Associated Press/Keith Srakocic
From left, Defense attorney Adam Nemann, his client, defendant Trent Mays, 17, and defendant 16-year-old Ma'lik Richmond
Steubenville High School football players Trenton Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond,16, are accused of driving the girl from party to party one night in August and "treating her like a toy."
The Steubenville rape trial that began Wednesday has captured national attention because of the flurry of social media posts that followed the alleged assault — including a picture of the alleged victim being held by her hands and legs.
During the trial, prosecutors will have to show the girl was too drunk to consent to having sex, and some witnesses have testified she was visibly very intoxicated that night.
At one point, the 16-year-old sat topless in the street next to a pool of her own vomit, a witness testified, according to The New York Times.
The 16-year-old was the drunkest person in the room at one of the parties, that same witness testified. Late in the night, that witness was shown a picture of the alleged victim on her hands and knees while Mays stood beside her and touched her buttocks, the witness testified, according to The Times.
Mays and Richmond are accused of raping the girl with their fingers. Mays also allegedly tried to force his penis into her mouth and later masturbated on top of her, ABC News reported.
Pictures that circulated online show "further degradation," prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter said in court Wednesday, according to ABC News. One picture that made the rounds online showed her on her side with what looked like semen on her stomach, Hemmeter said.
The day after the alleged assault, the accuser wasn't sure exactly what happened to her. Hemmeter said she'd present evidence pieced together from various online postings that an assault occurred, Reuters reported.
"You will have to piece it together much in the way (the victim) had to piece it together," she told a judge, according to Reuters.
The defense team acknowledges the girl was drunk but argues she was still able to make decisions for herself that night, The New York Times has reported.
Defense lawyer Walter Madison also said the alleged victim rejected her friend's offer to bring her to a different party where she had friends.
“Does that sound like a person who has no idea what’s going on?” Madison said in court, according to The Times.
The pictures and online postings from the alleged assault have cast a harsh spotlight on a struggling Rust Belt town of 18,000 that glorifies its "Big Red" football team.
Only two football players have been prosecuted. But eye witness reports and social media postings suggest other football players may have taken part in the alleged assault — or stood idly by while they watched it unfold.