BEMIDJI, Minn. (KFGO) – A Bemidji man is facing 30 years in prison after an 11-year-old girl told police she and two other girls were tied up and raped by multiple men in Bemidji.
According to court documents, a Bemidji Police officer was called to Sanford Bemidji Emergency room early Saturday morning on a report of a sexual assault of a girl. The responding officer said the girl had cuts and bruises on her neck, wrist, knee, and other parts of her body. She also had a burn mark on her neck.
During separate interviews, the girl told investigators she had been with Verna Fairbanks, who she called “Auntie,” the night of the incident who forced her to drink alcohol. At some point on the night of the incident, Fairbanks told the girl to get into a car. She said someone put a bag over her head and brought her to a house with four men she described as “Mexican” where she was stripped and tied up between two other girls who said the same things happened to them. Bemidji Police Capt. David LaZella said the other girls have not been identified.
The girl said that while she was at the house, Fairbanks put a rope around her neck and forced her to drink alcohol. She also said one of the other girls who had been raped was in the closet and another was bloody and unconscious.
The girl, who rated her pain as eight out of 10 two days after the assault, said she was able to escape when another girl untied her. She said a man named “Panda” grabbed the girl who helped the 11-year-old escape and threw her down the stairs.
The girl gave investigators a description of Panda and said he was one of the men who raped her. Officers were able to determine Oscar Luna, 22, fit the description of Panda and took him into custody. He’s charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Court records show that Luna denied sexually assaulting the girl and provided a consensual DNA sample.
LaZella said several men were released to the custody of U.S. Border Patrol agents to be processed as illegal immigrants. They are still looking for Fairbanks.
The case remains under investigation.
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