In the months since Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond were convicted of raping an unconscious 16-year-old girl and, in Mays' case, disseminating photos of the assault online and through text messages, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has been investigating others in Steubenville who may have failed to speak up or attempted to conceal the crime from law enforcement.
On Monday, DeWine announced that an Ohio grand jury investigation indicted four more people, including a football coach and a school superintendent.
As NBC News reports, Superintendent Michael McVey was charged with tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice, and volunteer assistant coach Matthew Belardine was charged with "allowing underage drinking, obstructing official business and making a false statement." Two other school employees were indicted for failing to report child abuse.
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Over seven months, the panel met 18 times and heard from 123 witnesses.
Last month, it issued indictments against William Rhinaman, the Steubenville schools' technology director, who is accused of tampering with evidence and obstructing justice, and his daughter, who was indicted for theft unrelated to the rape case.
On Friday, it issued the rest of the indictments.
“Some may ask why others were not indicted,” DeWine said, explaining that a grand jury must find probable cause to charge someone with a crime.
“It is simply not sufficient that person’s behavior was reprehensible, disgusting, mean-spirited or just plain stupid,” he said.
“Barring any new evidence, I believe that the grand jury’s work is done.”
DeWine said that small city of Steubenville had been traumatized by the actions of a few and that many good citizens and student athletes had been unfairly "maligned."
"It's time to let Steubenville move on," he said.
It is possible that DeWine's comment about "reprehensible, disgusting, mean-spirited or just plain stupid" behavior may be directed at speculation from many that Steubenville head football coach Reno Saccoccia would be among those indicted. According to witness testimony and text messages introduced as evidence in the rape trial, Saccoccia knew about the assault but did not report the crime to school administrators or local law enforcement as is mandated by Ohio law.
More to come as the story develops.
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