Defense motions filed with a New Jersey appeals court argued the three were entitled to continued bail during the appeals process because "substantial" legal questions arose in their five-month trial, including prayers in the jury room, the first use of testimony about "rape trauma syndrome" in a rape trial in the state, and a prosecutor's singing "The Sound of Silence" in his closing arguments to the jury. First-degree crimes in New Jersey carry jail terms of 10 to 20 years, and technically Mr. Archer and Kevin Scherzer could face maximum sentences of 40 years. Captain of the wrestling team. when they and 10 other teen-age boys, all popular high school athletes, persuaded a 17-year old mentally retarded girl (I.Q. 8. Fifteen years ago, the state built Wynona's House, a "child advocacy center" in Newark. did Mr. Grober's mother, Rosemary, and his father, Nathan, a physician. The overwhelming consensus among townspeople was that they had everything to lose by being publicly named sex offenders, and that they shouldnt have to pay such a steep price for having engaged in such harmless hijinks; they were, after all, our guys, as they were called by the adoring female high school students who were known to arrive on their doorsteps with home-cooked meals for them. They were Our Guys.'' Author Bernard Lefkowitz needed to find out how such a thing could happen, no matter how long. by the victim(the author has given her a protective pseudonym, Leslie Faber) has been relayed to school authorities and the local police, and the boys involved are under serious investigation. A seasoned police detective returns to her local hometown to investigate the shocking case of the rape of a mentally disabled girl. TV Shows. In an interview this afternoon, one juror, Mario Tolentino, said the jury agreed early in its eight days of deliberations that the 21-year-old woman was mentally defective and unable to exercise her legal right to say no. A perpetrator is free to rape again. But the woman couldn't speak. Her assailants raped her with a baseball bat, a broom and a stick. She had no friends, but desperately wanted them. After some confusion, she identified each of the defendants by name, with the help of the prosecutor. Some courts but not in New Jersey allow victims with intellectual disabilities to keep a service animal, one trained just for court testimony, that will hide from the view of jurors so dog lovers won't be biased. In Florida, about 5 percent were verified. 7. Yet this ideal town is also a place where close to 30 percent of the graduating senior boys were involved in a grisly sexual People with intellectual disabilities and their families demanded prosecution, too. 5. ''Our Guys'' chronicles the Glen Ridge case over four years, from the accusation of rape, through the denials by townspeople, to the arrests and finally to the trial. A victim with an intellectual disability may have trouble speaking, or may not have words at all. Archives | Illustrated. 1st degree Kyle Scherzer -- Guilty, 2d degree, 3. Editor's note: This report includes graphic and disturbing descriptions of sexual assault. International | Younger brother of Paul Archer (by one year). The girl had an intellectual disability, and was later reported to have an IQ of about 64. Weather | Marketplace, Quick News | Kevin Scherzer said, ''I was very young at the time''; his brother said nothing. Bernard Lefkowitz's extraordinary chronicle of the events leading up to that moment, ''Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb,'' suggests otherwise, however. Some students at Glen Ridge High School defended their classmates and athletic idols, and one even tried to trick the girl into admitting she had consented to the sex acts in the basement. Job Market | Previous to Leslie's current city of Glen Ridge, NJ, Leslie Tierney lived in Norwalk CT, Wayne NJ and Brooklyn NY. Dark Times at Glen Ridge High | The Stacks Reader In expressing his desire to preserve the reputation of the alleged 16-year-old assailant, Troiano got his wish; his name is not public. Robert Laurino, the chief prosecutor in Essex County, N.J., sits behind his desk at Veterans Courthouse in Newark. Editorial | Steve Roberts (left) talks through a case with Assistant Prosecutor Kathleen Lyons-Boswick and Laurino inside the Special Victims Unit of Wynona's House. Prosecutors said no. Op-Ed | Sobsey and others say the numbers have grown sharply since 1994. His involvement presence at the scene of the rape was discovered on April 11, 1989, and prompted prosecutors to assume control of the case the next day and remove Corcoran's father from the case. "The But sentencing rules also give trial judges considerable discretion assigning penalties. Its easy to find their names and faces online, their tired, lined, unshaven faces a far cry from those of the clean-cut, handsome young white men pictured emerging from the courthouse in 1989. Today, Laurino is the chief prosecutor in Essex County. Laurino has been an advocate for victims of sexual violence, including those with cognitive disabilities, for more than 25 years. The National Organization for Women and other feminist groups objected to the way the young woman was depicted by the defense attorneys and by town residents. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. On handing down his sentence, Judge Cohen "There's probably no more satisfying victory that you can get than to be able to convict a person who is of a predatory nature, that would actually prey on the person with a disability," he says. Although New Jersey law allows offenders as young as 15 to be charged as adults for serious crimes, Troiano declined to do so, issuing a nearly two-hour ruling citing the boys academic achievements and privileged background to support his decision not to charge the boy within the full extent of the law. Why Are Judges So Concerned About the Future Potential of Rapists? His mother sat ashen-faced, as International | Glen Ridge Rape - Timeline of Events - Our Guys The TV Movie - Cast There's a trial scheduled in March at the marble courthouse in Newark, N.J., of a man charged with kidnapping and raping a young woman with an intellectual disability. showed clearly that such exploitation will not be tolerated.". There are more laws to protect people with disabilities. Co-captain of the football team. assault and where even today, eight years later, most of those boys' parents, friends, teachers and the superintendent of their schools are still denying that there was an assault (as opposed to a consensual act), or are claiming Lt. Frank Bennett And not one reported it. say, if they are becoming incapable of empathy for others, especially their female counterparts, then what will their children be like? Books | Aggravated sexual assault (having masturbation performed by mentally defective person). "They take a lot of work. A settlement of a legal claim between parties is a contract like any other contract, Nolan v. Lee Ho, 120 N.J. 465, 472 (1990), which "may be freely entered into and which a court, absent a demonstration of 'fraud or other compelling circumstances,' should honor and enforce as it does other contracts." Pascarella v. "She was able to describe what happened to her," says Lyons-Boswick, the prosecutor who is trying the case. He said it took three days of I care about them. He did not say he did something wrong. One thing they did: They applied some of the best practices for prosecuting crimes against children. When the case first broke into the news, Glen Ridge was portrayed as an exception and the actions of these high school heroes as either weird and aberrant or else the natural result of a bunch of high-spirited guys having been seducedby a sexually provocative Director Guy Ferland Writers Bernard Lefkowitz Paul Brown Stars Ally Sheedy Prosecutors reopened a cold case from 13 years earlier. "Because here's one side and here's the other side," she said. She had difficulty understanding the difference between sex and love and that she could say no to her classmates who asked for sex. reached a verdict. Her IQ was 64. Maybe some would compare that photo to the mugshots of the now-middle-aged Glen Ridge rapists and see a tale of woe, a tale of lost potential. NPR obtained that number from unpublished data provided by the Justice Department. A question ofconsent: Innocence and complicity in Glen Ridge rape case. girl down to the basement to rape her with their pals. Similar arguments were made on behalf of Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who was sentenced to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman by a dumpster; Aaron Persky, the judge who sentenced Turner, cited the fact that Turner would not be a danger to others and his concern that a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him when justifying his light sentence. Charles "Charlie" Figueroa An African American student at Glen Ridge (one of only 3 in his graduating class) and a member of the football team. Their names are a matter of public record, and their crimes will follow them around for the rest of their lives. One was sixteen years old when their rape occurred while the other was seventeen. Left: A photograph of Sen. Wynona Lipman, for whom the Wynona Lipman Child Advocacy Center is named. The "Lolita Defense," as it was dubbed by The New Jersey Law Journal after opening arguments depicted the young woman as an aggressive seductress, generated ire throughout the trial. She was first sexually assaulted when she was 12. NPR's own numbers suggest that. Then, in 2016, police reopened the case and later ran a new DNA test, and that linked the suspect. Most galling to many women's-rights advocates was the The judge allowed the young woman's sexual history to be noted in court. The boy had filmed himself having sex with an intoxicated 16-year-old girl, who could not stand up straight and had slurred speech; shortly after the video was taken, she vomited, and woke up the next morning with bruises all over her body. Science | Donald W. Merkelbach Defense Attorney for the Scherzer twins. The Glen Ridge Rape Trial: 1992-93 | Encyclopedia.com Twitter. Scherzer basement that March day for the deliberate purpose of sexually abusing her. Kevin Scherzer was brought before the young woman by his lawyer, Mr. Querques. a few hours of prime-time television, and you will get a more-than-adequate portion of the Good Life sermon that most Americans see and hear every day and night of their lives, a sermon reproduced and reinforced not just by the popular Recently, Lyons-Boswick, the prosecutor, took the woman to the actual courtroom, to let her see what it looks like. Our Guys by Bernard Lefkowitz (1998) is an account of the gang rape of a mentally disabled girl, Leslie Faber that took place in Glen Ridge in March 1989. At the same time they welcomed the verdict, women's advocates and experts in rape law said that the trial may have set back efforts to help rape victims come forward in an atmosphere of respect. Our Guys: Outrage at Glen Ridge (TV Movie 1999) Heather Matarazzo as Leslie Faber. The degree of venom here was frightening.". Herbert H. Tate Jr. Essex County prosecutor. But at trial in 1992 and 1993, Laurino had to explain to the court and to jurors how someone with an intellectual disability was easily manipulated. The Glen Ridge Rape Incident - Criminal Justice - IresearchNet He did not actually do any of the assault, but stood by and did nothing to stop it. Classifieds | At the start of the trial last October, Judge Cohen made it clear that prosecutors would have to show more than gullibility, slowness or learning problems to prove the charge that the young woman was mentally defective, as defined by New Jersey's 443 pp. Menu. Father of one of the assailants. Police searched for the woman on the streets late into the night.
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