3 Students Turn Themselves in for Raping Classmate
Three students at Calhoun High School in Georgia have turned themselves in to police and were indicted with charges of aggravated sexual battery of a fellow student at an after-prom party. The young men were banned from their graduation and now face criminal charges after the alleged assault.
A young woman said that she was raped on May 11 by multiple men whom she could not identify. The assault took place at a cabin rented for an after-prom party. She told authorities that she passed out around 2 a.m. in the cabin's bathroom after the rape. Police immediately began investigating her claims and narrowed the list down to 25 suspects who were at the party.
Fields Chapman, Avery Johnson, and Andrew Haynes turned themselves in to police 18 days after the assault. Chapman and Haynes were charged with sodomy, and Chapman has a separate 28-count indictment involving sexual exploitation of a minor, Glenda Sue Johnson, clerk of the Gilmer County Superior Court told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Chapman's case involves a different victim and digital images and/or videos that he had on his phone. They were images of a minor "engaged in sexually explicit conduct," District Attorney Alison Sosebee noted.
Haynes and Chapman had been arrested months before on charges of underage drinking and Chapman was on probation at the time of the assault. Aggravated sexual battery could lead to the young men serving up to 25 years.
"This has been a very emotional case, certainly for the City of Calhoun and Calhoun High School," Gilmer Sheriff Stacey Nicholson said at a press conference.
The young men were prevented from attending their graduation based on their behavior and the possibility of disruption to other students.
"The board and administration are concerned that the presence of the identified suspects at Friday's commencement ceremonies would likely cause a substantial disruption and could create an unsafe environment. For these reasons, the suspects will not be attending graduation. Our continued thoughts and prayers are with the victim, her family, and all those involved in this tragic course of events," the statement from the School District read.
No information about what took place in the cabin has been released, but Johnson did tell the public that the victim's injuries "were substantial."
