Teen's Account of Assault Led to More Reports, Arrest
Police, counselors praise her actions
By Maria Blackburn, Sun Staff
Originally published in The Baltimore Sun, November 5, 2001
When a Carroll County teen went to a hospital seeking treatment for a possible rape, she set in motion a series of events that would result in the arrest of a 17-year-old Taneytown boy. She also gave three other girls who said they had been raped by him the courage to come forward, according to police and rape crisis experts.
Though she did not call police, the 18-year-old's willingness to reveal what happened to her earned praise from police. "She knew that what had happened to her was wrong and criminal," said Sgt. James T. DeWees, supervisor of the state police Child Abuse and Sexual Assault unit.
It doesn't always work that way. Most of the time, victims don't report their rape to police.
Friendship, coupled with embarrassment and guilt, often makes it difficult for victims to step forward, DeWees said. Victims might be drinking alcohol or using drugs at the time of their sexual assaults, and they don't want police or their parents to know, experts said.
"In cases where somebody knocks on your door and you don't know who they are, you would kick, scream, scratch—whatever it takes to get out of that situation," he said. But when the assailant is a friend, "some victims have this initial shock—'I can't believe this is happening to me'—and before they know it, the assault itself is over."
Last week, Nathaniel Jared Yinger was arrested and charged with the rape of four girls between ages 16 and 18 from December through September. The girls attended Francis Scott Key High School in northwestern Carroll County. Three of the four said they were raped at parties where alcohol was being consumed.
Two told police they considered the suspect a friend, according to court documents.
Yinger, of the 2800 block of Basehore's Mill Road, has been charged as an adult with multiple counts of second-degree rape, second-degree assault, second-degree sex offense and sodomy. He posted bail and is on home detention, allowed to leave his home only for court appearances, meetings with his lawyer or visits to a doctor.
The investigation began Sept. 29, when the 18-year-old woman went to Carroll County General Hospital seeking treatment as a possible rape victim and the hospital notified police. The young woman told police she had passed out on a couch from drinking beer and malt liquor during a house party in Taneytown, and woke up and was attacked as she struggled to get away, according to the court documents.
As police investigated the incident, the circle widened, and three more teens came forward, DeWees said.
A 15-year-old girl said an acquaintance stopped by her house one afternoon in December and raped her after they played pool and talked, according to the documents. A 16-year-old girl said she and another teen were at a party at a friend's house Feb. 27 when he sexually assaulted her while she was trying to sleep on the couch, according to the documents. And another 18-year-old girl told police she had consumed several shots of vodka at a friend's party in April and was trying to go to sleep when she was raped and sodomized, according to the documents.
Rape and sexual assault are the crimes least often reported to law enforcement. According to figures from the U.S. Department of Justice, 28 percent of 110,270 rapes that occurred in 1999 were reported to police.
Teens ages 16 to 19 are 3 1/2 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's 1996 National Crime Victimization Survey.
Because high schools are closely knit communities where fitting in and not drawing attention to oneself are important, girls who have been sexually assaulted by a fellow student could feel especially reluctant to report the incident, according to Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a nonprofit organization based in Washington that operates America's only national hot line for victims of sexual assault.
"If she tells one or two friends she's going to the cops, word will get out," Berkowitz said. "Everyone in her high school will know who she is."
Often, once one victim comes forward, others gain confidence that their stories will be believed. "The focus won't be on their behavior … it will be on the serial rapist," he said.
The fact that three of the victims were underage and drinking on the nights that they allege the rapes occurred also could add to their reluctance to report the crime, according to Karen Hartz, executive director of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault Inc. in Arnold.
"These kids are underage," Hartz said. "If they come forward and say they were drunk at the time and weren't able to respond [to the assault], they have to answer to their parents as to why they were drinking."
There's also a perception that reports of rape by women who were drinking are unreliable unjustified, she added. "There's a stereotype that if a woman was drinking, she asked for it," Hartz said. "In fact, it's not an excuse … it's still a crime."
Yinger, who was in his senior year at Key, where he excelled as a wrestler his freshman year and on the soccer field for three years, withdrew from the school Sept. 28.
Principal Randy Clark, wrestling coach Bill Hyson and officials with the Carroll schools said they would not comment for this story because of the investigation.
Parents and others in the community said they were astounded by the charges, especially because they were made within six months of the arrests of two of the school's teachers on charges of having sexual contact with students.
One former teacher, Kimberly L. Merson, was sentenced in September to 18 months in the county jail and five years' probation for having inappropriate sexual contact with four boys, ages 15 and 16 at the time of the incident. Student teacher Tracie L. Mokry is scheduled to go to trial in March on charges that she provided alcohol to two male students. Child sexual abuse charges against her were dropped in June.
"We're pretty shocked about it," said Taneytown Mayor Henry C. Heine, whose daughter graduated from Key two years ago. "It seems like lately there's been nothing but bad news in some areas of the world."
"It takes a big toll on the community," added Nancy Owings, treasurer of Key's athletic booster club, who lives in New Windsor and whose son is a junior at the school.
The group was hoping to promote the school by selling 100 red, white and blue car flags at $15 apiece as a fall fund-raiser. There have been few takers.
