GOUVERNEUR, N.Y. -- The 1991 Casablanca Restaurant Rape case was before my time. I don't remember hearing anything about it back then.
I will say our former photographer R.D. White used to talk to me about it, a lot, mostly when we'd drive by it. I think he talked about it being on a 20/20 or Dateline kind of show.
Five men in the restaurant, two involved in its operations, approached a woman who was passed out drunk in a booth, undressed her and had sex with her.
I know the village was looked down upon on a national scale after the initial sentencing didn't include jail time for any of the five men involved. The fines were less than $1,000 each.
It wasn't easy for anyone, even if they weren't involved in the actual case.
One of those five man, Mark Hartle was aquitted in that case back in 1996.
I know the NY Times has a great recap of the events here. It's from 1996, five years later, when the restaurant go its liquor license back. It quotes Dede Scozzafava, who was Gouverneur's Mayor back then.
Mark Hartle, a former volunteer firefighter, was the first of five men to be tried in that case.
Hartle was back in the news again recently for all the wrong reasons again.
He was found guilty back in June for the forcible rape of a 15-year-old girl.
Monday he was sentenced to 54 years in prison.
In a Watertown Daily Times story, W.T. Eckert says Hartle didn't look at the girl as she read a statement in court. He reports Hartle also declined to speak.
Is this any kind of closure for the 1991 case?
Did a lack of what many say would have been justice then, cause this second incident?
Did a lack of punishment from 1991 play a role in the punishment here?
There's only a few people who can answer those questions. All I know is it is bringing back a lot of emotions in Gouverneur.