WASHINGTON — Four teens who were arrested and charged as adults in connection with a locker room sexual assault at Damascus High School in Montgomery County, Maryland, have been indicted by a grand jury.
The 15-year-olds were indicted Thursday on one count of first-degree rape and three counts of attempted first-degree rape, according to a Montgomery County State’s Attorney Office spokesman.
In the indictment, the grand jury also added conspiracy to commit rape charges against the teens for each of the alleged attacks. Previously, the four teens had been charged with a single count of conspiracy.
“Now there is a conspiracy count for each individual victim,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told WTOP. “Really it came down to which way the trial team was most comfortable arguing the case to a jury.”
The teens were arrested last week and held in Montgomery County jail. They were released on an unsecured $20,000 bond following a court hearing Monday. A preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday morning is postponed given the indictment.
The four teens allegedly sought out four freshman members of the junior varsity football team before practice Oct. 31, held them down and assaulted them in the locker room.
The victims, all 14 years old, said they were attacked separately inside the locker room.
During the hearing, Assistant Montgomery County State’s Attorney Peter Feeney called the attack an “astonishingly cruel and violent rape.”
A fifth teen has been charged as a juvenile and has not been identified.
WTOP’s Megan Cloherty contributed to this report.
