Only On 9: Parents Of Alleged Rape Victim Outraged By Attorney's Comments

<p>The parents of a 12-year-old Norman student are outraged Monday night&nbsp;by comments made by a defense attorney.</p>

Monday, February 8th 2016, 10:29 pm

By: News 9


The parents of a 12-year-old Norman student are outraged Monday night by comments made by a defense attorney.

The attorney is representing one of four teenagers charged with rape and accused of sexually assaulting two younger athletes on a school bus following a wrestling meet.

The boy's family said they are disgusted with the defense attorney's social media posts about the case.

2/5/2016 Related Story: Only On 9: Parents Of Alleged Norman North Rape Victim Share Their Story

“We start seeing on social media that the defense attorney for the kids are already saying they've reached deals before we've even started the preliminary hearings. Saying that there is not going to be, they've already talked to Mashburn and there's going to be no jail time for these kids,” said the boy’s father.

Last Thursday, several posts went up on defense attorney Sam Talley's Facebook page about conversations he supposedly had with the Cleveland and Garvin counties District Attorney Greg Mashburn.

One said, "The District Attorney's office informed me they will likely seek no prison time," and another one said, "The DA already told me prison not on the table."

But when News 9 spoke with Mashburn, he told News 9 it's too early to know whether any of the accused wrestlers will serve jail time, and no deals are on the table.

Tanner Shipman, 18; Sage Gandenberger, 17; Chase Smith, 16; and Hunter Matthews, 17, were charged last week in Garvin County.

The alleged victims are ages 12 and 16.

Talley claims what he saw in the school bus surveillance video was "horseplay that got out of hand," not rape.

“It's complete outrage that someone would call this horseplay or hazing,” said the boy’s mother.

“All I want is, I want justice for my son. He deserves it. He did nothing wrong. He got pulled into the back of the bus tooken (sic) advantage of by people that were bigger than him,” the victim’s father said.

News 9 asked Talley about the conversation he referred to having with Mashburn in several Facebook posts.

He decline to talk about details of the case but gave News 9 this statement saying, "I made the post. It wasn't the right time. It's emotional. It was taken down out of respect for the family and everybody involved in the situation."

All four high school wrestlers are suspended from school and two coaches are no longer employed.

Coach Russell Caldwell, who was driving the bus, resigned after the incident, and volunteer coach Kevin Reamey was let go.

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