3 Northwest Georgia senior star athletes have been charged with sexually battery. The assault occurred at a prom night party at the victim’s parent’s mountain cabin in Gilmer County, GA on May the 10th.
The alleged assault occurred more than two weeks ago, on Calhoun (GA) High School’s prom night, when a small post-prom gathering at a cabin in the woods became a raucous event involving 27 students and hours of drinking, according to local authorities. After alcohol had been consumed for several hours, four male party attendees “ended up” in a room with an 18-year-old classmate (“ended up” is the phrasing used by a local news account that flirts with CNN’s now-infamous “THESE BOYS’ LIVES ARE RUINED NOW!” hand wringing). The victim told authorities that she didn’t remember who raped her, just that it was “multiple guys” who inserted a “foreign object” into her vagina, causing tearing and severe trauma that the local sheriff called “substantial” during a press conference last week. Other attendees of the party knew what was happening but did nothing. According to some accounts, the fourth boy in the room was there to barricade the door closed.
The Gilmer County Sheriff’s department began to investigate the incident almost immediately after it was reported. More than 50 people were interviewed regarding the assault. The 3 athletes turned themselves in and are all out on bail. After threats were made from the community all three men were barred from their commencement ceremonies.
All three men turned themselves in at the Gilmer County Jail on Wednesday morning on charges of aggravated sexual battery and underage possession of alcohol. All three later left the jail on bonds of $51,000…
Like the party itself, (Gilmer County Sheriff) Nicholson said, the criminal charges start with a small group and will spread. Investigators interviewed every person who attended the party, and Nicholson said they will arrest those who drank alcohol.
The three men arrested Wednesday may also face another serious charge: rape. They were arrested for sexual battery, meaning they allegedly penetrated the victim with a foreign object. Nicholson said investigators don’t yet have proof about whether the men also had sex with the victim; they are waiting for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to analyze forensic evidence.
David Cook of the Chattanooga Times Free Press made some observations of the very predictable press inquiries at last week’s news conference with Sheriff Nicholson…
At Wednesday’s news conference, the sheriff laid out the facts in a customary way, then took questions from a crowd of reporters.
Fifteen questions went by before anyone asked about the victim.
Reporters asked about beer, and what kind, and how much. Who supplied it. Was there some mystery drug used to intoxicate the victim?
“Can you tell us how much alcohol we’re talking about?” one reporter asked.
It was scandalous and tabloid-esque, taking nearly five minutes and 15 questions before anyone asked about the woman who’d been so victimized she wound up in the hospital.
Near the end of the news conference, one reporter asked the sheriff what lessons could be learned from this.
“Teenagers and alcohol just do not mix,” he said.
Sheriff, you are right, so right. But this case is about something else entirely, and emphasizing the beer details only diminishes the real violence present in sexual assault.
When there’s a murder, or homicide, or robbery, no one talks about whether the shooters were drunk or how much beer they drank.
It is only within rape where such distortions occur, even though research shows that alcohol is present in about half of all sexual assaults … and half of all violent crimes, as well.
So when we liquify sexual assault, we feed into the dangerous and favorite narrative of misogynists everywhere: that drunken women are consenting, no-really-means-yes women, or that drunken women who cry rape are really just dealing with morning-after regret.