Our Guys

Our Guys: Outrage at Glen Ridge (1997), a non-fiction true crime book by American author and journalist Bernard Lefkowitz, tells the story of a group of star athletes in an idyllic suburban community who are accused and later convicted of raping a mentally disabled girl. In addition to describing the details of the case, the book seeks to diagnose some of the larger societal problems that led to these "golden boys" of the community perpetrating such a horrific act.

On March 1, 1989, a seventeen-year-old girl, whom doctors said had an IQ of 64 (or around that of an eight-year-old, according to some experts), walked to Carteret Park in the suburban community of Glen Ridge, New Jersey to play basketball that afternoon. To protect the anonymity of the victim, Lefkowitz refers to the woman by the pseudonym, "Leslie Faber." On the ground, Faber found a stick and picked it up to keep it. Once at Carteret Park, Faber saw that a number of athletes from the local school were there for baseball practice. One of the athletes, Christopher Archer, invited Faber to a party in the basement of the house belonging to the family of twin brothers Kyle and Kevin Scherzer, whose parents were out of town in Florida. At first, Faber refused. However, she eventually relented after Christopher promised that his brother, Paul Archer, would go on a date with her. Christopher knew that Leslie had a crush on Paul.

Once in the basement, she was joined by thirteen boys from the park, including Christopher. After a short time, one of the boys removed Faber's shirt. Other boys began to remove their clothing while Faber took off much of the rest of her clothes. During this time, six of the boys left, leaving seven boys in the basement: Christopher and Paul Archer, Kyle and Kevin Scherzer, Richard Corcoran, Peter Quigley, and Bryant Grober. All seven were on the school's football team and all of them except for Christopher were high school seniors. Faber was commanded to masturbate. Various boys in attendance then orally raped her and penetrated her vaginally with a broomstick and later a baseball bat, both of which were covered in a plastic bag coated with Vaseline. The boys then threatened Faber who promised to not to tell anyone about what had happened. After the attack, Faber waited for a long time outside the house for her promised date with Paul before eventually leaving.



Over the coming days, the boys bragged to their friends about what they had done. They even tried to convince Faber to come to the house a second time. On March 22, three weeks after the rape, a teacher overheard two students discussing the incident. The teacher informed the vice principal who corroborated the rumor after Faber's swim coach confirmed that Faber had told her about the incident three days after it occurred. The police were called. The investigation was led by Detective Sheila Byron and Detective Lieutenant Richard Corcoran, the father of one of the boys implicated in the rape, resulting in a staggering conflict of interest.

Much of Lefkowitz's book focuses on the community's reaction to the rape after it was reported by the local NBC affiliate on May 23. Some members of the community couldn't believe these star athletes and supposed "golden boys" of their community could be guilty of such a heinous crime. Despite Faber's developmental disability, which, according to doctors, precluded her from being able to provide consent, many in the community attempted to paint the young woman as a "Lolita" who seduced the boys into gang-raping her. One student who wasn't present or involved in the attack itself tried to trick Faber into admitting that she initiated the sex acts. Other students noted that, based on the athletes' past behavior at school and at parties, the attack was not at all surprising.

Lefkowitz seeks to explain the pathologies of the perpetrators in a number of ways. For one, he notes that only one of the assailants, Bryant Grober, had sisters, while the rest of the assailants grew up in homes that were almost entirely dominated by strong male personalities. Aside from issues of masculinity, Lefkowitz also discusses how an obsession with "achievement" may have fed into this attack and others like it in communities across America.



In the end, Christopher Archer and Kevin Scherzer were convicted of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, along with second-degree conspiracy charges. They, along with Kyle Scherzer, were sentenced to a maximum of fifteen years in a youth offender facility. (By 2004, all three had served out their sentences). Bryant Grober was sentenced to community service and probation. Finally, Richard Corcoran, Jr.--the son of the Detective Lieutenant—was never tried and was awarded $200,000 as part of a settlement in a "malicious prosecution" case.