Opinions

Justice denied after assault of Homer teen at party

Recently, two young men from Southcentral Alaska were sentenced in a case that has drawn attention even beyond Alaska's borders. The Resetarits brothers were originally charged with sexual assault after a 17-year-old boy was assaulted while passed out on a couch at a high school party. At the court hearing, Anthony Resetarits, the older of the two brothers, who was 20 at the time, told the judge how the crowd of drunk high school students wrote on this young man with Sharpies, how someone shaved his head with clippers, and how someone in the crowd eventually pulled the young man's pants down and placed an object between his legs, all in plain view of more than 50 partygoers. Allegedly, someone went further, but the Resetarits brothers, who admit to posing for a picture with the naked boy, said it wasn't them. They pleaded guilty to harassment, as well as other charges, but not assault.

The details of the case are outrageous, enough to make anyone shudder. How could people be so cruel? Why didn't anyone stop this assault? And perhaps more than anything, why, two years later, has no one paid the price for this crime?

The victim's mother testified tearfully in court about how her son's life was forever changed by the events of that September 2012 party. He was immediately sent to live out of state, and has struggled to find solid ground since. Now, more than two years later, the state has still been unable to build a case against anyone, a fact the mother said has caused her to lose all faith in the justice system.

In defense of the court system, there is little question that the court took this case seriously. Kenai Superior Court Judge Carl Bauman dismissed earlier charges of sexual assault against Anthony Resetarits, saying there lacked clear evidence in photo and testimony. But at last week's sentencing, the judge was visibly moved as he described what he believed was a mob mentality that took over at the party. It isn't every day you see a superior court judge stop to blow his nose on the bench, admitting that he found the circumstances of the case "emotional."

But while everyone is busy convicting these two young men online and condemning the courts as corrupt, there is another aspect of this case that is far more troublesome. In this day and age, almost every teen at that party has a phone in their pocket. A large number of them used that phone to take pictures of this assault as it was happening, which is disturbing enough in and of itself, but what they did, and didn't do, with those pictures makes one question the moral compass of these youth. What they did was share them. The state assistant district attorney, obviously frustrated to no end by the case, said one person reported a video of the assault was posted on YouTube for a brief period before the incident began to be investigated by police.

What they didn't do was cooperate with police once the investigation began. Dozens and dozens of pictures were allegedly deleted from phones of partygoers, some at the direction of Anthony Resetarits who pleaded guilty to felony charges of tampering with physical evidence by destroying his own photos, and felony first-degree hindering prosecution by sending out a text telling his friend to find who had photos and make sure they deleted them. The teens at this party worked together to delete photos and video from their phones to the point where not one scrap of evidence was found to support a case against anyone.

Essentially, the teens at this party pulled off a major cover-up operation. Not one would testify as to who had done it. Not one helped investigators. These aren't adults we are talking about. These are teenagers. And not one had enough respect for the law, let alone their fellow man, to step up and set things right.

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My question is this: Where are the parents in this equation? Did any of the parents pressure these teens to tell what they knew? Did they ground them? Did they take away their precious phones and computers until they cooperated? Or were they so fearful of the repercussions for their children that they chose to protect them at the cost of allowing them to obstruct justice?

No question, the youth who attended this party learned lessons from it. They learned that they shouldn't draw on their passed-out friend with Sharpies. They probably learned to get out of any situation like that as quick as possible. But did they learn respect for their fellow human beings? I think not. And did they learn that there will be repercussions for their actions, or inactions? Not one bit. That's a dangerous lesson to send out into the world.

Anthony Resetarits went to jail for 75 days last week, led to the door in handcuffs while his mother sobbed. "Shock jail," the judge called it, saying that while no evidence shows that the young man committed a sexual assault, the fact that he failed to assist the boy when he was one of the oldest, most well-respected people at the party, must be considered. If anyone could have stopped the mob, it was him, the judge said.

Meanwhile, the youth who attended this party, who stood by and watched a classmate be violated, who took photos and cheered, as well as the violator, get away with a crime. Two crimes occurred at this party, and so far, the Resetarits brothers are the only ones paying for any of it. That, in itself, is a crime.

Carey Restino is the editor of The Arctic Sounder and Bristol Bay Times-Dutch Harbor Fisherman, where this commentary first appeared.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

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