A Las Vegas teenager has been charged with allegedly brutal gang rape during a field trip to a private school that was caught on video.

Editor’s note: The following story contains graphic material about alleged sexual abuse involving teenagers. To contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline, call 1-800-656-4673.

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A group of eighth-graders at a Las Vegas private school have been charged with sexually assaulting another student in an alleged attack caught on video. It happened last April during a field trip to the Alexander Dawson School in Costa Rica, according to a Las Vegas Metro Police arrest report obtained by the 8 News Now Investigators.

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Vaughn Griffith, the teenager who was videotaped by police, has been charged in adult court. He is 15 years old. A grand jury indicted golf champion Griffith, who was elected class president, for presenting a scene depicting child sexual conduct, according to court records.

Police identified the four teenagers and said Griffiths appeared to have recorded the video of the sexual assault.

Among other items, the sexual assault included the use of a flute, as the victim was heard crying and screaming in pain, according to the report.

In the six-second video, the victim is seen lying on a bed with his head up and a tense/strained expression on his face, as one of the boys says, “Hey, hold him,” police wrote.

According to the police, a boy reached over the victim’s body.

“The camera angle then pans back to show Vaughan Griffith and the boys start laughing,” the report states.

Then another video, described as more than two minutes long, “depicts graphic and violent sexual abuse,” police wrote.

The victim screamed as he was punched, several boys can be heard laughing throughout the video, and the victim can be heard trying to stop the ongoing battery, police said.

When one of the boys asked the victim to fight, Griffiths told him that if he did, they would cut off his penis, police wrote.

The victim was eventually able to free himself.

The boys continued to laugh and said, “Ew,” police wrote.

“One of the boy’s last words heard was ‘it’s obviously sexual’, and the other boy’s ‘assault’, according to the report. “The camera angle turns to the person recording, showing Vaughan Griffith’s face.”

During the grand jury proceedings, a detective testified that the children were on a paid field trip to Costa Rica that students at Alexander Dawson Middle School could take, and that they participated in several trips from April 3 to April 11. In addition to the victim and Griffith, the detective identified three other boys.

Students will now be freshmen in high school. The Clark County School District would not confirm or deny whether Griffiths and one of the other suspects were enrolled in the district, and said the other two suspects were not enrolled.

8 News Now investigators reached out to the Clark County District Attorney’s office to find out if the other boys face charges and have not received a response.

“We are concerned that there is a marked disparity in how Vaughn is treated compared to other, similarly situated, individuals,” Griffith’s attorney Joshua Judd told 8 News Now investigators in an email. “However, we look forward to defending Won in this case.”

Griffith was taken to the Clark County Detention Center on July 29, according to court records.

Clark County District Court Judge Linda Marquis on Oct. 7 ordered Griffith’s case to be handled in the adult system. She pointed out that Griffith filmed the sexual assault, created the video and saved the video to Snapchat.

Griffith’s “possession of the video depicting the gruesome gang sexual abuse of his classmates was heinous and egregious,” Markis wrote.

Marquis ruled that Griffith’s background did not overshadow the seriousness of the crimes charged.

Griffith “comes from a very supportive family, attended a private school, had an excellent GPA, was elected class president, and is an award-winning, elite golfer,” Marquis said.

Marquis wrote that a short term in a juvenile training center for corrective educational discipline and other treatment is not appropriate in this case.

“Community protection requires a transition to an adult system,” she wrote.

Greg Harder, a licensed psychologist, evaluated Griffith after about a month of detention, according to his report. Harder recommended that Griffith’s case be handled in the juvenile court system, with an emphasis on rehabilitation rather than punishment, and that there was no evidence that Griffith was a sexual predator.

On May 17, Las Vegas Metro Police began an investigation into the incident, which occurred in Costa Rica on April 8 or 9. Alexander Dawson, the school’s principal, told authorities on May 16 that several students were brought in for questioning after a video of several students beating each other during an April 2025 field trip to Costa Rica. The alleged victim’s mother went to the principal that night to report that she had been sexually assaulted. This prompted the principal to contact the police.

The alleged victim initially didn’t report what happened because she didn’t want to get other students in trouble, according to court records.

The alleged victim later reported that on April 5, a group of students entered her room, began undressing her and threw her clothes onto the balcony. He hid in the bathroom and later took off his clothes, according to the report.

Two days later, at the Hotel Manuel Antonio, while a group of students were huddled in a hotel room, the alleged victim said “all the young men pinned her down and pulled her pants and underwear” and proceeded to sexually assault her.

The victim said that the student had beaten him before.

Attorneys David Chesnoff, Richard Schoenfeld and Jay Randall Jones sent a statement to the 8 News Now Investigators on Thursday on behalf of the victim:

“We represent the victim in this case and appreciate the work done by law enforcement, including the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Clark County District Attorney’s Office. We are confident that the judicial system will bring justice to our client.”

8 News Now investigators reached out to the Alexander Dawson School, and Denver-based attorney Allen Herzog sent the following statement:

“Alexander Dawson School in Rainbow Mountain was made aware of serious allegations involving male middle school students in a hotel room during a class field trip. We take any such allegations incredibly seriously and immediately report them to law enforcement when they come to our attention. Because the alleged misconduct occurred between middle school students, we cannot comment further at this time.”

On the school’s website, it is described as “a nurturing learning community for students in preschool through grade eight that challenges students to achieve excellence in mind, body and character.”

Tuition for kindergarten through eighth grade is $32,500, according to the website.

Griffith appeared in court Thursday morning and pleaded not guilty. The hearing is scheduled for June 23.

A family member posted $20,000 bail for Griffith on Oct. 10, records show. Conditions include high-level electronic monitoring, no internet except for school purposes, stay away from minors other than siblings, stay away from victimization, surrender your passport, and stay out of trouble.

The video, which is considered evidence in the case, has been sealed as per the court order.

To reach investigative reporter Vanessa Murphy, email vmurphy@8newsnow.com.

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