Steubenville Rape Case Update: Hacker Deric Lostutter Faces More Prison Time Than Football Players

The Kentucky computer hacker who helped expose a 2012 gang rape in Steubenville, Ohio, could be sentenced to as many as 16 years in prison for his role in the case. Deric Lostutter pleaded not guilty Wednesday to four felony counts of hacking, Mic reported. While his trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 8, the men convicted of the crime are free men.

Known online as KYAnonymous, Lostutter, along with another man, hacked a sports website devoted to Steubenville High School and posted a video showing several of its students joking about the rape victim and referring to her as “the dead girl,” the Intelligencer reported Thursday. Two football players from the school were eventually convicted of raping the West Virginia girl at a party.

During the sexual assault, the accused men posted their exploits to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Although the victim — who was 16 years old at the time — said she had no recollection of the rape aside from a brief vomiting episode, social media posts along with text messages, cell phone photos and student testimony from eye witnesses provided enough evidence to return guilty verdicts, the New York Times reported in March 2013.

Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, who at the time were 17 and 16 years old, respectively, were both found guilty of the rape. Because they were not charged as adults, they are already out of prison after serving their sentences.

Lostutter’s attorney called his client’s charges “odd” seeing as he helped bring attention to a brutal rape, WEKU reported on Thursday. He said, “This is not a situation where somebody, you know, hacked a hospital or took down a nuclear power plant. This was an act of political protest about the rape of a 16-year-old girl.”

After pleading not guilty at the U.S. District Court in Lexington, Lostutter was released on supervised release while awaiting trial.