Thank you for watching. Hello, everyone. Im Deborah Feyerick in for don lemon. The stories youre talking about in just a moment. But first, lets get you up to speed on some of the days headlines. Aurora, colorado, the scene of a deadly Movie Theater massacre last summer is dealing with a new tragedy tonight. A barricaded gunman and three other people are dead after an Early Morning standoff. Police say the gunman opened fire on officers after hours of negotiation. A s. W. A. T. Team was called out. They set up. Hostage negotiators tried to get the suspect to come outside. We made multiple attempts. Had intermittent phone calls with the suspect throughout the morning. Officers shot and killed the gunman and found two men and a woman dead inside the home. A woman had escaped earlier and told police she had seen three lifeless bodies inside. Aurora is the same denver suburb where a gunman opened fire last summer in a theater killing 12 people. Is Lance Armstrong about to come clean . A published report says the cycling great is thinking about admitting that he used performanceenhancing drugs. The New York Times reports armstrong is considering it, hopeful he may return to competition. Italian fashion mogul and his wife are missing. A small plane they were in disappeared off the coast of venezuela yesterday. He is the Marketing Management for his brand. He has target stores here in the united states. [ speaking Foreign Language ] venezuelans rallied for their ailing president. Hugo chavez has had four cancer operations and is currently being treated in cuba. Venezuelas Vice President says the next Health Update on chavez will come in a few days. Hes supposed to be inaugurated, hugo chavez, for a fourth term next week. We have a lot more planned for this saturday night. Heres what else we are working on. Accusations of rape rattle a small ohio town. All of us need to Pay Attention to this. Shocking an entire nation. An attorney for one of the accused, the woman who felt a crime was being covered up and our own dr. Drew pinsky are part of our extended coverage this hour. When was the last time you heard a politician talk like this 66 days and counting, shame on you, shame on congress. New jerseys Chris Christie winning over voters from both parties. Is it hard talk or hot air . And don lemon with William Shatner. Going out of my head i cant get that song out of my head. Youve never seen captain kirk like this before. All that and more coming up. Dons interview comes later this hour, but first, it is a case that is dividing a small to and attracting National Media attention. Startling allegations of teenagers raping an underage girl. The accused are two 16yearold High School Football players who allegedly sexually assaulted the girl while partying one night this summer. Amid allegations of coverup, pressured leaders in steubenville, ohio, are speaking out. Protesters rallied today to support the alleged victim and to protest the towns handling of the case. Meantime, the newly launched steubenvillefacts. Org was created by city leaders to disseminate the most Accurate Information about the charges pending against two juveniles in steubenville. But the now very public rape case wasnt always so public. Activist Hacker Group Anonymous is responsible for posting a video of teenagers in the town cracking jokes about the alleged incident. What if that was your daughter . But it isnt. If that was my daughter, i wouldnt care, i would just let her be dead. Listen to your yourself. Im listening to myself fine. In about ten years, im going to come back to this video. Ten years, my daughters going to be getting raped and dead. Anonymous later released a photograph apparently showing the alleged victim unconscious and being carried by her arms and legs. Cnn cannot confirm the girl in the photo is the alleged victim. But its the release of this photo that created a wave of social Media Attention and an increase in media coverage. Its kind of unforwarded and then it grew beyond all proportions we ever thought, with the pictures and the graphic descriptions of the boy that was on the video the other day talking about this from that particular night. This young lady didnt know what happened. Thats what i believe that the case is about. The case gained National Attention after the New York Times published a lengthy piece on it in december. The controversy has shaken the town. Some residents even accusing outsiders of trying to ruin the reputation of the High School Football team. An attorney for one of the that a text message may be a crucial piece of evidence in the upcoming trial. I would like to bring up an interesting fact that we do plan on presenting at trial, is that my client received a text message the following day from the alleged victim. The alleged victim herself stating that she said, i know you didnt rape me. What . She texted my client the next day stating, quote, i know you didnt rape me. Do you have that text . We do. And that is something that is going to be introduced at trial. And what did he reply . Thats something thats going to be introduced at trial, yes. Why do you think she sent that . Because i dont think she thinks she was raped. Now, he would not allege or show us that text. We want to go weve reestablished contact with mr. Madison. Sir, you represent one of the accused boys, malik richmond. How does your client explain the photo taken in which he is shown holding the alleged victim by her hands or feet . Well, a photograph is just a moment in time. Its that millimeter or millisecond, however the shutter speed is set on the particular camera. And although pictures can be misleading and in this case out of context, it does not suggest the activity prior to the photo being taken and or after the photo that was taken. And obviously its a still so theres no audio. There will be evidence and discussion around the circumstances before and after the photograph. The context of the whole entire evening in particular at that time with the photo, its really unfair that its made its way around the internet in the fashion that it has. And this is one of the major problems were encountering at this point with social media. Let me interrupt for just a moment. Its not a question that the photo is making its way around the internet. The problem is that the photo exists at all. If it werent for the evidence, the tweets, the postings and the various social media, this case wouldnt be getting the attention that its gotten so far. Does your client admit to having sex with the alleged victim . In this case, those particular facts, we have to allow the court to examine and so that they can be fully vetted. One of the things that really troubles all parties here is that were all looking for justice. Thats what this system is designed to do. And the fact that the ultimate question of whether or not there was sex, in this state, theres multiple ways other than a traditional concept of sex that one may be accused of rape. So there could be digital penetration, there could be oral penetration or that with an object. And im not specifying what is the allegation or which method is the allegation for the state at this point. What im saying is that there are more than one way that a person may assume constitutes rape. Correct, sir. I understand that. But the prosecutors are charging your client with Sexual Assault of this young lady who they say was either too drunk to know or had by that point passed out and didnt know what was going on. So sort of technicalities aside, the question is, has your client admitted to being there and admitted to being with this young woman on that night . Well, subsequent to the photograph, theres evidence that she was conscious and that she was capable of making decisions and speaking and exhibiting decisionmaking activity. So, again, the question the photo is out of context. And those are the things that we must wait to see. Thus far, all weve done in this case is had a hearing on the issue of probable cause. In the state of ohio, the burden for that is very, very low. And at that hearing, the defense, we do not have the option of presenting evidence. We dont have the luxury of bringing witnesses in on our behalf. So all of evidence that the world has heard to this point was at the production of the state of witnesses that they selected and they selected the best witnesses they could find to establish at that time a charge of kidnap and or rape. Are you suggesting that your client, sir, is being scapegoated for a crime that other people may have been involved in . Well, i cant make that decision. Im not a prosecuting authority. That decision is made by other entities. My business is my client, malik richmond. How is your client doing . Well, all of these people involved here are juveniles. And we have a juvenile system that is designed to make allowances for people who are not mature enough to make decisions that potentially could affect the rest of their lives. At one point, we wanted to prosecute these young boys as adults. There was a hearing and there was an independent evaluation from a psychologist. And it was determined that they are just inappropriate candidates for adult prosecution. Okay. And lets not forget, clearly, innocent until proven guilty. Will this case remain in Juvenile Court and if so, will the evidence and this case be sealed . Well, you mentioned a few things there. The matter is a juvenile matter. There was a determination about that. And it will remain there. And the presumption of innocence, we would like to enjoy that. However, that has been destroyed. Its essentially at this point a legal lynching. You have not just the allegation that we must defend against at this point based upon protests and other activities that have gone on and other special Interest Groups who have joined into the conversation. We now have a campaign waged against us by women groups who are antiviolence against women. And let us be clear. We are not promoting crime. We are not promoting rape. All were asking for is a fair opportunity to explore these issues which the media through the social media has put out into the world and propagandized this case. And to this point, we have been silent about these. If i could just finish this point, to this point, the defense, weve been silent honoring the sacred nature of the legal process. Only until the scales became so unbalanced did you hear about the text message and the communication sent to the codefendant here. I think the question and i think the thing that people find most disturbing, however, is how many people seem to have been involved, how many people seem to have witnessed what was going on that night and how few people stepped in to help a young woman who may or may not have been passed out while all of this was going on. Mr. Madison, walter madison, the lawyer for one of the accused boys, we thank you very much for your time and for your insights as well. I think i understood your question. And you may need to repeat if my answer doesnt speak to it. The video is grossly inappropriate for the media to have the social media to use in the fashion that it has. We understand that, sir. The one thing we want to make the point is it exists and thats part of the problem that people are having about what happened that evening. Thank you so much, walter madison. We appreciate it. Next, were going to speak with a woman whos credited with bringing this case to National Attention. We cant say where she is. Well tell you why next. Oh progressoh oh oh oh oh what do you know . Oh bacon . Oh oh oh [ female announcer ] with 40 delicious progresso soups at 100 calories or less, there are plenty of reasons people are saying progressoh share your story for a chance to win a progressoh makeover in hollywood. Go to facebook. Com progresso to enter. A progressoh makeover in hollywood. Excuse me, sir im gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. I think your friends will understand. Oh no, its actually my geico app. See . I just uh paid my bill. Did you really . From the plane . Yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24 7. Sounds a little too good to be true sir. Ill believe that when pigs fly. Ok, did she seriously just say that . Geico. Just click away with our free mobile app. With odor free aspercreme. Powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. So all you notice is relief. Aspercreme. Social media playing a major role in a teen rape case in ohio because so much was posted about it. Two 16yearold High School Football players have been charged with sexually assaulting a 16yearold girl last summer. And much of the event being documented and made public via facebook, instagram and twitter by some of the High School Students who apparently were there. I want to bring in alexandria godard, crime blogger. You shed light on this story. Put it into perspective for us. Youre from steubenville. Yes, i used to live there several years ago. And so you decided you basically decided to come out and write about this because you felt that with everything that was known that it wasnt being investigated properly. Walk us through that. Not necessarily that it wasnt being investigated properly because i dont have knowledge of that. Im not Law Enforcement. But there were things online that the local media was not presenting or hadnt found. You suggest there were other Football Players who were there, that there were others who were there and did nothing to stop this. Should there be more charges brought against more of the High School Players based on some of the information that you were able to see thats now been deleted, posts, for example . You know, again, im not an attorney or a prosecutor. But if there were laws broken, then, yes, people should be held accountable. Now, you were sued by a student, apparently, allegedly who basically documented what happened. Tell us about that and tell us how it ended. I was sued. 25 of my john doe commenters were sued. And in my opinion, the lawsuit was brought simply to stifle free speech. And the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice on december 27th. Okay. And whats also interesting is apparently the student later apologized to the victim and her family for his online comment. Yes. Now, basically, alexandria, we just want to tell our viewers tonight that, in fact, we havent told people where you are. Your lawyer who represents you is in las vegas. Youve received some very specific threats. Mark, tell us about why your client has drawn so much fire from people in steubenville. Because she was doing exactly what she should have done as a journalist. She was exposing wrongdoing. And doing it at a time when the Mainstream Media was ignoring it. So she was the First Amendment in action. This is what its there for. It is to bring sunlight upon something that needs to be exposed. So people didnt want that to happen. Steubenville itself is very upset about this case. Of course, the participants in it are very upset about it. And by participants, i dont just mean the rapists. If you watch that video, you will see that there were people standing around. There were people who witnessed it. People who documented it did nothing. And there might be a line over which one side of this line is something that is illegal and you can be prosecuted for. But then theres still this gray area of just horrible sociopathic behavior. And she shined a light on that because it seems from her reporting that theres a culture of that in steubenville, that that is tolerated there. So im extremely proud of what shes done. But shes definitely made a lot of people angry. And alexandria, the officials of steubenville say, this is not what we are, this is not what our town is about. Do you think the Football Team there is protected on some levels, that theyre given a free pass to behave as they want . From living there, their football is very important to them and they are held on a pedestal. So in my opinion, yes. And one more question. You posted screen shots of photos that have now been deleted, of videos from that night. What was most horrifying to you that you saw and said, this has got to come to light . Just the total disregard for this young lady. The lack of empathy, the lack of compassion for another human being. And when i saw all the horrible things written, thats when i made the decision that it was time to shine a light on it. They were essentially blaming the victim, is what youre saying . Yes. Alexandria goddard, thank you so much. I want to bring in paul callan. Hes our legal contributor. Paul, whats so interesting is that the hacker group, anonymous, posted the video initially online for people to see. They have said they can hack into accounts and maybe more will come out. Does this help or does this hurt the case . I think its, of course, brought the case to public attention in a very, very graphic way. What a lot of people dont realize is this is a juvenile case. And juvenile cases are not publicized like cases that take place in adult court. So were only getting bits and pieces of information about it. The anonymous posting drew a lot of public attention. Of course, they did state that they did illegal things like hacking into peoples computers and stealing their passwords and then threatening to publish pictures and other documents that they obtained by illegal hacking. I dont think we can encourage that kind of behavior. But on the other hand, it has cast a light on what was going on in steubenville. And whats interesting also is that you heard the lawyer earlier basically say, well, this is all about social media. But whats fascinating to me is that there was an active conversation going on, apparently, between some of the students who had been at these parties. And thats why it came to light. They themselves, whether they realized it or not, were documenting what was going on. Is that admissible evidence in court . Certainly. Theyll all be key witnesses in the case. The atto