Steubenville Rape Case: Two Teen Girls Charged With Threatening Victim Via Social Media

The new arrests were made the day after two star Steubenville High School football players, 17-year-old Trent Mays and 16-year-old Ma'lik Richmond, were found delinquent -- the juvenile equivalent of guilty -- in the assault on the 16-year-old victim, whose name was released by a number of prominent media outlets as international attention on the case grew over the past couple of weeks, but will not be printed here because she is a minor and rape victim.

On Monday, one 16-year-old girl was charged with aggravated menacing after making a death threat against the victim via Twitter on Sunday, while a 15-year-old girl was charged with the same crime for threatening the victim via Facebook that same day, Ohio state Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a statement, according to Reuters.

"Threatening a teenage rape victim will not be tolerated," DeWine said in the statement. "If anyone makes a threat verbally or via the Internet, we will take it seriously, we will find you, and we will arrest you."

And the fresh arrests are not the only new twist in the horrific case, as other individuals may be charged for failure to stop or report the sexual assault, said DeWine, according to Fox News.

Prosecutors are looking into whether there is enough incriminating evidence to justify charging the school's head football coach Reno Saccoccia; the owners of the house where a photo was taken of students carrying the victim while she was passed out, and a cell phone video was shot of students laughing about the crime and using the words "dead" and "rape" to describe the scenario; and/or anyone else who had details about the attack but failed to come forward, Fox reported.

“We cannot put this to bed. We cannot bring finality to this without the convening of the grand jury," DeWine said during the Monday news conference, according to the UK Daily Mail.

Saccoccia was implicated in a text message read as evidence during the trial of Mays and Richmond that stated that the coach would "'make it go away," meaning the fallout of the rape for the perpetrators.

Steubenville is known as a high school football-crazed town, and many observers and local residents have opined that they believe that the reason such a brazen rape was able to take place is because of the worshipful attitude toward star players held by many people who live there.

Mays and Richmond were each sentenced to a minimum of a year in juvenile prison for the rapes, and could be forced to remain behind bars until they are 21 years old, according to Fox. They will also both be listed on the sex-offender registry.