U.S. Sailor Admits Rape Of Girl, 12, As Trial Of Three Gets Under Way Many Angry Okinawans Seeking Departure Of All U.S. Troops

In a case that has outraged Japan, a U.S. sailor pleaded guilty today to raping a 12-year-old schoolgirl and two Marines admitted to helping plot the attack.

The Sept. 4 assault galvanized opposition to the overwhelming U.S. military presence on the tiny island of Okinawa, caused political headaches for the Japanese government and threatens to overshadow a visit by President Clinton later this month.

Accused of rape are Marine Pfc. Rodrico Harp, 21, of Griffin, Ga; Pfc. Kendrick M. Ledet, 20, of Waycross, Ga; and Navy Seaman Marcus D. Gill, 22, of Woodville, Texas.

Gill pleaded guilty to all charges - confinement and rape causing injury - shortly after the proceedings got under way.

The two Marines admitted to helping plot the attack and Harp acknowledged hitting the girl, but they denied actually raping her.

Prosecutors, however, pressed ahead with rape charges against all three. They said both Harp and Gill raped the girl, and that Ledet attempted to do so.

In the hushed courtroom, the prosecution also provided a chilling and detailed picture of the trio stalking of their victim, and detailed the violence of the assault.

In the small, spartan courtroom, the three defendants sat quietly and expressionlessly, listening to the proceedings, in Japanese with English translation.

Even with the three’s admissions, the judges could still take months to arrive at verdicts and pass sentence. Under Japanese law, they must weigh all the evidence and consider whether to adjust the charges in delivering their verdict.

The charges to which Gill pleaded guilty carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The three were brought in in handcuffs, which were removed after they had settled themselves on a bench with their Japanese guards. They spoke in slow, matter-of-fact tones to the panel of three judges.

In the weeks after the attack, thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand reductions in the 26,000-strong U.S. military force on Okinawa. With the start of the trial, emotions are running high.

Housewife Sachiko Oshiro, who was among the several hundred people who entered a lottery for fewer than three dozen spectators’ gallery seats, said she hoped the case would lead to the withdrawal of some troops.

“More than that, I’d like it to serve as a lesson for Americans here to behave themselves,” she said.

Prosecutors said the three servicemen plotted a rape and waited in ambush until they spotted their victim - the girl, in a school uniform, walking home in the central Okinawa city of Ishikawa.

When she came out of a stationery store where she had bought a notebook for school, they forced her into the back seat of their rented car, bound her wrists, covered her mouth and eyes with electrician’s tape, and beat her as she tried to break free, the prosecutors said.

All three servicemen were arrested by U.S. military police Sept. 6, and turned over to Japanese authorities after being indicted on Sept. 29.

In published reports in the United States, the families of the three have been quoted as complaining about their treatment. The New York Times, in Monday’s editions, quoted Harp’s sister Lillie Felton as saying that a public apology by Defense Secretary William Perry last week for the crime was an affront to the principle of presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

In Naha, a young woman who identified herself as a cousin of Ledet but refused to allow her name to be used said she did not believe the three would get a fair trial. She said she had not been able to contact her cousin.

Unlike fractious U.S-Japan trade relations, the post-World War II military alliance by the two nations has been a model of cooperation.

But Okinawans, whose islands were ravaged in the last great land battle of World War II and then kept under U.S. jurisdiction until 1972, have long complained of bearing an unfair share of the security burden.