Cops: Rapists lured girl on MySpace

August 15, 2006
BY ERIC HERMAN AND LORI RACKL Staff Reporters

Four assailants, including two Senn High School students, raped a 14-year-old girl they met through the MySpace.com Web site, then left her passed out in an alley, prosecutors said Monday.
The Cook County state's attorney's office charged the Senn students -- Angel Alverio, 18, and Tony Pacheco, 17 -- with one count of criminal sexual assault each. Judge Laura Sullivan set bond at $400,000. "The victim awoke and found herself abandoned in an alley," said Assistant State's Attorney John Henning. After Alverio and Pacheco allegedly made contact with the victim through MySpace, a social networking Web site, they arranged a July 24 meeting. They then drove her to a house in the 4800 block of West Walton, the home of a 15-year-old boy, Henning said. At the boy's home, they "drank alcohol and played video games," Henning said. Chicago Police Officer JoAnn Taylor said the group consumed "a large amount of alcohol." The girl "became ill, and that is when she was sexually assaulted multiple times by the offenders," Taylor said.

Woke up 2 miles away
After the drinking, the girl passed out. When she awoke, Pacheco allegedly was having sex with her, according to Henning. She passed out again, and woke up to find the 15-year-old having sex with her. After losing consciousness a third time, the girl awoke to find Alverio attempting to receive oral sex from her, Henning said. The next thing she knew, the 14-year-old woke up in an alley about two miles away at 3253 W. North, where a passerby found her around 3 p.m., Taylor said. The girl was treated at Norwegian American Hospital and released. According to Assistant Public Defender Sandra Bennewitz, Alverio will be a senior at Senn this fall and is captain of the school's football team. Pacheco also goes to Senn, she said. The 15-year-old was charged with criminal sexual assault in juvenile court Monday, and remained in juvenile detention Monday night, said a state's attorney's spokesman. A fourth suspect allegedly involved remained at large, Henning said. Police sources said Alverio and Pacheco were arrested Sunday at Grand Central Area headquarters, 5555 W. Grand, but did not say whether the two had surrendered. Pacheco has a record of juvenile offenses, including burglary and weapons charges, a police source said.

Prosecutors said they did not know how long Alverio and Pacheco had been corresponding with the girl, or whether they knew her previously.
The self-proclaimed "place for friends," MySpace is a fast-growing Web site with 100 million members. It allows users to create personal Web pages and connect with others who have similar interests. Large corporations and small businesses also use MySpace to promote products. The U.S. Marine Corps even uses it for recruiting. According to comScore Networks, which tracks Internet audiences, about 35 percent of MySpace users are between the ages of 18 and 35; 15 percent are 17 or younger.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought MySpace last year for $649 million. Though the site has enjoyed explosive success, it has also, in some cases, become a tool for sexual predators, especially adult men seeking to meet underage girls. "We've seen a steady increase in the use of the Internet in a number of different crimes -- especially in the sexual exploitation of minors," said Ross Rice, spokesman for the FBI's Chicago office.

Legislators target problem
Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said his office is prosecuting 14 cases involving the Internet and either child pornography or solicitation of children.
State Rep. Tom Cross (R-Oswego) introduced five bills last month aimed at making social networking sites safer, according to spokesman David Dring. One bill, for example, would make it a crime for an adult to discuss sex with a minor over the Internet, even if the adult does not attempt to arrange a meeting.

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is making similar efforts in Congress. "Social networking sites like MySpace.com give predators powerful new ways to contact kids," Kirk said.
MySpace spokeswoman Rena Grant said the company does not comment on individual incidents. She referred to new safety measures MySpace instituted in June, which include hiring a former federal prosecutor of Internet child exploitation crimes to be the company's chief security officer, and new security measures for 14- and 15-year-olds, which require members 18 or older to know the e-mail address or name of members under 16 before contacting them.
To join MySpace, a user must be at least 14 years old. Members can be ejected for lying about their age.