorney general now says he doesn't have enough evidence to charge any of the other members of the "crew" already tried in the court of social media.
If you thought hackers and the media had brought a lot of attention upon the tough town of Steubenville, Ohio, just wait until everyone gets to see the legal fate of two of its high-school football stars accused of sexual assault play out in public there.
Ahead of next month's rape trial of two Ohio high-school football players, the secretive editors, hackers, and lawyers behind LocalLeaks disclose to The Atlantic Wire how they're enhancing their operation — and the "huge revelations" still on the way.
A social-media firestorm has spent the last week enveloping the city, and on Tuesday morning it took a frightening turn: all district schools in the city went on a precautionary lockdown after police received word of "some type of shooting threat made on social media."
The Steubenville rape case is rapidly broadening in blame to include more of the so-called "Rape Crew," as Kent State University is now reviewing the status of an accepted student athlete who may have hosted the party where the alleged rape took place.
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