STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - Two high school football players from eastern Ohio were found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl at a party last summer.
Judge Tom Lipps, who heard the non-jury juvenile court case against Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, found the two members of the Steubenville "Big Red" high school football team sexually assaulted the girl in the early morning of August 12, 2012 when witnesses said she was too drunk to move or speak.
Lipps found both defendants delinquent under Ohio law and began taking arguments on a sentence. Mays and Richmond denied the charge and said any sex that occurred was consensual.
The case drew national attention to the town, 40 miles west of Pittsburgh, after a photo and video from the party that appeared to document the assault were posted online.
(Reporting by Drew Singer; Editing by Will Dunham and David Bailey; Writing by James B. Kelleher and David Bailey)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp