This post contains an appeal for action at the end. Please read all of this post.

Four years ago, an unconscious 16-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by three teenage boys who penetrated her with objects that included a pool cue, a Snapple bottle, a juice can, and a lit cigarette while videotaping the entire event. The three were arrested in July 2002 after a girlfriend of one of the boys' acquaintances found the videotape at a house where he had been showing it to friends.

In what came to be known as the Haidl rape case (so named after one of the defendants), what came next was one of the most aggressive blame-the-victim defense tactics this country has seen in 30 years.

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Two years ago, a jury deadlocked in the criminal trial of the defendants. A retrial last year won a conviction against all three. This past week, the boys, now men, were sentenced to six years in prison. With time served, Gregory Haidl, Kyle Nachreiner and Keith Spann will be out in a couple of years.

For the victim, known as Jane Doe, these last four years have been a nightmare. The defense at both trials claimed she was an aspiring porn star who was only acting unconscious for the sake of the video. In the alternative, they argued, that if she was unconscious then the rape wasn't particularly brutal since she was unaware of it and could feel no pain. Someone posted fliers all over town outing her identity. The father of one of the defendants hired a team of private detectives who outed every detail of her sex life that they could find.

The Defendants were convicted of a total of 15 felony counts and faced the judge for sentencing this past Friday. At the sentencing hearing , Jane Doe spoke.

The victim, now 20, choked back tears as she described her first viewing of the taped assault that occurred while she was unconscious. She said she was afraid watching it would make her go insane but felt she had to see it so she could testify against the men effectively.

"I cannot and don't think I ever will be able to describe what I felt while watching that video," the victim, identified only as Jane Doe, said during the sentencing hearing.

"When did I become a piece of meat? How can anything human do the things that they did? They did things not even a savage animal would do," the victim said.

More background information on the case can be found at The Long Beach Press, The Orange County Register (registration required), The Orange County Weekly and The Daily Pilot.

As the case concludes, an Our Word member is collecting letters of support to send to Jane Doe. She has contacted an advocate for Jane Doe who has agreed to forward the letters to her. So please, take a minute to drop Jane Doe a note by email. Send your email to ihiroe "at" yahoo "dot" com and she will print it out and deliver it to Jane Doe's advocate. We want to send as many letters as possible. So feel free to publish this request as far and wide as possible. This brave, determined woman deserves all the support we can give her.