Five charged in gang rape of girl, 7

TRENTON -- Two adults and three juveniles were charged yesterday with the gang rape of a 7-year-old girl that took place inside the Rowan Towers high-rise one week ago, police said.

Among those arrested and charged are two boys, ages 13 and 14, both younger than the 15-year-old stepsister who allegedly sold the child to the group after accepting money for sexual favors herself, police said.

Gregory Leary, 20, who was charged Wednesday with the statutory rape of the 15-year-old, now stands accused of raping her stepsister as well.

"I also want to say this: We're not finished," Mayor Douglas Palmer said at a news conference outside police headquarters. "Because everyone who's responsible has not been arrested."

"This is a good day, but we want better days," he added.

Newly charged is 19-year-old Tiemear Lewis and a 17-year-old male. The juveniles' names are being withheld because they are underage, but at least "some of them" will be charged as adults, Mercer County Prosecutor Joe Bocchini said.

Lewis and two of the juveniles live in Rowan Towers, police said, and often spent time with Leary and the third teen. Police could not yet say whose idea the gang rape was, or if the group had any sort of hierarchy.

"We're still looking into how these individuals associate with each other," Capt. Joseph Juniak said.

But law enforcement sources said the gang rape was not planned. Once the 7-year-old was given money by her stepsister and told to let the boys touch her, what started as one sex act quickly escalated to increasing levels of depravity, the sources said.

The group may be associated with a gang, police said, but the crimes against the girls were not any kind of gang initiation.