Cheryl Ann Araujo (March 28, 1961 – December 14, 1986) was a Portuguese-American woman from New Bedford, Massachusetts, who was gang-raped in 1983 at age 21 by four men in a tavern in the city.
Court cases have attempted to settle issues of newsworthiness, freedom of the press, and state interest, as well as personal privacy.
On March 6, 1983, after putting her two daughters to sleep following a third birthday party for the older girl, Araujo left her home in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to meet a female friend for dinner.
When she tried to return to the bar area to leave, Joseph Vieira and Daniel Silva attacked her and began tearing her clothes off.
According to Araujo's original report to police, she heard people "laughing, cheering, yelling", but no one responded to her cries for help.
Bartender Carlos Machado testified later that when he tried to call the police, Virgilio Medeiros blocked his access to the phone, and that other bar patrons were too intimidated to intervene.
[5] The assault lasted two hours before Araujo managed to fight off her attackers fleeing the bar in only a ripped pink sweater and a single sock.
Three college students passing by in a van came upon the terrified woman, later describing her as "the naked girl in the street" who ran in front of their vehicle like "a deer in the headlights".
Crying and fearful, Araujo threw her arms tightly around passenger Daniel O'Neill's neck, shaking inconsolably.
People in the majority Portuguese community of New Bedford felt the case was a catalyst for stirring ethnic discrimination and anti-immigrant sentiment.
With some of the media's coverage being xenophobic in nature, the community subjected to racist slurs while several witnesses testifying against the defendants received death threats.
Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine Hustler distributed fabricated postcards with the caption, "Greetings from New Bedford, Massachusetts, The Portuguese Gang-Rape Capital of America" and depicted a nude woman lying on a pool table.
[13] On December 14, 1986, around 4:46 p.m., Araujo was returning from her Christmas show in Tropical Park with her daughters when she lost control of her car and struck a cement utility pole on the driver's side door.
According to the same source, officials revealed that Araujo "had spent more than half of the year" in a Miami detoxification center and a residential drug and alcohol abuse treatment program for women.
It starred Jodie Foster, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as the woman attacked, and Kelly McGillis as an assistant district attorney prosecuting the case.
[18] In 2019, author Karen Curtis' book The Accuser: The True Story of the Big Dan's Gang Rape Victim was released.
The Accuser also delves into the two rape trials that were covered by media from around the world with cameras in the courtroom and how Araujo was run out of town after the convictions.
Curtis also published transcript excerpts from the Senate judiciary committee hearing convened after the trials which condemned the television coverage.