4 TEENS ARRESTED IN RAPE OF GIRL, 11

Four Santa Cruz County teenagers have been arrested for allegedly gang
raping an 11-year-old girl after drugging her with heroin.

The attacks occurred late Thursday afternoon when the male suspects -- two
aged 17, one 16 and one 18 -- picked up the girl in downtown Santa Cruz and
drove to two remote areas where they raped her repeatedly over several
hours, according to a spokesman for the sheriff's department.

As shocking as the report is, rape crisis experts say, gang rapes by
teenagers are not uncommon -- and the use of drugs to sedate rape victims
is being reported with increasing frequency.

"We're definitely seeing more reports of drugs being used in the
perpetration of a rape than we did 10 years ago," said Carmen Henesy, a
registered nurse who works with both the Rape Treatment Center at San
Francisco General Hospital and with the hospital's Child and Adolescent
Sexual Abuse Resource Center.

Although the most common substances used in rapes in the past several years
are powerful sedatives with amnesic properties, such as Rohypnol, the
so-called "date-rape drug," Henesy said assailants frequently will use
drugs to overpower a victim.

In addition, say rape treatment workers, committing a rape sometimes
functions as a gang initiation or perverse male bonding ritual.

"There's a sense in which that kind of gang rape can be a male rite of
passage, where boys are proving something to each other about their
masculinity," said Lucinda Ramberg, former coordinator of the UCSF Rape
Prevention Education Program. "It's an act of violence and aggression. It's
about power, not about uncontrollable sexual passion."

In addition, said Ramberg, the majority of sexual assaults are committed by
people the victim knows.

The Santa Cruz girl reportedly had met one of the suspects once before and
willingly got into their car.

The teens first drove to a beach parking lot, where one of the boys raped
the girl in the car while the others waited outside, sheriff's spokesman
Kim Allyn said.

Then they drove about 10 miles to a wooded area where the youths allegedly
smoked heroin, getting the girl so drugged she was unable to fend off their
attacks, police said.

Each of them repeatedly assaulted her inside the car, authorities said.

"They took the child and did about everything . . . they could," Assistant
District Attorney Bob Lee told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. "It's as egregious
as it could possibly come."

The youths raped the girl over several hours, until early evening when they
dropped her off at a downtown parking lot, authorities said. She was
treated for a heroin overdose and was recovering at home.

Investigators located the suspects' vehicle by questioning witnesses who
saw the girl get into the car.

The teens -- all from unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County -- were
arrested the next day and booked into the juvenile hall for investigation
of child molestation and furnishing controlled substances to a minor.

"They were laughing and joking all the way to the hall," Allyn said.

Although sexual assault experts work to educate young people to be aware of
their surroundings and alert to possible danger, the 11-year-old "probably
had no inkling," said Henesy. "It's not unusual to accept a ride from
someone you know."

Ramberg said the girl's recovery depends on what kind of family and
community support is available to her. "It's violence to the most intimate
aspect of our being, so it has a tremendous psychic cost," she said. "In
situations where there is some relation of familiarity, there's also a
betrayal."

)1998 San Francisco Examiner