Cheryl Araujo

Cheryl Ann Araujo (March 28, 1961 – December 14, 1986) was a Portuguese-American woman from New Bedford, Massachusetts, who was gang-raped in 1983 at age 21 by four men in a tavern in the city.

Her case became national news and drew widespread attention to media coverage of rape trials.

During the prosecution of the case, the defendants' attorneys cross-examined Araujo to such an extent about her own life and activities that the case became widely seen as a template for "blaming the victim" in rape cases.

Her case was widely known as "Big Dan's rape", after the name of the bar in which the attack occurred.

Ostracized in New Bedford, Araujo moved with her family to Miami to make a new life.

On March 6, 1983, after putting her two daughters to sleep following a third birthday party for the older girl, Araujo left her home in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to meet a girlfriend for dinner.

Araujo's boyfriend stayed behind to watch a football game and take care of their daughters.

After dinner, Araujo and her friend parted ways.

As she walked home, Araujo realized she was out of cigarettes.

The store she usually purchased from was closed, so she stopped at Big Dan's Tavern to purchase cigarettes from the vending machine.

Reports differ on how long Araujo spent in the bar before the assault, but she apparently had a drink and socialized with another female patron she knew, played the jukebox, and then watched some men playing pool at the back of the tavern.

After the other woman left one of the men locked the front door, leaving Araujo as the only woman in the bar.

When she tried to return to the bar area to leave, Joseph Vieira and Daniel Silva attacked her and began tearing her clothes off.

A third man grabbed her from behind and threw her onto the bar's pool table.

She was stripped nearly naked and several men raped her.

According to Araujo's original report to police, she heard people "laughing, cheering, yelling", but no one responded to her cries for help.

Bartender Carlos Machado testified later that when he tried to call the police, Virgilio Medeiros blocked his access to the phone, and that other bar patrons were too intimidated to intervene.

Araujo's initial statements that there was a crowd of men cheering on the rapists was called into question at the trial.

Initial police accounts that there were "12-15 jeering" onlookers were widely reported by the media and led to public outrage, though there were only ten people in the bar during the attack: the victim, the six defendants, the bartender, a patron who tried to call the police and a sleeping drunk.

Araujo admitted at trial that in light of the trauma of the assault she could not be sure how many men were in the bar, but that she did hear cheering.

Indeed, one of the men present testified that he called out "Go for it!"

during the attack.

The assault lasted two hours before Araujo managed to fight off her attackers fleeing the bar in only a ripped pink sweater and a single sock.

She ran out into the street screaming that she had been raped.

Three college students passing by in a van came upon the terrified woman, later describing her as "the naked girl in the street" who ran in front of their vehicle like "a deer in the headlights".

Crying and fearful, Araujo threw her arms tightly around passenger Daniel O'Neill's neck, shaking inconsolably.

Some of Araujo’s assailants followed her out of the bar, but retreated after seeing the men in the van, who quickly drove her to the nearest hospital.

Six men were arrested and charged in connection with the rape; four, Victor Raposo, John Cordeiro, Joseph Vieira and Daniel Silva, were charged with aggravated rape; and two, Virgilio Medeiros and Jose Medeiros (no relation), were charged with "joint enterprise," (i.e., encouraging an illegal act and not acting to stop it).

Only two trials—one for the four men charged with aggravated rape, one for the two men charged with joint enterprise—were conducted, reportedly in order to avoid having the men testify against one another.

The three college students who drove Araujo to the hospital testified as to her state of terror when they encountered her.

Defense attorneys questioned the victim about her personal life, suggesting she had invited or somehow deserved the attack.

During live TV coverage of the trial in the US, the victim's name was broadcast although victims' names were not typically released to the public in rape cases at the time.

After allowing TV coverage, the courts had the right to prevent disclosure of the woman's name but did not.

The courts later admonished the press for releasing her name.

Four defendants were convicted of aggravated rape; the two other men were acquitted.

Shortly after, on December 14, 1986, she died in a car crash near her home.

Her case prompted national debate at the time over broadcasting of the trial, during which her name was released.

Some states have passed legislation to protect the names of rape victims.

Court cases have attempted to settle issues of newsworthiness, freedom of the press, and state interest, as well as personal privacy.

Her case was the basis of the film The Accused (1988) starring Jodie Foster.