(MintPress) – Long before major news outlets had picked up on the Steubenville, Ohio rape case, one former resident of the small town felt the need to do some digging — and so she did.
Alexandria Goddard, who has more than 20 years experience as a legal assistant, spent the night combing through Twitter accounts of football players and community members, taking screenshots before there was opportunity for deletion. As time revealed, the tweets were deleted. They forever live on through the work of Goddard.
In one night, she eventually uncovered the story, providing a central viewing point for horrific tweets by teenage boys describing what was done to the young victim, including one tweet that read, “Some people deserve to be peed on,” and another posted just prior to that stated, “You don’t sleep through a wang in the butthole.”
Like other bloggers and citizen journalists, Goddard was inspired to act out for the purpose of exposing the truth.
“There were a significant number of Twitter accounts discussing the night in question, and others posturing that if their friends got in trouble for this they were going to be ‘pissed,’” Goddard wrote in a story regarding her immediate coverage. “Girls were calling the victim a whore, and I was absolutely overwhelmed at the amount of information that was put out there on the Internet by the time I went to bed that afternoon.”
Goddard posted her discoveries on her blog, Prinniefied.com, which she said saw great interest from residents of Steubenville, who said the local news media wasn’t providing the full story. While the two boys — Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’Lik Richmond, 16 — had been charged, the local media wasn’t releasing their names. Reports also failed to answer questions regarding whether more than two boys were responsible for encouraging and engaging in the sexual assault.
Goddard provided readers not just with rumors, but with the words of the teenage boys — and girls — themselves, which they published for the world to see on Twitter.
“It is one thing to hear the rumors, but I think when people actually saw the tweets, and the vile things that were said with their own eyes, it really drove home just how disgusting the behavior of these kids was that night,” Goddard wrote.
Goddard wasn’t the only alternative source to provide new information on the widespread nature of the rape culture within the Steubenville football team. Anonymous came forward the beginning of January with the shocking release of videos depicting football players bragging about the rape of a “dead” girl. Information from private email accounts were also leaked to the public.
Along with its release, Anonymous posted an explanation for its actions through its operating arm, Local Leaks.
“Many of our disclosures have caused us to pause with grief for the victims of corruption or wrongdoing,” the post stated. “But nothing has so completely moved the staff of LocalLeaks with such heartbreak as this disclosure has. When we were presented with the copious body of material that is the source of this disclosure, all the LocalLeaks volunteers began working around the clock to organize, analyze, fact-check, verify — and prepare this disclosure for release.”
The video released by Anonymous showing the disturbing attitude of young football players toward the rape of the young girl also has been taken off YouTube. But before it was, it was viewed by millions of people around the nation, causing outrage and concern. A protest was held, and the community was forced to acknowledge that the incident was more than an unfortunate incident caused by two bad apples.
The video and details released shocked the world and put America’s rape problem and sexual assault of women back in the spotlight, yet angered local law enforcement. Sheriff Fred Abdalla, who was initially leading the investigation, took aim at Anonymous, who initially leaked the video of the football players talking about the rape. The department, through Sheriff Abdalla, shifted the focus from the conversation of the rape over to the hactivist group.
“Anonymous, if you’re watching this, we’re coming after you,” Abdalla said in a press conference.
Moved by compassion, concern
Goddard’s revealing blog posts that detail what the young football players had said cost her greatly — a defamation lawsuit was threatened against her by the ex-boyfriend of the victim, harassing messages were received and friendships were broken. Yet she doesn’t regret what she did.
“I have been left weeping and filled with so much pride as I watched the Steubenville rallies and listened to the stories of the other victims who were too afraid to come forward,” she wrote. “It was absolutely amazing to see the streets of downtown Steubenville filled with supporters from all over the country supporting Jane Doe — and all the Jane Does.”
The same compassion and sense of duty was expressed by Anonymous’ local group, which included with the release of the video the following statement: “First and foremost, our hearts and condolences go out to the young lady who was the victim of this brutal and brazen attack, and to her family. We pray that this disclosure can bring them some comfort, and that by bringing a measure of transparency to Steubenville, Ohio perhaps also some real justice to the victim of this horrible crime.”
On Monday, Mays and Ma’Lik were found delinquent as juveniles for the rape of the young girl — Mays will serve a minimum of two years in a juvenile facility, Ma’Lik will serve one. Yet this isn’t necessarily the end of the story. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is calling for a grand jury investigation to determine if there is more than two guilty parties in the incident, something Goddard and Anonymous attempted to show the world all along.