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Deputies: Sleepover was a ruse

Two teenage girls are accused of tricking another teen girl into a night of mistreatment.

By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published February 23, 2007

INVERNESS - Two young girls invited a 13-year-old friend to sleep over Sunday, but the gesture was a ruse.

Their real plan, Citrus County deputies say, was to extract revenge because they suspected her of cheating on her boyfriend - and they didn't think that was right.

They locked the victim in a bedroom, made her partially undress in a bathroom and put some itching powder on her face, according to police reports. They also videotaped portions of the ordeal and posted it on the social networking site MySpace.

On Monday, the two girls, ages 13 and 15, found themselves in handcuffs in the back of a sheriff's cruiser, facing felony charges.

After receiving a complaint, a sheriff's deputy viewed the MySpace posting and arrested the two girls.

They face false imprisonment charges, as well as other misdemeanor charges, the nature of which were not released because the two girls are juveniles.

The sleepover occurred at an Inverness residence off Croft Road on Sunday night.

By Monday afternoon, the victim's mother had called the sheriff's office, according to arrest reports.

The victim's mother said the girl, a student at Crystal River Middle School, awoke about 2 a.m. Monday, after the skin on her face began to itch. She rinsed her face and then noticed the other five girls in the house were also awake.

One, the 13-year-old, had a video camera. She demanded the victim take off her shorts. The victim retreated to the bathroom, took them off and handed them over, the arrest report states.

Most of that incident was captured on videotape, the arrest report states.

In the following few minutes, the victim was insulted and challenged to a fight. The other girls had also locked the victim into a bedroom, the arrest report states.

The victim was not seriously injured during the incident, and did not require any medical attention, according to a sheriff's public information officer.

The two girls were released to the custody of their parents and are under house arrest.

Contact Jorge Sanchez at sanchez@sptimes.com or 860-7313 in Citrus or 1-800-333-7505, ext. 7313 toll-free.

[Last modified February 22, 2007, 22:35:01]