COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Three South Side teens have been charged with raping a 12-year-old girl after posting a video of the assault on Facebook.
Kenneth Brown, 15, and Scandale Fritz and Justin Applewhite, both 16, took turns assaulting the 12-year-old girl and forcing her to perform sex acts on Dec. 15, 2012, in the basement of Fritz's home in the 4500 block of South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive., authorities said.
Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Bridget O'Brien said the girl initially refused the teens' advances. But when she saw a gun in Brown's pocket she followed their commands.
The girl "knew that all three defendants were gang members of the Black Disciples faction 'Tay-Town' and was fearful that [Brown] would shoot her," O'Brien said.
One of the teens made a video of the assault and posted it to Facebook, prosecutors said.
Among other things, the video shows Brown waving a gun in the air while the girl performs a sex act, O'Brien said. The teens can be heard yelling gang slogans.
The three teens are charged as adults with aggravated criminal sexual assault. It appears to be Applewhite's first arrest. But Fritz and Brown were both expected in juvenile court next week on pending robbery, aggravated battery and theft charges.
Brown's juvenile criminal record also includes an unauthorized use of a weapon conviction in 2012. He was still on probation for that crime when the alleged assault took place.
The three were arrested Thursday. Prosecutors and police could not immediately explain why it took five months to arrest the teens.
A Cook County assistant public defender representing the teens in court on Friday said Fritz plays basketball at Englewood High School, and Brown, a football player at Hubbard High School, serves as a peer mentor.
Cook County Judge James Brown set bail at $900,000 each for Fritz, of the 4500 block of South King Drive; Kenneth Brown, of the 100 block of East 123rd Street; and Applewhite, of the 200 block of West 59th Place.
