Ohio Teen Pleads Not Guilty to Periscoping Sexual Assault

nbc4i.com reports that an Ohio teenager told police that she had hoped that live-streaming the rape of her friend on a social media video app called Periscope would help stop it but "she got caught up in all the likes," said Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien in court.

Marina Lonina, 18, and Raymond Gates, 29, have been charged with kidnapping, rape, sexual battery and pandering sexual matter involving a minor according to a media release.

According to records, Lonina and her friend met Gates at a shopping mall, Gates suggested that they all get together the next day at Gates' Columbus residence. After socializing, Gates pinned the victim with his body weight and raped her.

Lonina’s lawyer, Sam Shamansky says that Gates purchased the girls a bottle of vodka.“You don’t want to lose track of the fact that she’s a high school student and she and her friend were clearly taken advantage of,” he said.

Lonina did not call 911, however, she does claim that she made "substantial" efforts to stop the sexual assault. O'Brien says that it's not clear that she intended to help, “For the most part she is just streaming it on the Periscope app and giggling and laughing,” he said.

“I have never seen a case such as this where you would actually live stream a sexual assault, based on the video that I saw it didn’t appear for the most part of it that she was attempting to help the victim,” said O'Brien.

According to a Franklin County Prosecutor press release, Lonina was also charged with an additional felony for photographing her friend in the nude the night before on Feb. 26th.

Bond for Gates has been set at $300,000. Bond for Lonina was set at $125,000.

“If Gates and Lonina are convicted for these charges, they each face a potential sentence in excess of forty years in prison”, O’Brien stated in the release.