Sexual Assault

Two 13-year-old girls were sexually assaulted in woods near Catonsville High School, where the girls had gone to meet friends for a rec league football game Saturday night, police said. Police spokeswoman Cpl. Cathy Batton said the girls had planned to meet an acquaintance at the football game about 10:30 p.m. The girls said the acquaintance was accompanied by three other teen boys, Batton said. The boys, ages 13 to 15 years old, tried to get the girls to go to a wooded area near the football field.

Two Baltimore men have been arrested in the midday abduction of a 17-year-old girl in Catonsville and her subsequent rape in Baltimore on Monday, according to Baltimore County police. The pair, identified as William Campbell, 25, of the 4600 block of Pen Lucy Road in Ten Hills, and Kenyon Waller, 21, of the 3200 block of Westwood Avenue in Rosemont, were arrested Monday night after a separate kidnapping in the city led police to the owner of the vehicle they were using, according to Cpl. Cathy Batton, a police spokesman.

Maryland said Friday it has admitted Dezmine Wells, a highly coveted basketball player expelled by Xavier following a sexual assault allegation that a prosecutor said was unproven. It's uncertain whether Wells will be able to play for the Terps this season. Maryland will soon seek an NCAA waiver -- the process is expected to take about three weeks -- under which the guard-forward would receive an exemption from the transfer rule and not be required to sit out a season. It is difficult to predict the outcome of the request because Wells' case appears unique -- a player expelled from a school but backed by a prosecutor and never criminally charged.

Dezmine Wells, a highly touted former Xavier basketball player hoping to transfer to Maryland, was in College Park on Wednesday as the school studied a sexual assault allegation against him that a prosecutor said resulted from a game of "truth or dare. " Wells was undergoing the sort of Maryland review required of any prospective student who has been disciplined by another institution or has a criminal record. Wells' expulsion from Xavier, announced by the Cincinnati school last month, triggered the review by a Maryland student conduct office working with the university's office of undergraduate admissions, school officials said.

Steve Wolf has seen future NBA players, memorable starters, role players and almost every other type of contributor during his 30-plus-year association with Xavier basketball. But in meeting Dezmine Wells last year, Wolf - a former Musketeers co-captain and current television broadcaster - was introduced to an anomaly. “He's a kid that didn't play like a freshman,” said Wolf, Xavier's long-time color commentator. “He never played like a freshman. He's a kid that could really, really go strong to the basket, but also square up and take the jump shot.

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office on Friday announced the formation of a “special victims unit” to prosecute cases similar to those seen on the “Law & Order: SVU” crime drama of the same name. Baltimore's SVU, which combines the city's family violence and sex offense divisions, will focus on crimes of violence - including sexual assault and abuse, domestic violence, child abuse and human trafficking - against “women, children, vulnerable adults and other victims of sexual assault and domestic violence,” according to the prosecutor's office.

The prospect of spending years behind bars in a tiny cell is sufficiently chilling to deter most people from ever committing a crime. Those who willfully break the law anyway and get caught have no one to blame but themselves when a judge sentences them to prison. But even convicted felons shouldn't have to suffer the extralegal indignity and physical trauma of being raped by fellow inmates and prison staff while they're serving their time. Sexual assaults in the nation's prisons are alarmingly common.

Annapolis police are looking for a man who pulled a 21-year-old woman into an alley in downtown Annapolis and sexually assaulted her early Saturday morning. About 1:30 a.m., the woman was walking alone in the 100 block of Duke of Gloucester St. near the heart of the downtown area when a man walking behind her grabbed her and dragged her into a nearby alley, according to police. The man threw the woman to the ground and sexually assaulted her, police said. The woman, who had been walking home from West Street, was eventually able to fight off the man, who then fled, police said.

Sexual assault in the military threatens our national security. This has been a hard lesson for military leaders to learn, but thanks to significant pressure from Congress and victims' advocates, they're starting to get the picture. Last month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that sexual assault cases will now be handled by higher-ranking, more experienced officers and supervised by new Special Victims Units. These changes indicate that the Pentagon is finally interested in treating sexual assault as a serious crime rather than as lapse in professionalism or leadership.

When a high court ruling came down this week limiting the use of DNA evidence, police in the state were investigating 20 cases based on DNA  collected after they arrested suspects charged with committing a violent crime or burglary. Now, it's unclear whether any of  those cases will lead to prosecutions. The Court of Appeals decision puts in question the constitutionality of collecting the samples before a conviction, and the state is considering whether to appeal the matter to theU.S.