Opening statements begin in gang rape trial

SALEM – A prosecutor told jurors to focus on the testimony of the then-teenage victim of a 2008 gang rape during testimony today.?She’ll tell you they pulled off her clothes, shoved her on a mattress, and took turns groping her and penetrating her,” Assistant District Attorney Greg Friedholm said during opening statements Monday morning in Salem Superior Court.Friedholm alleges that Rafael Nino Brito, 22, of Salem and three others who were supposed to be taking the girl home after a Lynn English Basketball game instead drove around the city drinking with her before taking her to a Summer Street apartment, where they raped her.But Brito’s attorney this morning called the alleged victim a “poor historian,” made so by “regret, embarrassment, shame and denial.”?It doesn’t mean you’re a malicious liar, but it does mean you can get some of the facts a little bit wrong,” William Martin told the jury.Read complete coverage of the trial in Tuesday’s Daily Item.