Phil Shiver
March 4, 2022
-The Blaze
Police in Logansport, Indiana, have arrested two 12-year-old girls for allegedly abusing and torturing another young girl during a sleepover this past weekend, calling their actions “very significant” and “very severe.”
What happened?
The alleged victim’s family said she was dropped off Friday night, Feb. 25, at what she thought would be a slumber party with friends, according to local news station, WXIN-TV. But the following morning, police were called to the residence, where they found the young girl, who is also 12, “battered” and beaten.
The family claims the two preteen girls tortured their loved one by sitting on her until she couldn’t breathe, cutting her, shaving part of her head, and burning her with cigarette lighters, among other abusive acts.
Part of the assault was reportedly recorded on video and shared on social media, police said.
“Unfortunately, I’ve had to watch some of the video — and it’s a good thing we have some video — but it’s unpleasant to watch,” Logansport Police Sergeant Dan Frye told WTHR-TV, adding that the young girls’ actions go well “beyond bullying.”
“It’s very significant, very severe,” Frye added to WXIN. “What the juveniles have been arrested for at this point are different charges related to battery, and anything that you could look at that goes along with that.”
So far, one of the arrested girls has been charged with the juvenile equivalent of three felony offenses and a misdemeanor, while the other has not been charged.
Cass County Prosecutor Noah Schafer confirmed to the Pharos-Tribune that the felony offenses include criminal confinement, intimidation, and battery resulting in serious bodily injury. The misdemeanor charge is for battery resulting in bodily injury.
But Schafer noted that because of the alleged perpetrator’s age, she will not face felony charges as an adult.
“You can’t say that a child is charged with a crime the same way you would with an adult,” he said, explaining, “They are alleged to have committed acts that, had they been committed by an adult, would have been felonies.”
What else?
In an interview with WXIN, the alleged victim’s aunt, Renita Contreras, said her niece was “tortured, beaten, confined.”
“My niece in the video, looked like she was laying there dead and it wasn’t an image our family needed to see or was ever ready to see,” she continued. “She’s a little girl. What these juvenile females did to her is unimaginable.”
“They didn’t bully her. They tortured her,” added Jaimie Tribbett, the victim’s mother. “Mentally, physically tortured my daughter and it’s not right.”
“It hurts bad because now she has to for the rest of her life look over her shoulder or wonder if she can trust this person or that person. It’s absolutely horrible,” the mother said, noting that she wishes she could’ve been there to help her daughter.
Sergeant Frye said he’s never encountered anything quite like this incident.
“This is the first I’ve seen it this severe as far as juvenile-on-juvenile,” he said. “All we can do is simply give the girl a hug and apologize to her that she had to deal with this. And we’re going to do everything we can in our power to see that justice is served.”
Police are reportedly seeking warrants to obtain more video of the incident as part of the ongoing investigation.
