Twelve men aged 18 to 22 held for rape of two underage girls at Jacksonville State University in Alabama as their lawyers claim victims posed as older on Tinder
TWELVE men have been arrested in connection with the alleged statutory rape of two underage girls at Jacksonville State University.
The men, aged 18 to 22, are accused of having sexual encounters with girls aged between 13 and 15 over a period of months at the Alabama school.
Investigators said the earliest contact between the girls and the group of men occurred on social media in January of this year, with an attorney acting on behalf of one of the men alleging that one of the girls had claimed to be 19.
The first nine arrests occurred over a two-day period in mid-September, while two arrests on Monday bring the total number arrested so far up to 12.
Eleven of the men have been charged with second-degree rape and the twelfth has been charged with sodomy.
Second-degree rape is defined under Alabama law as sexual intercourse between someone 16 or older and another person younger than 16 but older than 12.
The first nine people arrested are: Brandon Reece Barton, 19; Avory Triston Cosby, 20; Walker Harris, 18; James Lyle, 19; Christian Lane Homesely, 19; Caleb Matthew Lafollette, 21; Kyler Taran Morgan, 18; Seth Robert Emmenegger, 22 and Daniel Ralph George, 18.
Neither of the alleged victims is affiliated with Jacksonville State University, but several of the men arrested are reported to be students there.
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Jacksonville Police Department contacted the university in September to notify them of the investigation, university attorney Sam Monk told NBC News.
“The girls were making contact through social media connections and then coming onto our campus or adjacent to our campus to meet these individuals,” Monk said, adding that at least three of the individuals arrested had no link to the school.
Bill Broome, an attorney acting for one of the defendants, had claimed that one of girls portrayed herself as older on social media.
“This is just wrong to label these young men as rapists and potentially have to register as sex offenders,” he told local station WBRC.
But attorney Roger Appell told the station: “The fact that she lied about her age on Tinder [or] Facebook is of no consequence.”
An emergency meeting of the university’s board of trustees was held on September 21 after campus police were alerted to six statutory rapes.
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Security patrols on the campus are reported to have been increased, and students are now required to show proof they are resident before being allowed to enter a residence hall.
The university said in a statement: “We as an institution and as a community are committed to maintaining a secure and trusted campus environment for our students, employees, visitors and guests, and we will continue with appropriate vigilance and campus-wide education.”
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