Activist Who Exposed Steubenville Gang Rapists (Who Now Walk Free) May Face Up To 16 Years

Activist Who Exposed Steubenville Gang Rapists (Who Now Walk Free) May Face Up To 16 Years

Credit: mintpressnews.com
Credit: mintpressnews.com

You know the American ‘justice’ system is flawed when rapist Brock Turner spends only three months in prison, and hacker/activist Deric Lostutter – who helped expose a 2012 high school rape case – is sentenced up to 16 years in jail.

Lostutter – who aligns himself with the online syndicate Anonymous – was one of two hackers responsible for exposing the criminals behind the Steubenville gang rape. As you might remember, the incident involved a heavily drunk high-school girl and several members of a local football team. The victim wasn’t even aware of the full extent of the assault until she saw videos and photos of the cruel act all over social media the next day.

Only two players – Trent Mays and Ma’Lik Richmond – were arrested on charges of rape and kidnapping. Later, the kidnapping charges were dropped. Rightly so, many citizens were outraged by the injustice which prosecutors and coaches attempted to cover up.

Disgusted by the nonchalant attitude school administrators took, Lostutter (whose online name is ‘KYAnonymous’) approached a fellow hacker, Noah McHugh, to reveal the identities of other high-schoolers involved in the gang rape.

AnonHQ relays that the activists hacked RollRedRoll.com between December 21 and December 25, 2012, and later posted a video showing several of the school’s students joking about the rape victim – referring to her as “the dead girl”.

Lostutter then filmed a video of himself in a Guy Fawkes mask and “issued threats that he would disclose the personal identifying information of Steubenville High School students” if the rapists didn’t come forward and apologize. This activism earned the Steubenville rape case national attention and eventually resulted in Mays and Richmond being convicted of the rape of a minor. Richmond served only 10 months out of a one-year sentence in a juvenile detention facility, and Mays became the star quarterback at Ohio’s Hocking College after just two years in prison.

The irony is that while these rapists now walk free, Lostutter – who helped expose them – may now face up to 16 years in prison.

In April 2013, the FBI showed up at the hacktivist’s house and arrested him. Lostutter pled ‘not guilty’ to the charges and was later released while he awaited trial. In July 2016, the activist’s court date finally arrived, and he was indicted by a federal grand jury for “conspiring to access an online account to draw attention to a 2012 high-school rape case in Ohio.”

The activist has been charged with three counts of unauthorized access of a computer affecting interstate communication to commit an invasion of privacy and libel, and one count of making a false statement to the FBI. In result, he may spend up to sixteen years in jail.

Tor Ekeland, Lostutter’s attorney, found out about the four-charge indictment from a story on the internet. He told the press:

“I don’t understand why they are prosecuting somebody … who basically helped expose the rape of a minor. This is not a situation where somebody, you know, hacked a hospital or took down a nuclear power plant.  This was an act of political protest about the rape of a 16-year-old girl.”

The lawyer of Brooklyn, NY, is a specialist in defending people accused of computer crimes, and says the harm caused by the alleged hacking was “minimal”. Like many, he was surprised the indictment came three years after his client’s home was raided by the FBI.

Lostutter commented:

“You get 16 years for forcibly entering your way into a computer, but you get one year for forcibly entering your way into a woman. I think that’s the precedent the government is setting here.” 

His trial is scheduled to start on November 8.

If you find this news upsetting, please share this article and comment your thoughts below to raise awareness about this injustice.


This article (Activist Who Exposed Steubenville Gang Rapists (Who Now Walk Free) May Face Up To 16 Years) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com

Popular on True Activist