For Immediate Release
June 17th, 2001
Contact: Tori Richards (714) 347-8405
Three Teenagers Charged With Gang Rape and Assault
SANTA ANA — Three teen-aged boys were charged today with the gang rape of two young girls and the beatings of their boyfriends in Black Star Canyon on July 2.
The District Attorney’s Office will seek to try the three boys as adults in this case. If convicted as adults, they face a maximum of multiple life sentences in prison. The defendants are scheduled for a detention hearing — the juvenile equivalent of an arraignment — Wednesday morning in the Juvenile Justice Center.
Veruk Kim (DOB 3-25-84), Jesus Rene Green (DOB 7-7-85) and Phu Quoc Tran (DOB 10-6-85), all of Anaheim, were charged with the following crimes: forcible rape acting in concert; rape; kidnapping for a sex crime; kidnapping; vandalism; burglary; assault with a deadly weapon; robbery; carjacking; forcible oral copulation and lewd act on a child.
All are charged with 17 identical counts; Green is charged with an additional count of rape and a count of street terrorism. All are alleged to have committed their crimes for the benefit of a gang.
The victims were walking around in Black Star Canyon looking for a house that was alleged to have been haunted. When they returned to their car, they found that it had been vandalized and items had been stolen. Five males approached them in a car and asked if the victims needed help. The males got out of their car and pretended to offer assistance, but then began beating both boys and sexually assaulting the girls. The boys were put in the trunk of their own car and the girls were placed in the suspects’ car. The girls were driven to another location and then dragged from the car and assaulted again.
The case continues to be under investigation and additional charges will likely be filed.