GMA: Spring Breakers Watched Teen Get Raped

ByABC News via logo
April 2, 2001, 12:02 AM

G A V E L S T O N, Texas, April 2 -- A Houston, Texas teenager says she was raped while a group of more than two dozen spring break partiers watched and one videotaped the incident.

Although the videomaker says the woman invited the men into her car by dangling her bikini top, mother of the high school student says even if her daughter did lift up her bikini top, she did not deserve to be raped.

"???," the mother told Good Morning America. Her name is being withheld to protect her daughter's identity.

Her daughter lifted her bikini top and a young man put his hand in through the car window, but she did not wave the bikini top out the car window as the man who videotaped the incident has claimed, the mother said. Her daughter was just "out to have a good time," and didn't realize the trouble that removing her top could cause, her mother said.

No Witnesses Came Forward The incident happened March 13 in Crystal Beach, Texas during spring break. Police are looking for the approximately 25 to 30 people who witnessed the incident. None of the witnesses have come forward and there have been no arrests.

"???????????????," Sgt. Mike Barry of the Galveston Sheriff's Office said. Justin Fletcher, the videomaker, told WKHOU in Houston that he disputed the teens' claim that she was raped. He told the station that the teen did not run or try to roll up her car windows when a group of men surrounded her four-door Hyundai Elantra near the beach.

According to the police report, the young woman was driving her car in the beach area at around 12:15 a.m. when her car was suddenly surrounded by a large number of men, some of whom even climbed on top of the car.

Onlookers ScatteredThe woman tried to lock the doors, but two men got in. Police say one of the men raped her and the other forced her to perform oral sex. Someone who told them about a mob on the beach flagged down the police, and when they arrived with spotlights, everyone scattered. The woman was taken to the hospital.

The mother said her daughter has been depressed since the incident, and has gone for counseling. She wants the people who witnessed the incident to come forward and turn in her daughter's attackers.