Nurse testified of injuries to gang-rape victim RICHMOND

The 16-year-old victim of a gang rape at Richmond High School had cuts, swelling and bruises from her head to her toes, and nearly every body part in between, a nurse who examined her for sexual assault testified in a preliminary hearing Thursday.

The victim suffered trauma to her head that was so severe it left an imprint on her head in the shape of the ear, said Anamaree Rea, one of two nurses who simultaneously examined the victim the day after the Oct. 24, 2009, attack.

The victim's face was so swollen, it looked like a moon and she could barely open her mouth, Rea testified. The abrasions on her back were so distinctive, they showed movement in two directions. The teen even had a laceration inside of her ear.

The seven defense attorneys at a preliminary hearing Thursday in Martinez suggested that the sex was consensual and that the injuries were caused by the girl herself.

The wounds to her foot, suggested attorney Jack Funk, might have been caused by "ill-fitting shoes." Attorney Ernesto Castillo suggested that the trauma to her head might have been caused by a drunken fall.

Six of the defendants could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted: Manuel Ortega, 20, of Richmond; Cody Smith, 16, of San Pablo; Ari Morales, 17, of San Pablo; 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, and faces a maximum prison sentence of 26 years.

The preliminary hearing is used to determine whether the suspects should be held for trial.

The testimony of the nurses is critical in that the girl herself remembers little of the evening. The teen had gone to the homecoming dance at Richmond High School. But she got bored and went outside to call her father, Rea testified that the girl told her. She had been drinking "brandy out of a bottle," Rea said.

As she walked out of the high school, a friend and now a defendant, Cody Smith, told her to "come over here," the victim said, according to Rea. When the teen went to where Smith directed her, she got dizzy, fell down, and someone helped her up.

After that, Rea testified, "she doesn't remember anything at all until she was at the hospital with a tube down her throat."

The girl also had one other memory. "She remembered someone holding the bottle up so she couldn't stop drinking," Rea testified.

Rea relied on numerous pictures of the girl's injuries. They were not shown to the gallery, but Rea testified that they showed bruised eyes and a swollen jaw. The victim had wounds on a foot, an ankle, a knee, a forearm, her back and other areas. Internal areas were not examined because it was too painful - not uncommon in sexual assault exams, Rea testified.

"She was feeling pain all over," Rea testified. "She complained of everything hurting."

Defense attorneys, particularly Mary Carey, suggested that Rea did not have sufficient expertise to explain injuries.

Rea testified that she had been a licensed vocational nurse for 28 years, conducted well over 500 sexual assault examinations on victims and has coordinated a sexual assault team at Contra Costa Regional Medical Centers for the past six years.

Rea also recalled what the girl said when she met her in the examination room. "She was begging to not go back to that school."