Four teens charged with rape on Eastside

Four teens have been charged with rape in the alleged assault of a 16-year-old Bellevue girl last November.

According to Bellevue police, the attack was described in messages on the Internet.

The youths were all 17 when the alleged assault was reported. Hearings are scheduled next month to determine if they should be tried as adults. One defendant has turned 18 since the alleged attack.

According to court filings, the attack occurred Nov. 18, when four teens picked up the girl at her home in Bellevue and provided her with alcohol.

The girl later told police she remembered going to a Redmond grocery, buying alcohol, and being in the back seat of a car, where she was repeatedly raped.

She was returned to her home about three hours after the teens picked her up. Her mother, alarmed at her appearance, took her to Overlake Hospital. An examination determined she had been raped, and police were called, according to court filings.

The girl went to MySpace.com, found profiles for two of the teens and identified them as two of her assailants, according to a police affidavit.

Police got a search warrant for MySpace.com records and found descriptions of the attack.

"The messages included details of the assault ... and confirmed that four males were involved," Detective Carl Kleinknecht said.

In other messages, two suspects and other recipients exchanged ideas that included possibly killing the girl if she went to police, concocting a cover story and even boasting of the attack.

Police interviewed one of the teens, who identified three other suspects.

A car believed to be the one where the alleged assault took place was located and impounded.

The teens, from the Kent and Federal Way areas, were charged as juveniles Feb. 20. In addition, two of them face charges of unlawful possession of a firearm for having a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle on Jan. 24.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com.