11-Year-Old Girl Gang Raped in California Park Bathroom/Perps: Michael Sykes plus 6 Juveniles

Authorities have captured a 19-year-old California man they say is responsible, along with six others, for the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl inside a park bathroom.
Michael Sykes, a suspected gang member, was arrested Monday morning at a Moreno Valley home, police sources confirm to FoxNews.com.
Police allege that Sykes, along with six juvenile gang members, raped the child in the bathroom at Moreno Valley's Victoriano Park between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. March 10, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
The attack, which was on the south side of the city near Moreno Valley College, wasn't made public until Sunday, and police have not released further details about the incident.
"As a father — even as a police officer — there are crimes that shock us. This is one of them," Capt. John Anderson, chief of the Moreno Valley station, said.
Detectives told the newspaper that the girl was at a shopping center near the park when she was approached by an older girl, who lured her to the bathroom where the six boys and the 19-year-old were waiting.
The attack was in an area where gangs and crime aren't a problem, Anderson said.
The six juveniles were arrested shortly after the rape and booked at Riverside County juvenile hall for investigation of sexual assault on a child. Sykes eluded authorities until his arrest Monday. Each of the suspects will face sexual assault and gang enhancement charges, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's office.
Authorities have so far not released the named of the teens because they are minors. Police sources, however, say the boys are all over 14 and could be charged as adults.
Anyone with information in the gang rape case is urged to contact Detective Duke Viveros at 951-247-8700.
The Associated Press contributed to this report

Michael Sykes
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The only adult charged in the gang rape of an 11-year-old Southern California girl pleaded not guilty Wednesday to multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, kidnapping to commit rape and engaging in criminal street gang activity.

Michael Devon Sykes, 19, also denied special allegations that would enhance the charges during a brief arraignment hearing in Riverside Superior Court.

Sykes is one of at least five people charged in either adult or juvenile court in the March 10 assault of the Moreno Valley girl. Prosecutors say she was walking home from school when she was lured by an older girl into a park bathroom and attacked by seven teenage boys.

Police have said some of the teens are known members of a relatively new and homegrown gang called the South Side Mafia, which first came to the attention of authorities in late 2008 in the city about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.


Four of the teens, who range in age from 15 to 17, have been charged in juvenile court. Prosecutors are fighting to move those cases to adult court and cite the premeditated nature and severity of the alleged crimes for doing so.

A juvenile court judge has ordered the Probation Department to prepare a report on the teens by April 25 as he decides whether to send them to adult court.

The older girl and two other boys have not been charged as adults. Authorities have declined to say if they have been charged as juveniles, citing confidentiality laws.

Sykes’ next court appearance will be May 13, said John Hall, spokesman for the district attorney’s office.

The arraignment came a day after a peace vigil at the park where police say the attack happened. About 300 residents and church members gathered to sing, pray and display signs calling for peace.

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The only adult charged in the gang rape of an 11-year-old Southern California girl has pleaded not guilty.

Michael Devon Sykes entered the pleas Wednesday to charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, kidnapping to commit robbery or rape and engaging in criminal street gang activity. He also denied special-circumstance allegations.

The 19-year-old is one of at least five people charged in either adult or juvenile court for the March 10 assault on the Moreno Valley girl.

The child was walking home from school when an older girl lured her to a park bathroom, where prosecutors say seven boys attacked her.

Four have been charged in juvenile court.

Authorities have declined to say if the older girl and two other boys have been charged as juveniles.

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MORENO VALLEY: Gang-rape suspects to stand trial


Michael Sykes

A police detective described how a man and three teens gang raped a mentally disabled 11-year-old girl inside the bathroom of a Moreno Valley park, according to testimony during a preliminary hearing Friday.
But a defense attorney said the girl gave conflicting reports to police, suggesting the sex may have been consensual. An 11-year-old mentally disabled child can't have consensual sex!!!
A judge ordered Michael Sykes, 20, Dominique Dupree Hull, 16, and twin brothers Javonte Marquise Dixon and Johntae Maurice Dixon, both 18, to stand trial on rape charges following the preliminary hearing.
The teens also are charged with sodomy, oral copulation and lewd acts with a child under 14, including a kidnapping allegation. Sykes is also charged with kidnapping for rape, which could carry a life sentence if he’s convicted.
All but Sykes were juveniles when the allegations occurred, but they are being tried as adults. Prosecutors did not pursue adult charges against two other boys and a girl who they said were involved.
They all are associated with a Moreno Valley gang, Southside Mafia, and charged with gang enhancements.
Riverside Superior Court Judge Christian Thierbach entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of all four defendants. As the hearing ended, the judge questioned the gang enhancements.
“This was a brutal, horrible, violent attack designed to satisfy their own sexual desires,” Thierbach said. “But I have a difficult time associating that with the specific intent to further a gang.”
He then ordered the charges to stand based on a text message prosecutors said was sent out to ask others to join in the rape.
Police had interviewed the girl with her foster mother. Authorities said the girl seemed naïve and had the mental capacity of a 5-year-old.
During his testimony, Moreno Valley police Detective Duke Viveros said a 15-year-old girl met the 11-year-old girl at a bus stop March 10, 2011, outside Vista Verde Middle School.
The girl and the victim came to a shopping center where they met two men who stole beer and champagne, Viveros said. They walked across the street to an apartment complex, where they met two boys, and then to Victoriano Park, about 100 yards away.
The 11-year-old girl told police Hull put his arm around her neck and directed her into the girl’s bathroom. Sykes followed and three others later arrived, Viveros said. She recalled Hull asking her, “Are you ready to do some business?”
Inside the bathroom, she said three boys pinned her against the sink and sexually attacked her. They also held her down on the ground while she was raped and urinated on her, Viveros testified.
Sykes and another boy dragged her to the boy’s bathroom where they raped her again.
“She said the subjects were yelling out, ‘I’m next,’” Viveros said.
The detective said that during the attack the girl told Sykes, “Please stop. I want to go home.”
Police do not know how long the attack lasted.
“It ended because they were done with her,” Viveros said.
Defense attorneys countered that the girl gave inconsistent statements to police.
According to a police report, the girl first said she was not forced to have sex, but later said she was raped and then said she was going to have sex for money. Police said the girl was not emotional during their interview. The girl suffered no bruising and cuts to her face, arms or legs.
The 15-year-old girl who lured her to the park said she never saw the men holding her down.
Hull's defense attorney, Jeff Moore, suggested the sex may have been consensual because the other girl witnessed a consensual act and never heard the girl screaming or protesting. He also said the 11-year-old girl was never asked by police to identify Hull or the Dixons. The other girl named them to police.

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This makes me sick!! And, to think that the defense tried to say the sex may have been consensual is an insult to our intelligence.