Steubenville High School students joke about alleged rape in highly-charged case against Big Red football players

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An inflammatory video leaked by a hacktivist group purportedly shows Ohio teens laughing and cracking jokes about a student allegedly raped that same night.
Steubenville police said they’re aware of the crude 12-minute clip, posted to YouTube on Wednesday, and that it was previously given to prosecutors in the highly-charged rape case against two players on a local high school football team.
“Since late August 2012, the subject who made the video was interviewed,” Steubenville Police Chief William McCafferty told CBS affiliate WTRF-TV. “This has all been turned over to the prosecutors, which are the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.”
The video is the latest electronic evidence that has resurfaced in this case, which has sharply divided Steubenville, a dwindling steel town on the West Virginia border. Making the situation even thornier is that Steubenville High School and its football team, known as Big Red, are widely celebrated for their state championship titles.
Two 16-year-old players, Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond, were charged with rape and kidnapping in the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old West Virginia girl last August, according to the Herald-Star. A trial is scheduled for Feb. 13.
The incident gained traction when other players and students talked about the incident on Twitter, posted pictures on Instagram and also uploaded video of the night to YouTube.
Events began at an end-of-summer party in a volunteer football coach’s home, where alcohol was freely flowing, The New York Times reported last month. The girl may have been unconscious, dragged to different parties and raped over several hours, The Times said. She may even have been urinated on.
Meanwhile, hacktivist group Anonymous has been trying to keep a spotlight on the case, claiming officials are trying to cover up the crime that may involve other football players. The group has organized protest rallies, including another one for Saturday, and recovered some online posts that were deleted by students.
The latest video shows a former Steubenville High School student talking about the alleged rape and referring to the teen involved as a “dead girl.”
Others in the video tried to explain the seriousness of the situation.
“What if that was your daughter?” someone asked.
“But it isn’t,” the student said. “If that was my daughter, I wouldn't care. I would just let her be dead.”
He went on to ask “is it really rape if you don’t know if she wanted to or not? She might have wanted it. That might have been her final wish.”
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine told WTRF-TV that his office is trying to figure out what happened that night and prosecute those involved.
“We fully understand the importance to the community in making sure that the truth comes out and that we know exactly what's going on,” DeWine said.

TALE OF THE TAPE Photographer uses Scotch tape for a picture spread of fantastically mutilated faces

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A New Mexico-based photographer has uncovered the diverse nature of sticky situations using nothing but Scotch tape, his camera and a few beers.
In a collection of zany photos named simply, “The Scotch Tape Series,” Wes Naman, a 37-year-old photographer from Albuquerque, was able to capture a wide range of facial expression by snapping shots of people with Scotch tape affixed to their faces.

The series, which includes 33 photos of men and women with Scotch tape wrapped around different parts of their faces, offers expressions ranging from hilarious to horrified.
Some subjects are smoking cigarettes, while others are wielding axes or wearing wacky clothes and accessories. But the glue that holds it all together (other than the Scotch tape, of course)?

The intensely emotive facial expressions.

“We got a lot of great facial distortions. The best ones (I) got happened when I asked people to remove the tape,” Naman explained. “The grimaces they had when they were removing the tape — that brought forth the best expressions. A broad range of emotions.”
 The idea started when, last Christmas, Naman and his assistant were wrapping presents with Scotch tape.

“And I was just thinking about a fun project I could do,” Naman said. “I just wanted to get back to work and do something for myself and get away from the commercial work I’d been doing. My assistant and I were playing with the tape and just got a kick out of it, and then I just decided to gather some friends, buy them all some booze and just take their pictures with some Scotch tape.”

“We had a good laugh that night,“ added Naman, who started taking pictures in 1998, shortly after he graduated from college.

Before long, a local writer working for Wired Magazine took note of the photos and word of their charm quickly spread.

During the initial shoot, Naman photographed about eight people, but he expanded the series after the photos went viral.