The 16-year-old victim of an alleged gang rape outside a homecoming dance in Richmond told police that she did not engage in any sexual activity before blacking out from drinking alcohol for the first time, a police investigator testified Monday.

The investigator, Ken Greco, quoted the girl as saying she remembered nothing after drinking from a brandy bottle that was later found at the scene. Greco said the girl was adamant about not consenting to sex, telling him, "If anyone would have tried something, I would have said no."

Greco's testimony came on the sixth day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether seven men will be held for trial on sexual assault charges. Defense attorneys have suggested during the hearing that the girl - who was found unconscious and vomiting under a picnic table by police - was not assaulted.

The hearing before Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Gregory Caskey is expected to last at least two more weeks. The girl is not expected to testify.

According to Greco, who has since retired from the Richmond force, the girl said she blacked out after choosing to drink alcohol for the first time because she was upset that her parents were splitting up.

After being hospitalized in the Oct. 24, 2009, incident outside Richmond High School, the girl wrote a series of notes because her throat was sore from the insertion of a medical tube, Greco said. In those notes and in an interview, the girl said she was sad because she had "just found out her father was leaving her mother" on Nov. 1. But her mother didn't yet know.

"I feel so depressed. I drank to let it out," the girl wrote in one of the notes, Greco said.

Six of the defendants could be sentenced to life in prison. They are Cody Smith, 16, of San Pablo; Ari Morales, 17, of San Pablo; Manuel Ortega, 20, of Richmond; Jose Montano, 19, of Richmond; Marcelles Peter, 18, of Pinole; and John Crane Jr., 43, of Richmond. The minors are being tried as adults.

The seventh defendant, 23-year-old Elvis Torrentes of Richmond, faces charges including aiding the act of rape that could land him in prison for up to 26 years.

It was Smith who saw the girl outside the dance and invited her to drink with him and his friends, Greco said. The girl had known Smith since the seventh grade and he was in her biology class, the former detective testified.

Ortega later admitted to police that he had touched the girl's breasts and "backhanded" her because she was whining and calling for help, Greco said. Ortega said he didn't want to apologize to her because he didn't think she would forgive him for getting her drunk and letting the others rape her, according to Greco.

Ortega told the detective that more and more people joined in the attack as it went on, Greco testified. He quoted Ortega as saying, "It had just started with us, and now it's something big."

During the alleged gang rape, which lasted for more than two hours, people took pictures of the girl naked and of her genitalia, according to testimony. Morales told police that he had urinated on her and stole her ring, Greco said.

Salvador Rodriguez, a young man who was originally arrested and then released without being charged, tried to help the girl as she was being assaulted, telling the attackers, "This is somebody's sister, this is somebody's daughter," Greco testified.

But he said someone in the crowd told Rodriguez, "Hey, you don't know that b-."