GANG RAPE STUNS SCHOOL

Teens, including victim, reveled with marijuana and alcohol; no effort made
to stop assault.

PALO ALTO - More than a dozen teenagers attended a south Palo Alto house
party, but not one attempted to stop five young men from gang-raping a
teenage girl in a back bedroom, police reports show.

The victim told police that several partygoers, including one of the
juveniles who allegedly raped her, were her friends.

Several of the teens, including the victim, were drinking fortified wine,
beer and gin and smoking marijuana at the Jan. 17 party, the reports show.

Three juveniles and one adult, Shaun Harris, 23, of East Palo Alto, have
been arrested in the case and charged with sexual assault.

And Thursday, Palo Alto police officers stepped up their search for
18-year-old Peter Herndon -- the last suspect in the case -- who is wanted
on a $1 million warrant for his alleged role in the brutal rape.

Herndon was last seen Jan. 22 in Lytton Plaza by two undercover police
officers as he walked toward a pay phone.

The victim told police she was sexually assaulted by five men after she had
drunk an ``unknown amount of Cisco, beer and a drink combination of orange
juice and gin'' and inhaled several hits of marijuana at the home of one of
the suspects.

One of the partygoers -- a friend of the victim's -- acknowledged that he
felt badly about what happened but said he thought she was a willing
participant because the door was locked, according to police reports.

The events have rocked Palo Alto High School, where several of the
partygoers attend. About two months ago, just before Herndon dropped out of
the school, he was profiled in the school newspaper, the Campanile, under
the headline, ``Herndon's Rite of Passage.''

The story documented how the formerly troubled student had turned his life
around and won a 1997 Nevada Silverstate Games Male Athlete of the Year
award in competition with approximately 4,000 participants. He spent two
years in a Nevada-based militaristic program for troubled youth called Rite
of Passage.

Herndon had attended El Carmelo and Palo Verde elementary schools, been
expelled from Jordan Middle School for fighting and spent three months in
juvenile hall, the article said.

``You sit there in a room all day doing nothin','' Herndon was quoted as
saying. ``You don't stick a broken car in a garage and expect it to get
fixed all by itself.''

Police reports indicate that the rape occurred after the victim and some
friends left Lytton Plaza on University Avenue around 8 p.m. for a party in
a two-bedroom house in south Palo Alto.

After drinking and smoking, the girl began to feel dizzy and nauseated, so
she went to lie down in a bedroom.

She was followed by a juvenile whom she had just met. He told her she was
pretty, and then he locked the bedroom door and raped her, the girl told
police.

He then opened the bedroom door and four young men came in, according to
police reports. The 15-year-old then raped the victim again while the other
four watched.

The other four then took turns molesting the victim before they left the
party. The girl had known one of the suspects for several months.

The victim was bleeding, according to police reports, but walked home. She
did not report the rape until the next day, when her father noticed that
she was quiet, withdrawn and unhappy.

When questioned, the girl told her father part of what happened but said
she was fearful that the suspects might retaliate and that they could be
affiliated with two Palo Alto street gangs known as the A Street and the V
Street gangs.

Her father took her to Stanford University Hospital, where the victim spoke
to a social worker, who then contacted the Palo Alto Police Department. The
victim was taken to ValleyCare Medical Center for a medical examination and
toxicology tests.

Rape counselors say gang rapes are not uncommon but often go unreported.

``Most women who survive something like this are struggling with emotional
pain and shock,'' said Michelle Osborne, director of the Rape Crisis Center
at the Mid-Peninsula YWCA.

``It is such an emotionally wrenching and traumatic thing to happen,''
Osborne added. ``You feel such a loss of control and humiliation.''

Herndon is described by police as a white male, 5 feet 9 or 5 fee 10, 165
to 170 pounds with a muscular build, short curly brown hair and sideburns,
and blue eyes. He is known to frequent the downtown Palo Alto area. Anyone
who knows where Herndon is should call (650) 329-2104 or 911.