Stagecoach Assault Investigated

Authorities in Indio, Calif., are investigating a sexual assault that happened during the Stagecoach country music festival April 27.

A 17-year-old girl was using a portable restroom near the entrance to the fest that evening when a man broke through the locked door.

“The male and two other males began sexually assaulting her,” Police Spokesman Ben Guitron told the local Desert Sun.

The assailants fled the scene and the girl went to get help at a first-aid stand, where police were called, the paper noted. The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment.

The assault was the second in two years at the country festival.

Last year, a parking attendant assaulted a woman after helping her search for her car in an overflow parking lot during the concert. The attendant was later convicted of rape and sentenced to prison.

Police reportedly made 139, mostly alcohol-related, arrests during this year’s Stagecoach weekend. The first weekend of Coachella saw 134 arrests and 102 arrests were made the second weekend.

The country fest’s alcohol policy is apparently more lenient than that of Coachella and allows concertgoers over the age of 21 to drink anywhere during the event.

Guitron told the Sun Stagecoach attendees are “more outgoing on their cowboy theme. But if the public you spoke to said, ‘Well, it’s Stagecoach,’ it’s not acceptable to us, and it’s definitely not going to be acceptable to the victim.”