Every time I think I've gotten past the abject rage and disgust over the Dunbar Village rape case, more information comes out and I'm sick and disgusted all over again. From today's Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:
<blockquote>Hoping to steal money and jewelry, Avion Lawson, 14, said he and someone else wore masks when they entered the 35-year-old woman's apartment that night, according to the documents. Once inside, Lawson said, he and his accomplice, whose name is blacked out on the report, encountered the woman in bed with three other masked males around her. Lawson told police he sexually assaulted her and stole two video games and a truck.
Police later found the video games inside the Dunbar Village apartment of Lawson's grandmother, Jonnie Mae Wilkerson, with whom Lawson often stayed.
The victim returned home from her job delivering phone books about 9 p.m. the night of the attack, according to her statement to police. While fixing her son something to eat, a young male with braids knocked on her door to tell her the tires on her truck were flat. Once outside, she said, she saw a male with a large gun and two others armed with guns. They wore black clothing over their faces, she said, and ordered her back into the apartment, where they demanded money.
After being told there was no money, the attackers tore off the woman's clothes and raped her until five others arrived, according to the documents. The new arrivals took turns having sex with her and then sodomized her. The mother was then ordered into a tub filled with vinegar and water where they used hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, nail polish remover and ammonia on her. At gunpoint, the assailants forced the mother and son to have sex.
Throughout the attack, the victims suffered beatings, including having a bowl and lightbulbs smashed over their heads. The encounter was recorded on a cell phone camera, according to the mother.
Before leaving, the males looked for a lighter to set the two on fire but couldn't find one, she told police. They ordered the pair to stay in the tub and took off. About 30 minutes later one of the males returned to sexually assault the mother one last time. Before leaving, he scribbled a man's name and 6-CO, a gang, on a piece of paper and told the woman he hangs out on Sixth Street and that's where he could be found. He grabbed a Sony PlayStation 2 before fleeing. ...</blockquote>And this: <blockquote>During a six-hour interview with police, Lawson, the first to be charged in the case, confessed his involvement after being told his DNA was inside a condom found in the victim's home. En route to the Juvenile Assessment Center, Lawson called some friends and did not sound remorseful, according to police. His lawyer, Bert Winkler, declined to comment on the evidence. The next to be charged was Nathan Walker, a 16-year-old who dropped out of the seventh grade after three attempts to pass. Walker's latent fingerprint was found at the scene along with his DNA on the outside of the same condom linked to Lawson, according to the documents.
Walker became so agitated at the police station that he had to be placed in handcuffs and leg restraints after he began throwing chairs at the walls and door, according to documents. His lawyer, Robert Gershman, has asked for a mental health evaluation of his client. Jakaris Taylor, 15, was arrested July 12. A resident of Dunbar Village, he said his brother played with the 12-year-old victim, though Taylor denied ever being in the apartment. His mother, Jacqueline Minor, encouraged Taylor to give police a DNA sample. Lab results showed Taylor's latent print inside the home, near Lawson's and Walker's.
"She goes to counseling with the little boy," the 36-year-old said. "The boy, he's still grieving. He cannot accept that he had sex with his mama. Nobody can talk to him. He feels like nobody loves him. I don't think there's no way that little boy is ever going to forget that." The South Florida Sun-Sentinel does not identify sexual assault victims and is not naming the boyfriend to protect the woman's identity. The man said he and his 35-year-old girlfriend still live in fear that the 10 armed and masked assailants who, according to police reports, forced their way into the woman's tiny apartment June 18 in the Dunbar Village public housing complex will find them. Once inside, the attackers beat, raped and sodomized the woman and then forced her and her son to have sex. The child was physically assaulted and both had household chemicals poured over their bodies, the reports said.
"Of course I'm scared," the boyfriend said. "In a case like that, if those guys knew it would end like that, I'm sure they would kill them. I told her to be happy because you're alive today."
The man doesn't believe, as some have suggested, that the attack was a hate crime, perpetrated because the mother and son are Haitian.
"I think those guys were coming there just searching for money," he said. "Those guys are young and because they don't find money they tried to make her suffer."
The single mother is incredibly grateful for the monetary donations from strangers, said the boyfriend, who has been dating her for two years.
She continues to heal physically and emotionally and is thankful to be alive, he said.
He and the child's mother have been trying to prepare the 12-year-old for the seventh grade, which starts today/
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dim done
done = request.form("done")
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done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
