Cleveland, Texas Rape: Second Victim in 3 Years Alleges Gang Rape by 4 Men
Cleveland, Texas officials are investigating whether an alleged gang rape occurred for the second time in three years. A 15-year-old girl reportedly told her parents she had been repeatedly raped by up to four men, leading them to file a complaint with police.
"It's sad," a mother in the neighborhood who did not want to be identified told KHOU News. "We have too many kids getting hurt in Cleveland." This woman began home-schooling her own daughter after the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in the same town.
"Right now it's just an alleged rape. We are running down all the leads," Cleveland Police Chief Darrel Broussard told the Cleveland Advocate.
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Right now police are investigating the claim made by a 15-year-old girl, who reported the alleged rape to her parents. The incident occurred over the weekend, but allegations were not made until Tuesday. The young girl has been examined by rape experts, but police have not made the results public; if the examination shows trauma consistent with rape, she will be interviewed by workers at the Bridgehaven Children's Advocacy Center.
The girl claims the attack took place at an abandoned home on Lamar St. and has raised fears reminiscent of those in 2010, when an 11-year-old girl was gang raped by 20 men and boys; in that case, all those charged either accepted plea deals or were convicted of the crime.
The younger girl was repeatedly raped by males aged 14 to 27. She told police that the sex was consensual and she only came forward with her story after films of the sexual encounters were found at Cleveland High School. However, due to her age, the acts were considered rape by the law.
She was removed from her home and placed in foster care after the attacks. She ran away from her group foster home in 2011 and lived on the streets for eight months before moving in with her mother. Now she is 14 and pregnant with her 15-year-old boyfriend's child. No charges have been filed against the 15-year-old boy because consensual relations between minors "close in age" is not a crime, the New York Daily News reported.
The girl and her boyfriend plan to raise the child together.
