Man Charged In Rape Of Girl, 11, Expresses Regret

The oldest man charged with participating in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl last week said Sunday night she was a stranger to him before the incident, “looked like she was 19 or 20” and was videotaped having sex with several people.

“She looked grown to me, man,” said Freeman Gurley via telephone from the Milwaukee County Jail. He said he’s sorry he got involved and didn’t do anything to stop what was going on in his house.

Gurley, 40, faces a felony count of first-degree sexual assault of a minor and contacted the Journal Sentinel to describe the incident in detail. His identity was confirmed by an inmate known to a reporter, and Gurley gave details of the incident that have only been described in court records, including his date of birth.

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Gurley said he got home from his job as a butcher at about 9 p.m. Sept. 4, used some cocaine, put the rest of his chicken dinner in the refrigerator and began drinking Milwaukee’s Best beer. He went to a locked bedroom in his house in the 3700 block of N. 6th St. where he heard “moaning” from inside and eventually was let into the room, where he saw “12, 13 or 14” other men and teens present. He said the girl was freely having sex with several men during the hour he was present, but another man in the room had told her not to have sex with Gurley. She eventually acquiesced, he said, at someone else’s urging. The criminal complaint says that person was the 15-year-old boy who is charged.

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He said that he never spoke with the girl and that he didn’t think about using a condom. The police officer who arrested Gurley broke the news that the girl was 11, and he later learned the girl had been born with HIV.

Gurley said he has resigned himself to believing he now has HIV and that he’s sorry about participating — and allowing the incident to go on — now that he knows her age.

“That’s terrible, man,” he said.

According to court records, the girl told police she went to Gurley’s house to visit the 16-year-old girl now charged in the case. That older girl suggested the victim perform sex acts with several boys in the house, the victim told police, and she did so, sometimes with more than one person at a time. Some records suggest the older girl directed the victim; the 16-year-old denied such a role.

Police looking for the 11-year-old, who had been reported missing Labor Day, found her at the home Tuesday and learned of the assaults.

11-Year-Old Sexual-Assault Victim Also Assaulted 5 Years Ago

AP, September 10, 2006

Two more people were charged Friday in the case of an 11-year-old girl who authorities say had sex with as many as 20 people as a 16-year-old girl coached her.

Freeman Gurley, 40, the 16-year-old’s uncle, and Darnell Chaney, 17, were charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child.

The 16-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy also have been charged in juvenile court with being a party to sexual assault of a child. A police spokeswoman said they were still seeking five others in the case.

Also on Friday, Alderman Mike McGee Jr. said he met with the girl, whom he described as distraught. He said she has been infected with HIV since birth and that her mother died of AIDS.

“You can’t expect her to be doing well,” he said.

The likelihood of someone spreading the AIDS virus through a single sex act is not well known. A key factor is how much virus is in the infected person’s blood, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers who have studied the topic. Treatment with AIDS drugs greatly reduces the amount of virus in the blood.

The 11-year-old girl told police she was interested in the teenage girl, who looked and dressed like a boy, authorities said in court records.

According to the complaint filed in adult court against Gurley and Chaney, the 11-year-old said the 16-year-old told her she should perform various sex acts on a number of young men at the teen’s house and she agreed.

She was in a bedroom and began performing sex acts on a number of males, the complaint said. When Gurley came home from work the teenage girl encouraged the 11-year-old to have sex with him. Initially, the 11-year-old refused but then gave in.

Gurley admitted he had unprotected intercourse with the girl on the bed, the complaint said. In the juvenile court documents, Gurley said his niece coached the 11-year-old.

Chaney admitted the girl performed oral sex on him. He also told police the 16-year-old was directing the 11-year-old girl, the complaint said.

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According to court records from the juvenile court case, the 11-year-old told police after the incident in the bedroom she went to the basement, where there were about 15 males and “began to choose who she wanted to perform oral sex on.”

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