4 More School Employees Charged In Steubenville Rape Case

Four more school employees, including a superintendent, have been indicted in connection to the Steubenville, Ohio rape case that sparked controversy and outrage across social media, reports CNN.com.

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Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine made the announcement Monday.

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Steubenville City Schools Superintendent Michael McVey faces three felony counts: one charge of tampering with evidence and two counts of obstructing justice. He also is charged with making a false statement and obstructing official business, both misdemeanors, DeWine said.

Also indicted were an elementary school principal, Lynnett Gorman, and wrestling coach Seth Fluharty, both of whom are charged with misdemeanor failure to report child abuse. Volunteer assistant Steubenville football coach Matt Belardine was charged with four misdemeanors: allowing underage drinking, obstructing official business, making a false statement and contributing to the unruliness or delinquency of a child.

This brings to six the number of people the grand jury has indicted after two students were convicted of rape, DeWine said.

As previously reported by Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’Lik Richmond, 16, were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile jail after text messages, social media posts and online photos and video, suggested that they sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl who was extremely intoxicated.

Testimony from other party-goers confirmed that the duo did, in fact, digitally penetrate the girl.

“They kept telling me I was a hassle and they took care of me,” she testified. “I thought I could trust him (Mays) until I saw the pictures and video.”

The case became a lightning rod in the dialogue surrounding rape culture, and led to calls for a shift in focus from victim-blaming to educating potential attackers not to rape.

“When I announced that we were going to have this grand jury investigation to answer all the questions and to see if adults had not done what they should have done, I did say in answer to a question that we would look at this previously reported (April 2012) incident,” DeWine told CNN Tuesday morning. “I stated right at the beginning … (that) frankly the grand jury would go wherever the facts took it.”

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