8th Black Charged in Mass Gang-Rape of Kidnapped, Drugged Teenage Girls

Chicago Tribune
October 27, 2013

Ramel Stevens.
Ramel Stevens.
An eighth person has been charged in connection with the kidnapping and sexual assault of three teenage girls last weekend on the West Side.

Bail was set at $500,000 this morning for Ramel Stevens, 20, of the 12800 block of S. 58th Court in Cicero. He was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault and kidnapping.

Stevens is accused of being part of a group who attacked two 16-year-old girls and a 15-year-old, prosecutors said.

The girls were walking in the 700 block of North Parkside Avenue in the Austin neighborhood about 9:45 p.m. Oct. 19 when a 1999 Chevrolet van approached, according to police and prosecutors.

As the van parked outside of a liquor store, two suspects exited and started to talk to the girls. Later, the victims agreed to get into the van and left with them. The attackers had the girls sit on their laps and then gave the two 16-year-old victims alcohol and marijuana, prosecutors said.

According to court records, Stevens is accused of assaulting one of the victims in the van.

Prosecutors said Saturday at least two of the people took turns driving while the girls were assaulted. Meanwhile, the girl who did not drink the alcohol or smoke the marijuana “fought to protect” the other girls, screaming and pounding the walls of the van, according to court records and prosecutors.

Prosecutors on Saturday provided more detail about the state of the two girls who were given the alcohol and marijuana in the van. They said one of the girls was “extremely intoxicated” and could not hold her head up. One of the girls had a blood alcohol content of .237, according to prosecutors. Police found that girl unconscious and partially dressed in a suspect’s basement, lying in a pool of her own vomit, prosecutors said.

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