A Question of Consent: Innocence and Complicity in the Glen Ridge Rape Case

On March 1, 1989, a 17-year-old with an IQ somewhere between 50 and 64 was lured to the basement of a house in the well-to-do New Jersey suburb of Glen Ridge. There she performed fellatio on one of a group of 13 boys, many of them star athletes, and then a broom handle, a baseball bat and a stick were inserted in her vagina. The town tried to bury the story but it came to the attention of a New York City television reporter. In 1993 four of the accused were tried and found guilty of sexual assault; one was put on probation and the others not only given light sentences but also allowed to remain out of jail pending appeals. Laufer ( Nightmare Abroad ) examines issues of sexual stereotyping and the mentally retarded and includes interviews with the principals. He keeps his sense of outrage under control when defense attorneys argued that ``boys will be boys'' and that ``she wanted it.'' This account will rouse some to fury and reduce others to tears for the anonymous victim, so pitifully eager for social acceptance that she could not say no to anything. Photos. (May)