Vanishing Immunity Deal Throws More Steubenville Players Back in Spotlight
ALEXANDER ABAD-SANTOS 1,453 Views7:54 AM ET
Ohio's attorney general has revealed that student witnesses for the prosecution during a preliminary hearing in the Steubenville rape case had not been granted immunity, rebuking statements from defense lawyers for the two Steubenville High football players accused of assaulting a 16-year-old girl — and throwing open the possibility that testimony could be used against at least three more members of the Big Red team.
Attorneys for the two defendants, Steubenville quarterback Trent Mays and wide receiver Ma'lik Richmond, maintain that the three teammates who testified against them at a probable cause hearing in October "were granted immunity in exchange for their cooperation." But according to a report Thursday from Ohio Valley's Wheeling News-Register, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is now denying that the three witnesses, all of whom may have photographed or videotaped the alleged victim on the night in question, had been granted any such leniency by the court: "We've made no deals with anyone," he said. "We have offered nothing, made no promises to any witness in this case," DeWine went on to tell local WTOV. "No deals have been cut with anybody." The three boys were identified by the local Ohio press following the hearing on October 12 of last year as Mark Cole, Evan Westlake, and Anthony Craig, but their involvement with the alleged incident has been largely overshadowed by the presumption of an immunity deal. On Thursday the Steubenville school board issued a statement urging student "witnesses" to come forward.
In a letter to the three players just days before they testified against their friends and teammates, DeWine wrote that each player "may not have conducted himself in a responsible or appropriate manner, his behavior did not rise to the level of any criminal conduct.... Therefore, we will not prosecute your client for his actions on August 11-12, 2012."
The fallout over the testimony remains unclear, and a sprawling investigation that now involves the FBI is ongoing — the trial for Mays and Richmond is scheduled for February 13, though lawyers have pushed to delay or even move the next hearings — but the discrepancy over an immunity deal raises new questions: Who are the three witnesses, and what do they know about that night? Could they somehow be implicated in the alleged assault or other crimes? And does their in-trouble-out-of-trouble-and-back-in-trouble status point to signs of a cover-up that outside hacking groups have alleged since they inflamed the case nationally last week?
-snip-
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/01/steubenville-case-immunity-deal/60855/
= new reply since forum marked as read
everyone needs to be held accountable if we want this to stop, every witness and particularly the coach that told the boys to take their victim elsewhere 
