The Glen Ridge Rape Trial: 1992-93

In the Scherzers' well-furnished basement, Fisher found a small crowd of Glen Ridge's acclaimed high-school athletes, including Paul Archer, football team co-captains Kevin and Kyle Scherzer, Bryant Grober, Peter Quigley, and another half-dozen teen boys. Within minutes, told to take off her clothes, Fisher was undressed and performing fellatio with Grober as the others cheered. Next, several of the young men used a broomstick, a baseball bat, and a dowel stick to rape Fisher. Finally, Fisher masturbated each of them in turn.

Told she could leave, Fisher was admonished not to tell anyone about the event. But within three days, she confided in her high-school swimming coach that something had happened but that she did not want to betray the boys, who were her friends. Within a week, a social worker told Fisher's mother what the swim teacher knew.

Meantime, the rapists bragged. They planned a second session with Fisher—this one to be videotaped. Gossip elaborated. On March 22, Glen Ridge High School principal Michael Buonomo notified the police. The board of education investigated. But two months passed before the six leaders in the rape were indicted. Peter Quigley and Paul Archer reduced their charges by agreeing to testify and to perform 60 hours of community service. As the trial of the four others began on October 15, 1992, Essex County assistant prosecutor Glenn Goldberg described the victim's childhood, her neurological impairment, intellectual limitations, low IQ, and second or third-grade achievement in sixth grade. At almost 18, he said, "Her ability to assess social situations, to know what is appropriate, was that of an eight-year-old."

Goldberg told the jurors that a recent New Jersey Supreme Court ruling had found that an act of sexual penetration was punishable if the participant could not understand the right to refuse the act or could not exercise the right. Then he outlined Fisher's personality. "If somebody was nice to her," he said, "that person became a good, maybe even her best, friend."