DA Hopes To Try 4 Teens As Adults In Gang Rape Of Girl, 11

RIVERSIDE (AP) —  Prosecutors are seeking to try four teenage boys as adults in the alleged gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in a park bathroom, the Riverside County district attorney's office said Wednesday.

The teens were charged with four felonies Wednesday in juvenile court, but prosecutors said they should be tried as adults due to the severity of the crimes.

A Riverside Juvenile Court judge will rule on that motion during a public court hearing Monday.

"Our office believes the evidence in this case shows these defendants took extreme advantage of a very vulnerable victim and committed a horrible series of crimes against the victim," district attorney's spokesman John Hall told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. "We believe they need to be held accountable for their actions in adult court and not in the juvenile arena."

The charges against each teen, who range in age from 15 to 17, include rape and sodomy, Hall said. They are also charged with committing the crimes to benefit a criminal street gang.

The defendants were among a gang of six teen-age boys and a 19-year-old man accused of attacking the girl March 10 in a bathroom at Victoriano Park in southeastern Moreno Valley, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles.

Prosecutors said an older girl associated with the gang lured the victim into a park bathroom so she could be raped.

Hall could not confirm if charges had been filed against the girl and two other teen-age boys because they are juveniles.

The lone adult suspect, Michael Sykes, 19, of Moreno Valley, was charged Wednesday with six felonies, including kidnapping for rape, four counts of aggravated sexual assault on a child and committing a crime to benefit a criminal street gang. He also faces several sex offense and kidnapping enhancements.

Sykes could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted, Hall said.

It was the second time in a month that a young girl was sexually attacked in a park in Riverside County.

In February, three 13-year-old boys were arrested after a middle school student told officers a boy sexually assaulted her while the two others held her down at Banning's Roosevelt Williams Park.

The boys and the victim attended Nicolette Middle School, and investigators said it wasn't a gang-related attack.

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