By Calvin Palmer
Four teenage boys were charged today with the rape of a 13-year-old girl, which was part of a gang initiation.
The teenagers, two 15-year-olds, one aged 16 and another 13, were each charged at Ramsey County District Court with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of committing a crime for the benefit of a gang.
The boys allegedly took the girl by bus from Minneapolis to a residence in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood of St. Paul on Friday night. According to a St. Paul Police report, the girl drank alcohol and then was “bitten, punched and threatened until she was raped by the suspects.”
The girl was held overnight, but managed to escape from the house Saturday when the suspects momentarily left her alone. She went to a home of a stranger who called police.
The four boys were arrested a short time later.
They made their first court appearance today. A hearing on motions to try all but the 13-year-old as adults was set for March 17. A trial for the 13-year-old was scheduled for March 20.
All four remain in custody, Ramsey County attorney’s office said.
[Based on a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.]
Try them all as adults