NJ mayor: 27 arrested on warrants at apt. complex where girl, 7, was gang raped

BETH DeFALCO

Associated Press Writer9:10 AM PD T, April 1, 2010


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Twenty-seven people were arrested Thursday on outstanding warrants at a New Jersey apartment complex where officials say a 7-year-old girl was gang raped.

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer said the sweep of Rowan Towers was planned before the girl's attack. He said police hope the arrests will lead to tips that help them find those who assaulted the girl, otherwise the arrests were unrelated to the case.

"This is only the beginning," Palmer said. "We're not going to rest until that area is cleaned up so that decent people can live without the threat of fear and violence."

Police say the child's 15-year-old stepsister sold her to have sex with as many as seven men and boys at a party Sunday in a vacant apartment. The stepsister was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault, promoting prostitution and other crimes.

The teen's name was not released because of her age, but the county prosecutor plans to ask the court to try her as an adult.

Police believe as many as a dozen people were at the party and say everyone in the apartment when the rape occurred could be legally culpable. There were security cameras at the complex and police said they were reviewing all available building surveillance videos.

5 Arrests Made in N.J. Child Gang-Rape Case

TRENTON, N.J

Police in Trenton, N.J., say two adults and three juveniles have been arrested in the gang rape of a 7-year-old girl sold by her stepsister.

TRENTON, N.J. -- Two adults and three juveniles have been arrested in the gang rape of a 7-year-old girl sold by her stepsister, police said.

Details on the arrests were to be announced at a Saturday night news conference at police headquarters in Trenton, the state's capital city.

Authorities say the girl was offered for sale by her 15-year-old stepsister on March 28. They say the teen went to a party with some men on the 13th floor of the Rowan Towers apartment building and the younger girl tagged along because she worried about her stepsister's safety.

Police say the 15-year-old sold sex to men, then took money to let them touch the younger girl. They say touching turned to forcible sex as at least seven men raped the 7-year-old.

Before the Saturday announcement of the five arrests, the 15-year-old had been charged with promoting prostitution, aggravated sexual assault and other crimes; police have not released her name.


A 20-year-old man also had previously been charged with having sex with the 15-year-old. Police had appealed for help from residents of the Rowan Tower in identifying the younger girl's attackers.

Rowan Tower has a bad reputation. Gangs walk the streets nearby, and police are a constant, and some say ineffective, presence at the 15-story apartment building a stone's throw from the Statehouse's golden dome.

A 13-year-old girl was killed last year in a drive-by shooting a block away, and no one stepped forward to help police identify the attackers.

Rowan Tower sits on a stretch of West State Street near downtown Trenton and is surrounded by blocks of abandoned, boarded-up homes. It's fronted by a well-manicured lawn and features a colorful playground and a basketball court. An American flag hangs from a pole to the right of the front door.

Trenton is a hellhole and when they say "apartment complex" they probably meant to say "government project." Camden and Newark are also shitholes. Now Jersey City used to be a hellhole but it's location just across from lower Manhattan and next to the Statue of Liberty now make some parts of it prime real estate.

Anyway, everyone involved in this case should be shot....and fast.