I Remember Everything

21:47So they decided to gamble, and they requested a bench trial. A bench trial is when a judge decides the case instead of a jury.

22:01You do carry a burden as a prosecutor, and it becomes your personal responsibility to make sure that this guy doesn't go out and hurt somebody else.

22:17Robert Coppa pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and the defense strategy was to show that he had had over the years a series of head injuries, including a motorcycle accident, which had given him traumatic brain damage, and affected his impulse control. And so this was not a whodunit. Everyone knew who did it. It was why he did it. It felt like a slap in the face to me. Never once did I feel like he was not in control of himself because he controlled the entire situation from the moment that he put that knife to my throat. If this was an impulse act, in my opinion, it would have happened right there in the mall.

22:59It would have been quick, over, done, and gone. He's not going to have the dresses there in the vehicle. He's not going to have all these tools of his trade, you know, for lack of better words. He's not going to have all that. It doesn't make sense.

23:18Testifying was a really, really difficult experience. And seeing him in court, and he just stared at me, and I remember having my hands kind of clasped in front of me and just digging my nails into my hands because it was just such a... Because it's not only the experience of you testifying, but also being cross-examined by the defense attorney. As a witness, Angela was strong. She stood right up in the witness box and pointed directly to Mr. Copa and said, that's him right over there. This incident had obviously been seared into her mind, and she remembered the details years later as if it had happened to her the day before.

23:59It took the judge only 15 minutes to find Coppa guilty of all the charges. But convicting Coppa of the violent crimes he'd been accused of was never really the problem. The problem was trying to keep him off the streets so he couldn't do it again. But this time around, it was life in prison with no parole. So this time around, he went away for good. When the judge said that he was being sentenced to life with no possibility of parole, this wave of relief just washed over me, feeling this sort of peace to know that he wasn't going to hurt anybody else again.

24:48In my opinion, this wasn't the police that made this case. This was Angela. It doesn't happen often where everything aligns up this way. The stars align. So it was really nice that this one worked out the way it did. The fact that all those details that I had remembered, that they were able to use my testimony in court, as they said, to kind of seal the deal to put him away for life, was a very powerful feeling. And I knew that I couldn't just stop after the trial. I really made a promise to myself that I was going to turn these negative feelings of anger into activism. And I chose to become public with my story and to show my face and to not be the silent victim because I knew that this issue of sexual assault was bigger than me, and it was bigger than my story.

25:36Angela Rose. And I founded an organization called PAVE, and it's promoting awareness, victim empowerment. I felt this calling to speak out about this experience that happened to me, but also help other people use their voice. All along this journey, people would stop me and say, Angela, thank you for your voice, because this happened to me.

26:07I was raped when I was 16 years old, and that was the beginning of hell for the next three years of my life. Well, I heard about Delaney's case, and I knew after hearing her story that I had to get in touch with her. And, you know, I started crying because it was the first time that someone actually had taken it upon themselves to go out of their way to try to help me.

26:42She was always so open with us that I couldn't imagine there was any secrets.

26:53Delaney was always a happy, bubbly, bouncy kid. She played every sport and every sport she played, she played well. Delaney had a lot of friends. Her birthday parties were always big events. But in the summer of 2011, we noticed some... started out as subtle changes that became major changes, and we couldn't figure out what it was. She was starting to have panic attacks, and she would just say, nothing's wrong, Mom, I'm just nervous about school starting.

27:41It was June 3rd, 2011. It was the last day of school, so everyone was really excited.

27:52We decided to go to the beach to celebrate the last day. Me and my two girlfriends went, hung out for a little while, and then we came back to my house because my parents weren't home. My two friends invited boys over to my house. We smoked marijuana. I had never done it before, so I was really nervous, but I figured, why not? My parents aren't home, so I just decided to try it for once. We were all sitting around the table, you know, just laughing, enjoying the night. I started to get really lightheaded, so I got up and walked to my bedroom and decided to just lay down and kind of rest, and I closed the door.

28:34And eventually I heard, like, whispering and footsteps, then realized that it was the two boys. And at that point, like, I knew something was wrong, and they came in and they raped me.

28:50I remember being like so scared and I remember tears like streaming down on my face. You know, I just remember feeling the guilt of like, you know, this is my fault, I can't tell anyone.

29:03At the end of August in the summer of 2011, I got a call from one of Delaney's friends' moms. And she told me that her daughter had come to her out of concern. because Delaney had divulged to her a secret that she couldn't hold, that Delaney had been sexually assaulted by two boys in her school. And at first I told that mom, no. You know, this is my kid. I would know if something like this happened because I'm a good mom. So we were in the car and we pulled in the driveway and I turned to her and I said, you need to look me in the eye and tell me whether this happened. And she started to cry, and she just nodded her head, and she couldn't look me in the eye.

29:48And there's no handbook that says how to handle those moments. But I knew I had a major battle on my hands. I just didn't know how big it was going to be. Her dad and I knew that it was important to report it to the police, and she just kept saying, They're going to kill me, Mom. They're going to kill me. They're coming after me. They're going to kill me. I'm not going to report. If you make me do it, I will lie. I will say it didn't happen. One of the two boys that Delaney says raped her was only 16 years old, a minor in the eyes of the law, so we're not going to use his name. But the other was 17 years old, Shane Villapondo.

30:31This is a kid who was very well-known, very well-liked at her high school. He was an athlete. Every single person on campus knew who Shane Villapondo was. He was the popular kid. He was the one who everyone looked up to and respected. He basically owned the school.

30:52That entire summer, I never came out of the house. I never again slept in my bed. I slept on the couch, and I can honestly tell you the first day of school when I went back, it was probably the most terrifying day.

31:11There were rumors about, you know, like what had happened over summer, what had gone down. There was definitely a lot of, you know, whispering in the hallways. And, you know, when I was at my locker, I'd look across the hall and people would be staring at me talking. There'd be a group that would form and they would all face in my direction and start talking like out loud about how I was a slut and I was a whore. Months go by and Delaney is still refusing to go to police. She's also still being taunted daily at school and in her town and feels utterly alone. Until one day she realizes she's not alone.

31:47She's absolutely devastated when she discovers that Shane has allegedly raped another girl. This girl is only 14 years old. I can't even explain the amount of guilt that I felt because I hadn't reported it and because I hadn't gone through with it and stopped him and because I felt like I was, you know, too afraid to be able to stand up against him that he had gone and done it to another person. So I went and I found her and I remember sitting down next to her and looking at her and putting my arm around her and I said, we need to report this.

32:29So what happened? I did not know what was going on. I was kind of just, like, faded. I didn't really, like, say anything. I kind of just said, like, I'm really tired. Can I just, like, go to sleep? Like, I'm really tired. I said that over and over again, and it lasted for probably 45 minutes or more. The two young men are arrested. The 16-year-old is charged as a juvenile, and his record is now sealed. But Shane Villapondo was charged as an adult, And now one of the most popular boys in high school was facing potential jail time. After the boys were arrested, the tormenting got ten times worse.

33:12She was getting threats on Facebook and in texts, things like, snitches need stitches, and a lot of, you just wanted to have sex with two guys. I remember there was one post on Facebook that it was a conversation between two people and one of the comments was like, I just want to beat her up. And then the next comment was another person saying, how about I attack her, knock her out and you can spit on her. There was another one that said, you know, I can't believe you haven't disappeared. We're going to make you disappear. But these people were all hiding behind a computer screen or behind a phone.

33:51I was terrified to the point I dropped out of school. I was homeschooled the last month. I couldn't even finish my junior year of high school.

34:03It wasn't surprising that Delaney was experiencing this harassment after reporting her sexual assault.

34:15A lot of young rape victims go through very similar things. The two boys that raped Delaney were students at a private Catholic high school. They were not the type of people that society sees as a rapist. So it was easy to pass blame onto a young girl who was high on marijuana and judge her and say she's lying about what happened to her. If I came to you and said, my child has cancer, your first response would most likely be, oh my goodness, how can I help? What can I do? But if I come to you and say, my child was raped, what I get a lot of, including by good friends of mine, was she drinking?

35:06What was she wearing? Who was she with? My daughter made one mistake that thousands of kids make. The day I hit complete rock bottom, I got probably 50 text messages from different people, all saying the same things. How could you do this? You are a liar.

35:32She locked herself in the bathroom, and I knew. I knew. I knew. So we broke open the door. She was laying on the bathroom floor.

35:47And I scooped her up in my arms and I said, what did you do? And I look up in the mirror and she had written on the mirror, I'm so sorry.

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38:46Friends that I had talked to every day wouldn't even look at me in the hallway. and it was their parents that wouldn't look at me. They, like, you know, it would be my old softball coaches, my old, you know, second grade teacher. People in our town that I was very, you know, familiar with wouldn't even look at me in the eye because they were so disgusted of what I did. So it was at that point that I wanted my life to end. I didn't want to be there anymore. I didn't want to live. I didn't want to go through this.

39:20I decided, you know, to take my own life. I took a bottle of pills. I wanted my life to end.

39:30And I literally remember my parents taking me to the hospital and thinking to myself, why didn't I take more?

39:46and she turned to me and said go ahead mom go ahead yell yell at me and she goes I've lost everything I've lost my school I've lost my friends so these are moments that you think God, if just one kid had stood up with her, if one kid had just said, I believe you, it would have changed so much. I think a lot of people would say, get tougher skin. You reported the crime, so you're expected to follow through with the consequences.

40:26For people like Delaney, it wasn't just words. It was very deep to her, and it ate her up alive.

40:42And Delaney didn't think that she could go through with it. She didn't think she could go through with the entire process of prosecution. Because it's still a long and lengthy process, and it's so emotional, and it's so draining. and I shared with her how I was a sexual assault victim. And she realized that she's not alone and she doesn't have to go through it alone. The fact that she confided in me gave me more strength to be able to testify. In the case of the 14-year-old girl, Shane Villapondo was convicted by a jury of three counts of unlawful sex with a minor, also known as statutory rape.

41:21In Delaney's case, the prosecutor offered him a plea deal. He took it, pleading guilty to one more count. Shane Villapanda was sentenced to one year in county jail and five years probation, during which he must register as a sex offender wherever he lives. Him registering as a sex offender was the biggest part of the plea that was important to me. He's not going to be able to move anywhere without people knowing exactly who he is. Even though the case is over and Shane was sentenced, it's not something that just goes away. Her entire identity for the rest of her life will have this lingering.

42:05So I think that for Delaney, the healing process has just started. Even though I'm in college in another state, I do come home, every so often to visit my family, but it's not the same. I still can't sleep in my old bedroom. They built another room inside the garage for me. It's not my home anymore. It's more just a place I go to visit my family. For Delaney, the ordeal was far from over. One night, she logged onto Facebook only to discover that a friend of Shane's, a local rap artist named Anthony Murillo, had written a really nasty song about her and he recorded it. It not only disclosed her full name, but the 14-year-old's as well.

42:50And it seemingly went on to threaten her.

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45:24You know, I thought I was going to be killed. Wannabe rapper Anthony Murillo is facing two felony counts for threatening to kill two rape victims in a song he posted online.

45:40Like when they started playing the song, I was, I thought I was prepared, but I wasn't. And as it like kept going, the worse it got, the worse I got. In the end, the judge dismissed the felony charges against Anthony Murillo, saying although the lyrics were offensive, they were not genuinely a threat to anyone, including Delaney. Murillo's attorney had argued that the lyrics were actually protected by the constitutional right to free speech. And essentially, the judge agreed. The prosecution, however, strongly disagreed and planned to appeal. This isn't just words. This is a message to her. They wanted to torment her, and that's what they did.

46:25It is heart-wrenching to know what Delaney and what so many other survivors of sexual assault go through, the bullying, the victim-blaming. One of the reasons why I wanted to reach out to Delaney was just to give her hope. I know your heart's been broken, and mine's been too. And if you're still in pain, you know I'm here for you. Music for me has always been an escape and I think for a lot of survivors of trauma putting their feelings into music can be really therapeutic. I remember her talking to me and pausing and saying Delaney do you realize that you're not a victim, that you're a survivor?

47:10She is my guardian angel because she's watching over me.

47:18and mistrust. I remember one day waking up and thinking, you know what, I want to make a difference. I want to introduce to you a very good friend of mine, Delaney Henderson. I am a survivor. I can tell people my story and let them know that you're not alone, that you're not on your own like I was. And you never will be. Whatever I do in my life, I want to help people. I was put in this situation for a reason, and I came out of it for a reason. I'm so much older now, you see, I've grown so vast. I need someone who loves my future and my past. I'm not your average girl. I want to change the world.

48:04The passion in my heart. It's very important to move on. I am in love with my best friend, and it's just an incredible new chapter of my life. When you go through something like that, you do carry it for the rest of your life. I mean, it changes a part of you. And so to hear that Delaney called me her guardian angel makes me feel like I've lived my life for something. I remember everything.

48:36The charges against Anthony Murillo were reinstated. In 2017, a jury found him not guilty. you