Shortly after the trial of the two teenage Steubenville, Ohio, rapists ended in their conviction Wednesday, another pair of teens in the same Ohio county of Jefferson allegedly took to Twitter and Facebook to decry the verdict and threaten the victim. And on Monday, police arrested the two girls, ages 15 and 16, for menacing the victim. The older one has been charged with aggravated menacing “for a tweet that threatened homicide and said ‘you ripped my family apart,’” the Associated Press reports. Police charged the younger girl with menacing for a Facebook post that “threatened the accuser with bodily harm.” The two were in a juvenile lockup on Monday, waiting to go before a judge on Tuesday, CNN reported.
“These arrests, I hope, will end the harassment of the victim,” Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said, according to the AP. Based on the reference to her family in the older girl’s tweet, it’s not a stretch to imagine she knows the victim. But further harassment is a reasonable worry given the backlash to the verdict, and the fact that the victim’s name was widely, if inadvertently, reported in coverage of the conviction.
DeWine said his office was still investigating others peripherally involved with the rape, who could face charges for not reporting the crime. “That group could include other teens, parents, school officials and coaches for the high school’s beloved football team, which has won nine state championships,” the AP reports. A grand jury is set to meet in April to consider further charges. So this ugly incident won’t be fading into the past for at least another few weeks.
