08/24/2010 // West Palm Beach, FL, USA // Tara Monks // Tara Monks
Baltimore, MD – The lawyers representing the family of a 12-year-old Baltimore County girl who claims she was raped at the roller rink Skateworks on Saturday, August 14, 2010 are pushing to view the company’s unedited security tapes and demanding the rink close until safety reviews are conducted. The Baltimore Sun reported that a letter sent to the paper from the family’s attorneys stated the owners of Skateworks are “attacking the credibility of a 12-year-old rape victim to save themselves from poor business practices.”
The letter adds, if the Skateworks owners “truly wish to get to the bottom of what occurred that day, they should release all original videos” to investigators.
The girl told police she was approached by three men at the skate rink and then dragged into a storage room, where the men took turns raping her and forcing her to perform sex acts.
The owners of Skateworks have claimed the girl’s story has “inconsistencies” and released edited tapes of the businesses surveillance videos from the night of the alleged rape. The lawyers for the rink claim the girl willingly accompanied two of the three males into the storage room.
Two teens have been charged as adults in connection with the incident. A 24-year-old man was also charged.
County police spokesman Lt. Robert McCullough said police were unable to review the surveillance footage at first, but have since obtained a complete version.
McCullough explained, “The night of the incident, there was no one with enough technical expertise to download the video…However, investigators responded over there [the day the footage was released to the media] and Skateworks was cooperative and released the video. To my knowledge, it’s the full video.”
Attorneys for the victim say Skateworks was faulty in many aspects, including failing to secure open, unlocked rooms; lacking sufficient lighting in dark hallways; and failing to provide adequate security to prevent the public from roaming throughout the facility.
The girl has since began counseling and is distraught over the attack, according to the family lawyers.
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