The new fourth estate

Her name is Alexandria Goddard and with a knowledge of technology, Steubenville, Ohio and a little help from a hacker group she broke a rape case against 18 football players for the local football team wide open. Two players, Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'Lik Richmond, 16 were convicted of rape on Sunday, March 17 and receive a year of time in the juvenile system. Mays was given an additional year for posting a picture of the rape victim, who was 16 at the time. Both must register as sexual offenders.

 Goddard used the school's web site to get the names of football players, then searched Twitter for posts. What the rapists were posting to each other is mind-numbing. Adding photos of the posts to her blogs, Goddard brought public awareness to the case after the arrest of Mays and Richmond. The boys had posted a 12 minute video of the event with the keywords “drunk” “rape” and “offensive.” The tape and additional evidence was produced with the help of a hacker group. In the video the child's attackers mention an earlier rape, apparently in April, 2012.

In spite of the charges and the August arrest of Mays and Richmond, they were permitted to play football in the Fall of 2012 and were not tried until 2013. Thanks to the case, however, additional victims have come forward and once again the Steubenville police are investigating charges. We hope Alexandria is going to keep an eye on them.

Well, thank God it could not happen in Georgia. Oops. actually, it has on a number of times. Athens, Georgia, home to the University of Georgia and their multitude of sports teams that have been repeatedly victimizing women. A few years ago rapes charges were brought against basketball and football players who were allowed to play in spite of rules against it. An Athens jury did not convict the men in spite of what the district attorney considered to be solid evidence including a message from one of the rapists to a friend where he said they were "running a train."  In West Georgia 3 baseball players were convicted of aggravated sexual battery 3 years after a sexual assault in a dorm that they videotaped.

I congratulate Alexandria on a job well done. Georgia needs a blogger like her.