The Duluth News Tribune has a follow-up to a very disturbing three part story it reported last March. It was a story that furnished a rare, microscopic look at the unfathomable power women have to cause men and boys to be arrested just on their say so whenever they cry "rape." It was a frightening tale about what a 34-year-old woman did to a 17-year-old boy, and one that is sure to get your blood boiling if you care a whit about justice.
The latest follow-up news report tells us that the uncertainty still hangs over the young man's life. The latest story doesn't do an adequate job describing what really happened. It makes it look as if there really may be two sides to the story. There aren't. There is an unsubstantiated and unreliable claim that has destroyed a boy's life on the one side, and a boy's denials on the other. The evidence supporting the accuser's claim makes gossamer look like armor plate. The unreliable accuser is still cloaked in anonymity while the boy's good name has been destroyed. Neither the police nor the Duluth Tribune News should be treating this as a legitimate claim at this stage, and the police ought to come out and say that there is no reliable evidence that young Andrew Lawrence committed a crime, because there isn't. If that sounds too harsh, too anti-"victim," too un-PC, read the latest story and the earlier three-part report yourself, and you decide. Don't trust me. All of the stories are linked below. Based on the information contained in the news reports linked below, the boy is the likely victim here.
All of the dates referenced below refer to 2010. To recap: A 34-year-old woman, who, it turns out, claimed she had been raped some years earlier when she lived in Florida, alleged that on July 20, 2010, two men broke into her home, and that one put a gun to her throat and raped her. Police arrested 17-year-old Andrew Lawrence without bothering to corroborate the alleged victim's story, or his alibi.
Listen to this litany of horrors and tell me whether you think an injustice has been done to a 17-year-old kid. And don't just rely on me: read the three-part horror show linked below.
▲The accuser claimed she would remember forever the horror of her rape -- the day it happened and the events. Yet, in her very first interview with the police, she told them she was raped one week earlier than the day it supposedly happened. Specifically, she told them she was raped on July 13, not July 20.
▲She said she told no one about the alleged rape until July 31 — 11 days later — not even her boyfriend. What prompted her to tell was a supposed nightmare about the assault. She was yelling in her sleep and woke up screaming. Her boyfriend convinced her that it would be safe to go to the police, he said, “to protect others from this.”
▲The woman initially described her attacker as someone with “long, brown, wavy hair (surfer type or moppy),” according to a police report. When he was arrested, Andrew had short brown hair. A photo taken of him earlier that summer showed . . . he had short hair.
▲The woman initially identified someone else as her attacker, saying she was “70 percent sure” that a friend of Andrew’s was the person who attacked her. That person had long, surfer-style hair, and he doesn’t resemble Andrew. 70 percent sure it was someone other than Andrew.
▲Andrew was arrested despite the fact that the woman never identified him in a photo lineup. When she did identify him, it was from at least a half-block away at 8 p.m. She saw him skateboarding outside and said, "That's the guy."
▲Andrew was nervous during a four-hour police interrogation in which a cop with a spotty record yelled and swore at him and accused him of lying. During the interrogation, the police asked Andrew about his whereabouts on July 13, Andrew claims, the day the woman first claimed she was raped. (The police claim that they didn't mention July 13, but won't release the tape of the interview.) Andrew told them his whereabouts in detail for the 13th. The police checked with his mother's partner, who told them a different story. It turns out the police asked the mother's partner about Andrew's whereabouts on July 20.
▲Despite inconsistencies in the woman’s story, police did not interview potential witnesses about the inconsistencies, nor did they perform a background check on the woman, according to reports and interviews.
▲Before they arrested Andrew, police apparently did nothing to corroborate the woman's story. They never interviewed the woman’s boyfriend about the alleged assault to corroborate her story. Police also never questioned her neighbors or a friend the alleged victim said she called the night she was raped.
▲Police waited for more than a week before they bothered to check out Andrew’s alibi after he was arrested. By that point, he had already been released on $2,500 bail. Andrew corrected his initial interview and told police that on the evening of July 20 he played video games with his longtime friend, Steven Brown, who lives across the street from the woman who accused Andrew of rape. Brown, along with his brothers, Daniel and Mark Haworth, confirmed Andrew’s story to both police and the Duluth News Tribune, saying they played a video game with him. After their interviews with Steven Brown and his family about Andrew’s alibi, Superior police did no further investigating, records show.
▲The alleged victim didn’t get a rape exam until four days after she reported the assault, saying that’s when Superior police directed her to do so. That exam, performed 15 days after the alleged rape, found no evidence of an assault.
▲Though the alleged victim said two people were involved in the rape, there’s no indication that police searched for a second suspect. For people concerned about public safety, that seems like a major gaffe, doesn't it?
▲The woman told police and later testified to a judge that she clearly saw her attacker holding a gun. Though police found no gun in Andrew’s possession or at a search of his home, they found a skateboard wrench in his room. An officer wrote: “I believe the wrench could easily be mistaken for a small pistol.” (The fact is, cops could find something that supposedly could be mistaken for a gun in almost anyone's home.)
▲On Oct. 7, police received the DNA report from the Wisconsin Crime Lab. Samples they had taken from the living room where the alleged victim said she was raped showed no match to Andrew. Samples taken from Andrew’s clothes and the wrench that police theorized might have been used as a weapon didn’t contain the alleged victim’s DNA. Results of the rape exam showed no evidence of a sexual assault, according to records, though the exam was taken about three weeks after the assault was alleged to have occurred.
▲After receiving DNA test results that failed to tie Andrew to the crime scene, the district attorney’s office waited two months to drop charges. Two more months of hell for Andrew.
▲In retrospect, the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office charged Andrew with rape based on two pieces of evidence: the woman’s eventual identification of him as the suspect (the identification made from a distance, after she had described someone who didn't look like Andrew, and and after she was initially 70 percent sure it was another young man), and the fact that Andrew’s first account of his whereabouts on the night of the alleged assault (when they asked him about the wrong day) differed from his stepmother’s.
▲Before charges were dropped, the alleged victim was granted a restraining order against Andrew, claiming he repeatedly harassed her and that she feared for her safety. The restraining order is still in effect despite charges being dropped, and it will last for four years, requiring Andrew to vacate any home or building the woman is in. Andrew denies ever harassing the woman. In her request for the order, the woman wrote that she saw Andrew drive by her home on Aug. 2. Records show, however, that Andrew was in jail that day. On Sept. 30, she wrote that she saw Andrew sitting in the back of a vehicle at the Superior library parking lot. Again, a contradiction: One of Andrew's teachers signed a statement saying that he was under her direct supervision at that time. The woman said that her sexual assault advocate, who filled out the restraining order application on her behalf, probably made the mistakes. (Who is Andrew's advocate in all this?) Police records make no note of the discrepancies.
▲Former Duluth Police Lieutenant of Investigations John Hall questioned why police never worked to corroborate the alleged victim’s story by interviewing the woman’s boyfriend or neighbors. Those are “the sorts of things sex crime investigators do routinely,” he said.
▲Andrew's mother's partner, shocked about what happened, rhetorically asked a newspaper reporter: “Does that mean I can say that you came in and touched my breasts, I’m putting you in jail, dammit?” she said. “I don’t know you. But if I said you raped me … all I would have to say is you did it, and not prove anything?”
▲Andrew, who works as a line cook at a local restaurant, said he’s forgiven the woman who accused him of rape, but he is still angry with her and with the police. Since he was arrested, Andrew said he’s dropped about 20 to 25 pounds. Andrew will probably move away. "Even if my name is wiped clean, I think this will always be an area where people see I’ve been charged,” he said. “I just hope it doesn’t give me a bad reputation wherever I go.”
▲The case, which was the only reported home invasion and sexual assault in the city in 2010 is classified as still open. And while Andrew isn’t a suspect, when charges were dropped they were done without prejudice, meaning he could be investigated again.
Links:
-http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/218211/
-http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/193114/publisher_ID/36/
-http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/193191/publisher_ID/36/
-http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/193258/publisher_ID/36/
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Stigler woman accused of falsifying a rape report
A Stigler woman has been charged in Pittsburg County District Court with false reporting of a crime.
Katheryn Marie Louise Clark, 21, is accused of falsely reporting “that she had been raped by her soon to be brother-in-law,” court documents indicate.
On Dec. 16, Pittsburg County Deputy Jack Suter was dispatched to Longtown and took a report from Clark that she had been raped, according to a police affidavit. Clark accused the man of dragging her by the hair and forcibly having sex with her while she was screaming and biting him, according to the affidavit.
A medical rape kit was performed on Clark, according to the affidavit, and the nurse performing the rape kit told authorities that “there was not any evidence of sexual assault.”
Clark was arrested Dec. 17 and on Dec. 19, she was charged with false reporting of a crime. If convicted, Clark faces up to 90 days in jail. She is due back in court Feb. 7 at 9 a.m. to face this charge.
Link:
http://mcalesternews.com/local/x1750825474/Stigler-woman-accused-of-falsifying-a-rape-report
Katheryn Marie Louise Clark, 21, is accused of falsely reporting “that she had been raped by her soon to be brother-in-law,” court documents indicate.
On Dec. 16, Pittsburg County Deputy Jack Suter was dispatched to Longtown and took a report from Clark that she had been raped, according to a police affidavit. Clark accused the man of dragging her by the hair and forcibly having sex with her while she was screaming and biting him, according to the affidavit.
A medical rape kit was performed on Clark, according to the affidavit, and the nurse performing the rape kit told authorities that “there was not any evidence of sexual assault.”
Clark was arrested Dec. 17 and on Dec. 19, she was charged with false reporting of a crime. If convicted, Clark faces up to 90 days in jail. She is due back in court Feb. 7 at 9 a.m. to face this charge.
Link:
http://mcalesternews.com/local/x1750825474/Stigler-woman-accused-of-falsifying-a-rape-report
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Oakham woman to serve probation after false rape claim
A 44-year-old Sunday school teacher from Oakham pleaded guilty yesterday to lying to police, telling them she’d been raped, and she was sentenced to 2 years’ probation.
Christine Drolet went to Spencer Police Detective Michael Shea earlier this year and reported that William Domey, a paramedic who worked with her husband, had raped her.
She went to a hospital for treatment, called police several times to check on the status of the case and never recanted until Detective Shea questioned her version of what had happened, prosecutor Courtney Sans told the judge in Western Worcester District Court yesterday.
Mrs. Drolet, who was estranged from her husband and had been living with Mr. Domey in Spencer, used social networking websites to “have a made-up conversation with herself,” that appeared to involve him, Ms. Sans said.
In one email, she told Mr. Domey she was pregnant and sent an ultrasound image of a fetus that Detective Shea determined was a stock photograph she’d gleaned from the Internet.
In an interview after court, Mr. Domey said Mrs. Drolet told the state Office of Emergency Medical Services that he had raped her and the state looked into revoking his paramedic license. He also said Mrs. Drolet had contacted his ex-wife, who had their custody agreement changed so he could no longer see their children.
Ms. Sans said in court that Mrs. Drolet had “decimated his life” and the false charge was “following him to the point where his livelihood was affected.”
“It’s very hard to unring a bell,” she said.
Mrs. Drolet, Ms. Sans said, formulated the story so her husband would “feel bad for her” and would reconcile, which he did.
Mrs. Drolet’s lawyer, Christopher G. Monroy, said with the exception of this incident, Mrs. Drolet is a model citizen, herself an EMT.
He submitted letters of support from her pastor and friends who said she is a Sunday school teacher at Oakham Congregational Church, a singer in the choir and was a member of the town’s cultural council.
“This is conduct that goes without explanation,” Mr. Monroy said.
Judge Timothy M. Bibaud sentenced Mrs. Drolet to one year concurrent sentences at Framingham state prison on the charges of filing a false crime report, criminal harassment and witness intimidation. She was sentenced to two years on a second witness intimidation charge. All of the sentences were suspended for two years, during which time she will remain on probation.
Mr. Domey said after court that while Mrs. Drolet’s sentence will end in two years, he anticipates having problems for much longer as a result of her actions.
He said he is able to see his children again, but has been turned down for jobs because the emergency medical services community is small, and word of the rape allegation, though false, is still spreading.
As a paramedic for eight years with a total of 20 years in the field, he said, he’s hoping that, with Mrs. Drolet having been sentenced, he’ll be able to find work closer to home. He lives in Western Massachusetts and travels to Boston.
Link:
http://www.telegram.com/article/20111221/NEWS/112219884/1003/NEWS03
Christine Drolet went to Spencer Police Detective Michael Shea earlier this year and reported that William Domey, a paramedic who worked with her husband, had raped her.
She went to a hospital for treatment, called police several times to check on the status of the case and never recanted until Detective Shea questioned her version of what had happened, prosecutor Courtney Sans told the judge in Western Worcester District Court yesterday.
Mrs. Drolet, who was estranged from her husband and had been living with Mr. Domey in Spencer, used social networking websites to “have a made-up conversation with herself,” that appeared to involve him, Ms. Sans said.
In one email, she told Mr. Domey she was pregnant and sent an ultrasound image of a fetus that Detective Shea determined was a stock photograph she’d gleaned from the Internet.
In an interview after court, Mr. Domey said Mrs. Drolet told the state Office of Emergency Medical Services that he had raped her and the state looked into revoking his paramedic license. He also said Mrs. Drolet had contacted his ex-wife, who had their custody agreement changed so he could no longer see their children.
Ms. Sans said in court that Mrs. Drolet had “decimated his life” and the false charge was “following him to the point where his livelihood was affected.”
“It’s very hard to unring a bell,” she said.
Mrs. Drolet, Ms. Sans said, formulated the story so her husband would “feel bad for her” and would reconcile, which he did.
Mrs. Drolet’s lawyer, Christopher G. Monroy, said with the exception of this incident, Mrs. Drolet is a model citizen, herself an EMT.
He submitted letters of support from her pastor and friends who said she is a Sunday school teacher at Oakham Congregational Church, a singer in the choir and was a member of the town’s cultural council.
“This is conduct that goes without explanation,” Mr. Monroy said.
Judge Timothy M. Bibaud sentenced Mrs. Drolet to one year concurrent sentences at Framingham state prison on the charges of filing a false crime report, criminal harassment and witness intimidation. She was sentenced to two years on a second witness intimidation charge. All of the sentences were suspended for two years, during which time she will remain on probation.
Mr. Domey said after court that while Mrs. Drolet’s sentence will end in two years, he anticipates having problems for much longer as a result of her actions.
He said he is able to see his children again, but has been turned down for jobs because the emergency medical services community is small, and word of the rape allegation, though false, is still spreading.
As a paramedic for eight years with a total of 20 years in the field, he said, he’s hoping that, with Mrs. Drolet having been sentenced, he’ll be able to find work closer to home. He lives in Western Massachusetts and travels to Boston.
Link:
http://www.telegram.com/article/20111221/NEWS/112219884/1003/NEWS03
A peaceful world?
Many people around the world are celebrating Christmas this morning. A central wish around this holiday is "peace and good will for all." Why is enduring peace so difficult to achieve? What are the prospects for us in the twenty-first century?
Peace and conflict are related, but they aren't precise opposites. Conflict between individuals and groups can take many forms, and it is possible to manage or resolve conflicts without violence or hatred. This village uses its pasture and forest for gathering; that village begins to encroach with its livestock herd. The two villages have a conflict over the pasture. This conflict may eventually escalate into violence between the villages, with armed groups from each waging small-scale war against the others. But it doesn't have to work out this way. Leaders of the two villages may negotiate a set of land use customs that do something to satisfy the needs and interests of both villages, and they may be successful in getting their constituents to honor those agreements. Or there may be a state capable of establishing and enforcing property rights that are binding on both groups, while permitting each group to pursue its most important life activities. Or, perhaps, the two groups may have normative and religious bonds of solidarity that lead each member of the group to possess a reservoir of good will that makes resort to violence impossible to imagine.
So conflict of interests and wants doesn't necessarily lead to a breaking of the peace. But these conflicts have the potential to do so. And political theorists in the social contract tradition since Hobbes have held that this is the key role of the state -- to establish an acceptable set of rules for property and person that determine clear rights and obligations for everyone, and clear procedures for punishment if rights are violated. Only through a system of law can we avoid the state of nature which is a state of war of all against all.
Other theorists, notably Elinor Ostrom, have argued that populations have solved the problems of conflict over resources in non-state ways, through "common property resource regimes" (Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
). The conditions under which a CPRR is stable are more complex than those of a state -- essentially, the CPRR needs to be supported by normative and cultural elements that give all participants a reason to honor the rules -- but Ostrom and fellow researchers have documented many successful instances. And, of course, a common property resource regime needs to have some kind of processes for addressing and resolving conflicts among participants -- fishermen who disagree about the catch, water users who disagree about the management of upstream resources.So what are some of the large causes of breakdowns of peace in populations of people?
A key source of sustained violent conflict on a large scale is perceived unresolved injustice. One party or nation blocks access to resources or opportunities to which another party believes it has a moral right; demands are made; the situation persists; and violent acts begin to occur.
Another important source is conflict over access to important natural resources -- water, oil, minerals. Conflicts over resources may occur at the local level, or they may rise to the level of inter-country armed conflict and war.
We can't overlook the religious and ideological origins of much conflict in humanity's history. The prolonged conflict, often violent, between Hindus and Muslims over the Babri Mosque in India is a good example. The site has religious importance for both communities; leaders are able to mobilize their followers in defense of their claims; violence ensues.
So what can humanity do to improve the prospects for peace and good will?
Sustained efforts at conflict resolution are a good place to start. People of good will can often enough find the resources they need to bring down the degree of conflict and hostility between groups, and to find procedures that make resort to violence less likely.
Recognizing and addressing injustices between peoples and nations will help. Justice and peace are intertwined.
Promoting the universality of human needs and the value of inter-group tolerance and respect is a very good step. And spiritual leaders of all faiths are sometimes very committed to this work. (Others are not, of course!)
So, this fine Christmas morning in 2011, let us all work for peace and justice for our grandchildren!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Merry Christmas, you've been falsely accused
Despite our fondest aspirations, Christmas is marked less by peace on earth and goodwill toward men than by bruised feelings, horn honking, and at least a vague feeling of dread. Both emotions and alcohol tend to flow a little too freely on the run up to the big day, and all our modern day angst is magnified under the Christmas snow globe. In short, it is the perfect season for the nastiest of human dramas, like suicide, assault, and false rape claims. This blog, of course, is dedicated to giving voice to victims of false heinous sex allegations, and we call our holiday offering, "Merry Christmas, you've been falsely accused," only because we couldn't come up with anything better.
Regardless of your troubles this holiday season, they probably can't compare to those of some of the men featured here:
▲On another Christmas Eve not long ago, an innocent man and a woman named Michelle Anne Taruka Grafton, 19, a student, had a brief liaison but spent most of the evening watching television with the man's flatmate. Later, the police came for the man to question him about an alleged rape. Grafton had claimed the man forced into a car, tied her up, and repeatedly raped her. While the police were investigating, and while the innocent man's life was left in a state of terrified anxiety over a pending rape charge, Grafton hopped on a plane and went away on holiday to Australia for a month. When she finally bothered to come back, she admitted her lie. When the story was reported, the newspaper interviewed Director of Rape Prevention Education, Dr Kim McGregor, who said: "We treat people who have made false allegations with compassion because there's always a question mark over other issues being played out."
▲Another Christmas Eve, police were given a false tip that a rapist was hiding in a certain home. The tip was a lie. The police got their signals crossed and broke down the front door. In the confusion that followed, they accidentally gunned down the innocent 84-year-old man who lived in the home with his elderly wife. He, of course, hadn't raped anyone. The wife was taken to the hospital in shock and later died of a heart attack.
▲On another Christmas, John Chalmers, 47, was beaten by a man who was under the wrong-headed belief Mr. Chalmers had raped his sister. Mr. Chalmers suffered brain damage and had to relearn how to do everything.
▲Another Christmas, Northern Ireland footballer Jonny Evans was arrested, held in custody, and accused of raping a woman at a boozy Christmas party his team held at a posh hotel. Jonny was cleared, but it forced him to grow up fast. "It made me a lot more wary of people," Jonmy said. The experience showed him how men can easily become victims of false allegations. Jonny said it was "scary" how anyone could be arrested based solely on someone's false allegation.
▲Another Christmas, Gail McMahon, 25, a mother of four, had gone to a bedroom with a 23-year-old man after asking him for a Christmas kiss. Afterwards, she alleged he seduced and raped her. Eight days later, she withdrew the claim, saying she had done it "for a good laugh and giggle." The judge told McMahon that her false cry of rape led to an innocent man being arrested, interrogated and made to give intimate samples.
▲Another Christmas, Diane Kay Sharping, 44, told police a man attacked and raped her while she was looking at Christmas lights. A university nearby sent out an alert to students. When police questioned Sharping a second time, she admitted that it had not happened.
▲Another Christmas, Sharon Donohue lied that she was raped after she was abducted in a shopping center parking lot where she was doing Christmas shopping.
▲Another year, the best Christmas gift then 25-year-old Andrew Bond got was the surveillance video that proved his rape accuser was a liar. Months earlier, a woman with whom he'd had a one-night stand cried rape, and when police got to her, she was a mess. Her makeup was running, her clothes were dishevelled and her underwear had been ripped to shreds. 'I've been raped,' she said in a voice that reflected her distress. The police came for Andrew at 4:50 a.m. He was arrested, stripped, made to wear a disposable white paper suit - his clothes were taken away for examination - and locked in a cell. "I felt embarrassed and degraded," he said. "All I could think of is: 'Who is going to believe me?' Whenever I read about such cases in the paper I always thought: 'It must be true.' It never crossed my mind that a 'victim' might be lying, until now." Being locked in that cell was very traumatic. "I kept pressing the buzzer and saying 'let me out.' I was very distressed and in tears. I think I was having a breakdown." By now, the police had broken the news to his parents. When he was charged with rape, the young man broke down and cried. Andrew's life was torn to shreds -- he was forced to leave the university where he was studying. He had to sell things to stay afloat financially. For months, the police didn't bother to check CCTV footage taken where Andrew lived. Then, just before Christmas, Andrew himself remembered a video camera in his building. Police watched it. The tape revealed that Andrew was the victim, not a brutal rapist. Andrew was filmed entering the building with a female companion with shoulder-length hair and knee-high boots. They chat and cuddle in the lift on the way to his 11th-floor apartment. About an hour later, the woman leaves the flat. She looks composed and relaxed. She is neither crying nor fleeing in terror. Next we see her getting into the lift. The security camera is behind her. In the reflection of the elevator's metal walls, she can be seen pulling something out of her handbag. She begins to tear at it with her hands. It is a pair of knickers, in fact. The same ones she claimed had been ripped during the struggle. Police dropped the charges against Andrew. The young woman was not charged, and she retained her anonymity. Merry Christmas, Andrew.
▲Melanie Duell called police in the early morning hours one Christmas, claiming she'd been raped. The man she named was arrested and held for ten hours. He was finally cleared weeks later when she admitted he wasn't the man who attacked her. Duell's attorney said Duell was an inadequate and vulnerable young woman who found if difficult to cope and who had been put under pressure by her family at the time. She said Duell did not commit the offence out of revenge or because she was bitter and twisted but added: "I acknowledge this was a grave, grave error of judgment and she knows that."
▲A 21-year-old told police that three men dragged her into a car and one raped her on the back seat one Christmas day. It was a lie.
▲Another year, Jan Falkowski, a 46-year-old successful London psychiatrist, was brought to his knees by Maria Marchese, a deluded stalker who launched a four year hate campaign - with thousands of anonymous texts, phone calls and emails, and dozens of death threats. Finally, she was arrested, but then, the police decided there was not enough evidence to proceed and the case was dropped. Falkowski was furious. At his office Christmas party, it all came to a head. The phone rang. It was her, treatening to kill him. Once again he reported her to the police. That's when she fabricated rape claim against him. She told the police that Falkowski had drugged and raped her years earlier. To support her claim, she produced underwear supposedly soaked in his DNA. Falkowski was arrested, charged with rape, and in accordance with standard practice, suspended from his job while police investigated. Marchese alerted radio and newspapers who headlined the case: "Top doctor charged with rape." Even Falkowski's friends abandoned him. Then, it was discovered that Marchese's underwear sample contained not just his DNA but the DNA of one of Falkowski's women friends whom Falkowski hadn't even met until a year after the rape supposedly occurred. The police realized they'd been conned. Marchese had rifled through Falkowski's dustbins and stolen a used condom.
▲Another Christmas, Austen Donnellan was cleared of raping a fellow undergraduate, with whom he had previously said he was besotted, after a drunken Christmas party. During his trial, Austen told the court that his accuser had kissed him passionately on the dance floor and undressed him when they returned to her room at the halls of her residence. She claimed she was raped. The judge told the jury that a woman who is drunk can still consent unless she was so drunk that couldn't understand what is happening to her. The jury took just 35 minutes to acquit Austen.
On behalf of Steve and Pierce, FRS wishes the community of the wrongly accused and all our readers a very Merry Christmas.
Regardless of your troubles this holiday season, they probably can't compare to those of some of the men featured here:
▲On another Christmas Eve not long ago, an innocent man and a woman named Michelle Anne Taruka Grafton, 19, a student, had a brief liaison but spent most of the evening watching television with the man's flatmate. Later, the police came for the man to question him about an alleged rape. Grafton had claimed the man forced into a car, tied her up, and repeatedly raped her. While the police were investigating, and while the innocent man's life was left in a state of terrified anxiety over a pending rape charge, Grafton hopped on a plane and went away on holiday to Australia for a month. When she finally bothered to come back, she admitted her lie. When the story was reported, the newspaper interviewed Director of Rape Prevention Education, Dr Kim McGregor, who said: "We treat people who have made false allegations with compassion because there's always a question mark over other issues being played out."
▲Another Christmas Eve, police were given a false tip that a rapist was hiding in a certain home. The tip was a lie. The police got their signals crossed and broke down the front door. In the confusion that followed, they accidentally gunned down the innocent 84-year-old man who lived in the home with his elderly wife. He, of course, hadn't raped anyone. The wife was taken to the hospital in shock and later died of a heart attack.
▲On another Christmas, John Chalmers, 47, was beaten by a man who was under the wrong-headed belief Mr. Chalmers had raped his sister. Mr. Chalmers suffered brain damage and had to relearn how to do everything.
▲Another Christmas, Northern Ireland footballer Jonny Evans was arrested, held in custody, and accused of raping a woman at a boozy Christmas party his team held at a posh hotel. Jonny was cleared, but it forced him to grow up fast. "It made me a lot more wary of people," Jonmy said. The experience showed him how men can easily become victims of false allegations. Jonny said it was "scary" how anyone could be arrested based solely on someone's false allegation.
▲Another Christmas, Gail McMahon, 25, a mother of four, had gone to a bedroom with a 23-year-old man after asking him for a Christmas kiss. Afterwards, she alleged he seduced and raped her. Eight days later, she withdrew the claim, saying she had done it "for a good laugh and giggle." The judge told McMahon that her false cry of rape led to an innocent man being arrested, interrogated and made to give intimate samples.
▲Another Christmas, Diane Kay Sharping, 44, told police a man attacked and raped her while she was looking at Christmas lights. A university nearby sent out an alert to students. When police questioned Sharping a second time, she admitted that it had not happened.
▲Another Christmas, Sharon Donohue lied that she was raped after she was abducted in a shopping center parking lot where she was doing Christmas shopping.
▲Another year, the best Christmas gift then 25-year-old Andrew Bond got was the surveillance video that proved his rape accuser was a liar. Months earlier, a woman with whom he'd had a one-night stand cried rape, and when police got to her, she was a mess. Her makeup was running, her clothes were dishevelled and her underwear had been ripped to shreds. 'I've been raped,' she said in a voice that reflected her distress. The police came for Andrew at 4:50 a.m. He was arrested, stripped, made to wear a disposable white paper suit - his clothes were taken away for examination - and locked in a cell. "I felt embarrassed and degraded," he said. "All I could think of is: 'Who is going to believe me?' Whenever I read about such cases in the paper I always thought: 'It must be true.' It never crossed my mind that a 'victim' might be lying, until now." Being locked in that cell was very traumatic. "I kept pressing the buzzer and saying 'let me out.' I was very distressed and in tears. I think I was having a breakdown." By now, the police had broken the news to his parents. When he was charged with rape, the young man broke down and cried. Andrew's life was torn to shreds -- he was forced to leave the university where he was studying. He had to sell things to stay afloat financially. For months, the police didn't bother to check CCTV footage taken where Andrew lived. Then, just before Christmas, Andrew himself remembered a video camera in his building. Police watched it. The tape revealed that Andrew was the victim, not a brutal rapist. Andrew was filmed entering the building with a female companion with shoulder-length hair and knee-high boots. They chat and cuddle in the lift on the way to his 11th-floor apartment. About an hour later, the woman leaves the flat. She looks composed and relaxed. She is neither crying nor fleeing in terror. Next we see her getting into the lift. The security camera is behind her. In the reflection of the elevator's metal walls, she can be seen pulling something out of her handbag. She begins to tear at it with her hands. It is a pair of knickers, in fact. The same ones she claimed had been ripped during the struggle. Police dropped the charges against Andrew. The young woman was not charged, and she retained her anonymity. Merry Christmas, Andrew.
▲Melanie Duell called police in the early morning hours one Christmas, claiming she'd been raped. The man she named was arrested and held for ten hours. He was finally cleared weeks later when she admitted he wasn't the man who attacked her. Duell's attorney said Duell was an inadequate and vulnerable young woman who found if difficult to cope and who had been put under pressure by her family at the time. She said Duell did not commit the offence out of revenge or because she was bitter and twisted but added: "I acknowledge this was a grave, grave error of judgment and she knows that."
▲A 21-year-old told police that three men dragged her into a car and one raped her on the back seat one Christmas day. It was a lie.
▲Another year, Jan Falkowski, a 46-year-old successful London psychiatrist, was brought to his knees by Maria Marchese, a deluded stalker who launched a four year hate campaign - with thousands of anonymous texts, phone calls and emails, and dozens of death threats. Finally, she was arrested, but then, the police decided there was not enough evidence to proceed and the case was dropped. Falkowski was furious. At his office Christmas party, it all came to a head. The phone rang. It was her, treatening to kill him. Once again he reported her to the police. That's when she fabricated rape claim against him. She told the police that Falkowski had drugged and raped her years earlier. To support her claim, she produced underwear supposedly soaked in his DNA. Falkowski was arrested, charged with rape, and in accordance with standard practice, suspended from his job while police investigated. Marchese alerted radio and newspapers who headlined the case: "Top doctor charged with rape." Even Falkowski's friends abandoned him. Then, it was discovered that Marchese's underwear sample contained not just his DNA but the DNA of one of Falkowski's women friends whom Falkowski hadn't even met until a year after the rape supposedly occurred. The police realized they'd been conned. Marchese had rifled through Falkowski's dustbins and stolen a used condom.
▲Another Christmas, Austen Donnellan was cleared of raping a fellow undergraduate, with whom he had previously said he was besotted, after a drunken Christmas party. During his trial, Austen told the court that his accuser had kissed him passionately on the dance floor and undressed him when they returned to her room at the halls of her residence. She claimed she was raped. The judge told the jury that a woman who is drunk can still consent unless she was so drunk that couldn't understand what is happening to her. The jury took just 35 minutes to acquit Austen.
On behalf of Steve and Pierce, FRS wishes the community of the wrongly accused and all our readers a very Merry Christmas.
Friday, December 23, 2011
A pragmatist action theory
A theory of action is one component of a meta-framework for sociology. It is an organized set of ideas about what individuals are doing when they engage in interactions in the world, and what we think at the highest level of generality about why they behave as they do. Individuals within social interactions constitute the social world; they do things; and they do things for reasons that we would like to understand. A theory of action ought to give us a basic vocabulary for describing behavior in the social world. And it ought to provide some framing hypotheses about the causes or motivations of behavior.
An important aspect of action theory is the idea of "intensionality" and mental representation. This is the conception of the individual as possessing consciousness, purposes, and a mental orientation to the world. He or she "understands" the events that surround him/her -- that is, the individual forms a mental representation of the swirling set of actions and events that surround him or her. And the individual places him/herself within this representation by conceptualizing wants, aversions, aspirations, and intentions concerning what might be achieved through intentional behavior.
This description may seem obvious. Or it may seem to reflect a set of assumptions about how to parse the social world that are substantive, consequential, and debatable. They are consequential because they push our sociological researches in a particular direction: who are the actors that make up a social ensemble? What are they doing? Why are they doing these things?
They are debatable because -- as we've seen in discussions of Abbott and Gross previously -- they privilege the actor over the action, the individual over the interaction. They push us in the direction of a social ontology that is individualistic and perhaps reductionist. Abbott proposes, in contrast, that we begin with the interaction, the flow of moves and responses. Tilly suggests that we start with the relationships and turn to the individual actors only later in the analysis. And Gross suggests starting with the creativity inherent in any complex flow of human activities and interactions.
Each of these thinkers point in the direction of a pragmatist theory of action. So what might a pragmatist theory involve?
One avenue for getting a handle on this question is to turn to the work of Hans Joas, who has contributed deeply to the question of how pragmatism intersects with sociology. His article with Jens Beckert in Jonathan Turner's Handbook of Sociological Theory
is a good place to start, since he is specifically concerned there to give an exposition of a theory of action that acknowledges several important sources for such a theory while specifically developing a pragmatist account. (The article covers a lot of the ground presented in Joas's 1997 book, The Creativity of Action
. Also important is his Pragmatism and Social Theory
.)
Joas begins his account by framing the standard assumptions of existing action theory in terms of two poles: action as rational choice (e.g. James Coleman) and action as conformance to a set of prescriptions and norms (e.g. Durkheim, Parsons). He argues for a view that is separate from both of these, under the heading of "creative action".
Joas thinks that this interpretation of action as extended intelligent adaptation to shifting circumstances helps to account for complex social circumstances that rational-actor and normative-actor theories have difficulty with. He illustrates this claim with the extended examples of reciprocity and innovation.
This is a rich and nuanced theory of action, and one that has the potential for offering a basis of a much richer analysis of concrete social circumstances than we currently have. At the same time it should not be thought to be in contradiction to either rational-deliberation or normative-deliberation theories. These creative actors whom Joas describes are purposive in a more diffuse sense, and they are responsive to norms in action. It seems to me that the chief tension Joas offers is between stylized, mono-stranded models of action, and thick theories that incorporate the plain fact of intelligent adaptation and shaping of behavior that occurs in virtually all human activities.
An important aspect of action theory is the idea of "intensionality" and mental representation. This is the conception of the individual as possessing consciousness, purposes, and a mental orientation to the world. He or she "understands" the events that surround him/her -- that is, the individual forms a mental representation of the swirling set of actions and events that surround him or her. And the individual places him/herself within this representation by conceptualizing wants, aversions, aspirations, and intentions concerning what might be achieved through intentional behavior.
This description may seem obvious. Or it may seem to reflect a set of assumptions about how to parse the social world that are substantive, consequential, and debatable. They are consequential because they push our sociological researches in a particular direction: who are the actors that make up a social ensemble? What are they doing? Why are they doing these things?
They are debatable because -- as we've seen in discussions of Abbott and Gross previously -- they privilege the actor over the action, the individual over the interaction. They push us in the direction of a social ontology that is individualistic and perhaps reductionist. Abbott proposes, in contrast, that we begin with the interaction, the flow of moves and responses. Tilly suggests that we start with the relationships and turn to the individual actors only later in the analysis. And Gross suggests starting with the creativity inherent in any complex flow of human activities and interactions.
Each of these thinkers point in the direction of a pragmatist theory of action. So what might a pragmatist theory involve?
One avenue for getting a handle on this question is to turn to the work of Hans Joas, who has contributed deeply to the question of how pragmatism intersects with sociology. His article with Jens Beckert in Jonathan Turner's Handbook of Sociological Theory
is a good place to start, since he is specifically concerned there to give an exposition of a theory of action that acknowledges several important sources for such a theory while specifically developing a pragmatist account. (The article covers a lot of the ground presented in Joas's 1997 book, The Creativity of Action. Also important is his Pragmatism and Social Theory.)Joas begins his account by framing the standard assumptions of existing action theory in terms of two poles: action as rational choice (e.g. James Coleman) and action as conformance to a set of prescriptions and norms (e.g. Durkheim, Parsons). He argues for a view that is separate from both of these, under the heading of "creative action".
However, the alternative that reaches even further beyond the routinized exchanges between rationalist and normativist theories of action seems to us an action-theoretic conceptualization that focuses on the notion of the creativity of human action. Such a theory can be based primarily on the tradition of American pragmatism that originated in philosophy and psychology but also has a significant sociological tradition. (270)Common to both traditional views, Joas argues, is the assumption of purposiveness: that action proceeds to bring about explicit pre-articulated goals subject to antecedently recognized constraints. The pragmatist view of action rejects this separation between goals, action, and outcome, and focuses on the fact that goals and actions themselves are formulated within a dynamic and extended process of thought and movement. (Dewey is the chief source of this view.) Tactics, movements, and responses are creative adaptations to fluidly changing circumstances. The basketball player driving to the basket is looking to score a goal or find an open teammate. But it is the rapid flow of movement, response by other players, and position on the floor that shapes the extended action of "driving for a layup." Likewise, a talented public speaker approaches the podium with a few goals and ideas for the speech. But the actual flow of ideas, words, gestures, and flourishes is the result of the thinking speaker interacting dynamically with the audience. Joas puts his view in these terms:
At the beginning of an action process goals are frequently unspecific and only vaguely understood. They become clearer once the actor has a better understanding of the possible means to achieve the ends; even new goals will arise on the basis of newly available means. (273)
For the theory of creativity of action the significance of the situation is far greater: Action is not only contingent on the structure of the situation but the situation is constitutive of action. (274)So what are the features of the situation that intersect with the thinking actor to create the temporally extended action? Joas refers to corporality and sociality. The body is not simply the instrument of the agent. Rather, the physical features and limitations of the body themselves contribute to the unfolding of the action. (This aspect of the theory has much to do with phenomenology.) And the other persons involved in an action are not simply subjects of manipulation. Their own creativity in movement and action defines the changing parameters of the actor's course of action. (Again, think of the analogy of 10 players in a basketball game.)
Joas thinks that this interpretation of action as extended intelligent adaptation to shifting circumstances helps to account for complex social circumstances that rational-actor and normative-actor theories have difficulty with. He illustrates this claim with the extended examples of reciprocity and innovation.
This is a rich and nuanced theory of action, and one that has the potential for offering a basis of a much richer analysis of concrete social circumstances than we currently have. At the same time it should not be thought to be in contradiction to either rational-deliberation or normative-deliberation theories. These creative actors whom Joas describes are purposive in a more diffuse sense, and they are responsive to norms in action. It seems to me that the chief tension Joas offers is between stylized, mono-stranded models of action, and thick theories that incorporate the plain fact of intelligent adaptation and shaping of behavior that occurs in virtually all human activities.
Man pleads guilty to two charges in bizarre story
Judge White decided to order a pre-sentence report for an accused after hearing a story involving a false sexual assault and an alcohol filled night that ended in parties engaging in a threesome while being filmed. Timothy D. Bergstrom, 30, pleaded guilty to a charge of public mischief and failing to comply with undertaking conditions in Leduc Provincial Court.
Court heard on Aug. 18, Bergstrom attended the local RCMP detachment to lodge a complaint he was sexually assaulted by his neighbour's wife. He told police, one night, he allegedly woke up on his neighbour's couch with his pants down and his neighbour's wife performing oral sex on him. He also told police she began "grinding her pelvis on him." Despite the claim by Bergstrom, the officer did not entirely believe the claim and further questioned the accused about the incident. Court heard, after more questioning, Bergstrom's story began to change and during one questioning period, he became frustrated and stormed out. Eventually, Bergstrom admitted he was never sexually assaulted by his neighbour's wife, but was allegedly involved in a consensual threesome with his neighbour's wife and husband, while another couple filmed them. Bergstrom's lawyer told court Bergstrom consumed around 12 beers and two T3 Tylenols the night the incident occurred, and said he doesn't fully remember what exactly happened. Bergstrom was charged with public mischief and released on an undertaking, with one of the conditions being not to come in contact with any of the parties involved in the incident. On Sept. 6 around 5:30 p.m. the police learned Bergstrom got involved in an argument with his neighbour and the two ended up getting into a fight, with Bergstrom receiving several punches to the face. Bergstrom was subsequently charged with failing to comply with undertaking conditions. Judge White was hesitant to sentence Bergstrom in court due to the circumstances, the option of a jail sentence and some of the difficulties Bergstrom is facing in his personal life. A pre-sentence report will be prepared for Feb. 23 in Leduc Provincial Court.
Link:
http://www.leducrep.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3406244
Court heard on Aug. 18, Bergstrom attended the local RCMP detachment to lodge a complaint he was sexually assaulted by his neighbour's wife. He told police, one night, he allegedly woke up on his neighbour's couch with his pants down and his neighbour's wife performing oral sex on him. He also told police she began "grinding her pelvis on him." Despite the claim by Bergstrom, the officer did not entirely believe the claim and further questioned the accused about the incident. Court heard, after more questioning, Bergstrom's story began to change and during one questioning period, he became frustrated and stormed out. Eventually, Bergstrom admitted he was never sexually assaulted by his neighbour's wife, but was allegedly involved in a consensual threesome with his neighbour's wife and husband, while another couple filmed them. Bergstrom's lawyer told court Bergstrom consumed around 12 beers and two T3 Tylenols the night the incident occurred, and said he doesn't fully remember what exactly happened. Bergstrom was charged with public mischief and released on an undertaking, with one of the conditions being not to come in contact with any of the parties involved in the incident. On Sept. 6 around 5:30 p.m. the police learned Bergstrom got involved in an argument with his neighbour and the two ended up getting into a fight, with Bergstrom receiving several punches to the face. Bergstrom was subsequently charged with failing to comply with undertaking conditions. Judge White was hesitant to sentence Bergstrom in court due to the circumstances, the option of a jail sentence and some of the difficulties Bergstrom is facing in his personal life. A pre-sentence report will be prepared for Feb. 23 in Leduc Provincial Court.
Link:
http://www.leducrep.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3406244
Statutes of limitations: Vital to the integrity of our legal system
"Imagine what would happen if a person decided, decades after the fact, to accuse a person of heinous crimes that never actually occurred. The motive could be money, it could be revenge, it could simply be the result of a misguided trip to the therapist who coaxes false memories out of a troubled mind. If our legal system allowed that person to file a lawsuit long after witnesses had died and evidence disappeared, we would be making a mockery of the phrase 'due process.'"
Read it here: Christine M. Flowers: Let's honor statute's limitations (Phila. Daily News)
Read it here: Christine M. Flowers: Let's honor statute's limitations (Phila. Daily News)
'The law's willingness to expose kids to adult criminal penalties is downright disturbing, considering how likely kids are to be wrongfully convicted'
From the Chicago Tribune:
Keep teens out of adult criminal court
Still work to be done to protect children from hazards of adult criminal penalties
Any parent knows that teenagers want to be older than they are. They want to stay out as late as possible, they want to hang out with whomever they choose — and they don't want anyone to tell them what to do.
But despite what teenagers might think, the law recognizes that they generally aren't responsible enough to be treated like adults. Teenagers under the age of 18 can't sign legal contracts. They can't get married in some states. They can't vote or enter the military. They can't buy cigarettes or alcohol. In some states, they can't even get into a tanning bed without being accompanied by an adult, for crying out loud.
The oddball exception is criminal law, which treats teenagers like adults far too often. In Illinois, children as young as 13 can be tried as adults. If convicted, they receive stiff adult sentences, up to and including life without the opportunity for parole.
The law's willingness to expose kids to adult criminal penalties is downright disturbing, considering how likely kids are to be wrongfully convicted — and in particular, how likely they are to falsely confess. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that the risk of false confession is "all the more troubling — and empirical studies show, all the more acute — when the subject of custodial interrogation is a juvenile." Those empirical studies have found that teens are up to three times more likely than adults to falsely confess under police interrogation to crimes they never committed.
Take Robert Taylor, one of the recently exonerated Dixmoor Five. In 1992, 15-year-old Taylor was accused of participating in the rape and murder of schoolmate Cateresa Matthews. He was interrogated alone for hours by police until he agreed to sign a short confession that didn't match the facts of the crime. Taylor was initially charged in juvenile court, but Cook County prosecutors sought to transfer him to adult criminal court, where he would face a life sentence. The juvenile court judge, to his credit, noted that Taylor's confession was nonsensical: He appeared to have gotten the date of the victim's death wrong by more than two weeks. Hinting that his confession could be false, the judge refused to transfer him to adult court.
But prosecutors got the appellate court to overturn that decision, and Taylor was sent to adult court. While awaiting trial, prosecutors tested DNA taken from the victim's body and learned that it did not belong to Taylor or any of his codefendants — but prosecutors pressed forward anyway. In short order, Robert Taylor was tried, convicted and condemned to spend 80 years in prison.
Almost 20 years later, Taylor and his co-defendants were finally released after the DNA was matched to the real perpetrator: a much older convicted rapist.
It's a travesty that the system treated Taylor like an adult — and allowed him to receive adult time — when the only evidence against him was a patently unbelievable confession that was a product of his youthful vulnerabilities.
Illinois needs to change the law so that children and teenagers cannot be charged as adults when the only evidence against them is an unreliable, uncorroborated confession. And when DNA evidence is available, it should be tested before any juvenile is transferred to adult court. These are basic changes that our justice system can easily accommodate — and they would have made 20 years' worth of difference to Robert Taylor.
We adults work hard to protect our children in so many arenas, from buying alcohol to getting married to, yes, even tanning without a note from Mom. But there's work left to be done to protect innocent children from the hazards of adult criminal court. As Taylor's case shows us, exposure to the adult criminal system is one coming-of-age ritual that no innocent teenager should have to endure.
Laura H. Nirider is co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth at Northwestern University School of Law. Nirider has represented several defendants in cases involving false or coerced confessions, including members of the Dixmoor Five and the West Memphis Three.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-1223-court-20111223,0,1933793.story
Keep teens out of adult criminal court
Still work to be done to protect children from hazards of adult criminal penalties
Any parent knows that teenagers want to be older than they are. They want to stay out as late as possible, they want to hang out with whomever they choose — and they don't want anyone to tell them what to do.
But despite what teenagers might think, the law recognizes that they generally aren't responsible enough to be treated like adults. Teenagers under the age of 18 can't sign legal contracts. They can't get married in some states. They can't vote or enter the military. They can't buy cigarettes or alcohol. In some states, they can't even get into a tanning bed without being accompanied by an adult, for crying out loud.
The oddball exception is criminal law, which treats teenagers like adults far too often. In Illinois, children as young as 13 can be tried as adults. If convicted, they receive stiff adult sentences, up to and including life without the opportunity for parole.
The law's willingness to expose kids to adult criminal penalties is downright disturbing, considering how likely kids are to be wrongfully convicted — and in particular, how likely they are to falsely confess. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that the risk of false confession is "all the more troubling — and empirical studies show, all the more acute — when the subject of custodial interrogation is a juvenile." Those empirical studies have found that teens are up to three times more likely than adults to falsely confess under police interrogation to crimes they never committed.
Take Robert Taylor, one of the recently exonerated Dixmoor Five. In 1992, 15-year-old Taylor was accused of participating in the rape and murder of schoolmate Cateresa Matthews. He was interrogated alone for hours by police until he agreed to sign a short confession that didn't match the facts of the crime. Taylor was initially charged in juvenile court, but Cook County prosecutors sought to transfer him to adult criminal court, where he would face a life sentence. The juvenile court judge, to his credit, noted that Taylor's confession was nonsensical: He appeared to have gotten the date of the victim's death wrong by more than two weeks. Hinting that his confession could be false, the judge refused to transfer him to adult court.
But prosecutors got the appellate court to overturn that decision, and Taylor was sent to adult court. While awaiting trial, prosecutors tested DNA taken from the victim's body and learned that it did not belong to Taylor or any of his codefendants — but prosecutors pressed forward anyway. In short order, Robert Taylor was tried, convicted and condemned to spend 80 years in prison.
Almost 20 years later, Taylor and his co-defendants were finally released after the DNA was matched to the real perpetrator: a much older convicted rapist.
It's a travesty that the system treated Taylor like an adult — and allowed him to receive adult time — when the only evidence against him was a patently unbelievable confession that was a product of his youthful vulnerabilities.
Illinois needs to change the law so that children and teenagers cannot be charged as adults when the only evidence against them is an unreliable, uncorroborated confession. And when DNA evidence is available, it should be tested before any juvenile is transferred to adult court. These are basic changes that our justice system can easily accommodate — and they would have made 20 years' worth of difference to Robert Taylor.
We adults work hard to protect our children in so many arenas, from buying alcohol to getting married to, yes, even tanning without a note from Mom. But there's work left to be done to protect innocent children from the hazards of adult criminal court. As Taylor's case shows us, exposure to the adult criminal system is one coming-of-age ritual that no innocent teenager should have to endure.
Laura H. Nirider is co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth at Northwestern University School of Law. Nirider has represented several defendants in cases involving false or coerced confessions, including members of the Dixmoor Five and the West Memphis Three.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-1223-court-20111223,0,1933793.story
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Feminist legal scholar explains need for statutes of limitations in sex cases
Statutes of limitations in criminal cases are designed to protect the innocent. The longer an accuser waits to bring a charge from the date it allegedly occurred, the more difficult it is to fairly defend against it. The horror stories of the repressed memories witch hunts are examples of what can occur. In rape cases, there is a national trend to lengthen or eliminate statutes of limitations entirely. This is a concern to the criminal defense bar, the ACLU, and many others. We write about it from time to time -- see e.g.: http://goldenstatesociety.blogspot.com/2011/03/oregon-bill-would-eliminate-statute-of.html; and http://goldenstatesociety.blogspot.com/2008/07/alarming-trend-states-extend-statutes.html.
Aya Gruber is a legal scholar whose feminist credentials can't be questioned. See here. Her views on these issues are complex and surprisingly nuanced. She is someone to be taken seriously even when you disagree with her. Read what she says about the reasons for statutes of limitations in sex cases.
Why Are There Statutes of Limitations in Child Rape Cases?
by Jessica Grose/Slate
On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that former Philadelphia Daily News sports columnist Bill Conlin had been accused of molesting four children in the 1970s. Because of the statute of limitations on sexual assault prosecutions in Pennsylvania, Conlin’s alleged victims cannot bring him to court. Kelley Blanchet, who is Conlin’s niece and one of his alleged victims, told the Inquirer that she went public with the accusations in part to draw attention to the inadequacies of these statute of limitations laws (she was also inspired to come forward by the Jerry Sandusky revelations at Penn State). Former Slate-ster Chad Matlin asked, “Is there a rationale for statue of limitations in sexual assault cases?”
Though child molestation is a monstrous crime, there are good reasons for a statute of limitations in sexual assault cases—mainly that the longer you take to prosecute any crime, the more stale the evidence gets and the less reliable it is. Aya Gruber, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School, says that when the charge is based on the word of the victim, timing can be especially important. “For example, if a person comes forward with a claim of sexual assault when he was a 7-year-old, 20 years after the fact, arguably the charge is suspect from the beginning,” Gruber points out. “The person’s memory has been subject to change and influence, essential witnesses might have forgotten the events or even be dead, it may be impossible to get physical evidence in the case, and the like.” Furthermore, Gruber says, a long-delayed charge lessens the retributive and deterrent value of a conviction.
Historically, only murders were exempt from statute of limitations laws, but there’s been a general trend in the U.S. toward increasing the statute of limitations on sexual assaults in almost every jurisdiction. Pennsylvania is a good example of the wider trend: Before 1991, child sexual assault victims had two years to report inappropriate touching and five years to report a greater abuse, like sodomy or rape. As the Inquirer explains, the statute of limitations law in child sexual assault cases has been extended three times since then. Now, child victims have until they turn 50 to report sexual assaults—but that’s only for victims who turned 18 after the law went into effect, in 2002, so that still leaves Conlin’s alleged victims without legal recourse.
Source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2011/12/21/bill_conlin_alleged_sexual_assault_the_tational_behind_statutes_of_limitations_in_child_rape_cases_.html
Aya Gruber is a legal scholar whose feminist credentials can't be questioned. See here. Her views on these issues are complex and surprisingly nuanced. She is someone to be taken seriously even when you disagree with her. Read what she says about the reasons for statutes of limitations in sex cases.
Why Are There Statutes of Limitations in Child Rape Cases?
by Jessica Grose/Slate
On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that former Philadelphia Daily News sports columnist Bill Conlin had been accused of molesting four children in the 1970s. Because of the statute of limitations on sexual assault prosecutions in Pennsylvania, Conlin’s alleged victims cannot bring him to court. Kelley Blanchet, who is Conlin’s niece and one of his alleged victims, told the Inquirer that she went public with the accusations in part to draw attention to the inadequacies of these statute of limitations laws (she was also inspired to come forward by the Jerry Sandusky revelations at Penn State). Former Slate-ster Chad Matlin asked, “Is there a rationale for statue of limitations in sexual assault cases?”
Though child molestation is a monstrous crime, there are good reasons for a statute of limitations in sexual assault cases—mainly that the longer you take to prosecute any crime, the more stale the evidence gets and the less reliable it is. Aya Gruber, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School, says that when the charge is based on the word of the victim, timing can be especially important. “For example, if a person comes forward with a claim of sexual assault when he was a 7-year-old, 20 years after the fact, arguably the charge is suspect from the beginning,” Gruber points out. “The person’s memory has been subject to change and influence, essential witnesses might have forgotten the events or even be dead, it may be impossible to get physical evidence in the case, and the like.” Furthermore, Gruber says, a long-delayed charge lessens the retributive and deterrent value of a conviction.
Historically, only murders were exempt from statute of limitations laws, but there’s been a general trend in the U.S. toward increasing the statute of limitations on sexual assaults in almost every jurisdiction. Pennsylvania is a good example of the wider trend: Before 1991, child sexual assault victims had two years to report inappropriate touching and five years to report a greater abuse, like sodomy or rape. As the Inquirer explains, the statute of limitations law in child sexual assault cases has been extended three times since then. Now, child victims have until they turn 50 to report sexual assaults—but that’s only for victims who turned 18 after the law went into effect, in 2002, so that still leaves Conlin’s alleged victims without legal recourse.
Source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2011/12/21/bill_conlin_alleged_sexual_assault_the_tational_behind_statutes_of_limitations_in_child_rape_cases_.html
Brown University suit settled
The lawsuit filed by William McCormick III and his parents against Brown University, Marcella Dresdale (the student who accused McCormick of raping her), and Richard Dresdale (the accuser's father), has been settled on undisclosed terms.
“The McCormicks and the Dresdales have resolved all of the disputes between them which are the subject of the lawsuit to their mutual satisfaction,” J. Scott Kilpatrick, a lawyer for the McCormicks, said in a statement over the telephone. “The McCormicks and the Dresdales have agreed to not make any further statements or comments on the matter.” Apparently, the University was not part of the settlement. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-21/suit-dropped-against-brown-university-over-rape-accusation.html
The lawsuit claimed that the university falsely accused William McCormick of sexual assault and that the Dresdales libeled him and caused him to be expelled from the college. The McCormicks claim that Richard Dresdale is “an alumnus of Brown and has raised very substantial sums of money for Brown.”
Mr. McCormick has every right to settle his case on whatever terms he deems appropriate. His suit sought redress for a harm to him, not a harm to the community at large. Still, the community of the wrongly accused is disappointed that Brown University -- which uses a standard of proof that's even lower than "preponderance of the evidence" for sex cases, and that is famous in these parts for suspending Adam Lack on the flimsiest of evidence -- is not being called to answer for its alleged wrongdoing.
Libertarian media gadfly John Stossel left an indelible impression of Brown in a book he wrote. Stossel described how he went to Brown some years ago to cover the Adam Lack case for 20/20. What awaited Stossel surprised even him -- he discovered that debate on the issue was not welcomed. At a rally against Mr. Lack, Mr. Stossel sought to question to protest leaders about their definition of "rape." Stossel described the scene in words that are a stinging indictment on the intoleance of activists who have politicized rape: "I've covered race riots in Portland, a birth-control riot in Mexico City, yet these privileged students at an Ivy League university were louder, and more intense." They shouted Stossel down, began chanting at him, and made it clear that there was only one side to the issue--theirs. In their world, Stossel explained, "any challenge to their thinking must automatically be hate-filled and sexist (or racist, classist, or homophobic)." J. Stossel, How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media at 275-77.
“The McCormicks and the Dresdales have resolved all of the disputes between them which are the subject of the lawsuit to their mutual satisfaction,” J. Scott Kilpatrick, a lawyer for the McCormicks, said in a statement over the telephone. “The McCormicks and the Dresdales have agreed to not make any further statements or comments on the matter.” Apparently, the University was not part of the settlement. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-21/suit-dropped-against-brown-university-over-rape-accusation.html
The lawsuit claimed that the university falsely accused William McCormick of sexual assault and that the Dresdales libeled him and caused him to be expelled from the college. The McCormicks claim that Richard Dresdale is “an alumnus of Brown and has raised very substantial sums of money for Brown.”
Mr. McCormick has every right to settle his case on whatever terms he deems appropriate. His suit sought redress for a harm to him, not a harm to the community at large. Still, the community of the wrongly accused is disappointed that Brown University -- which uses a standard of proof that's even lower than "preponderance of the evidence" for sex cases, and that is famous in these parts for suspending Adam Lack on the flimsiest of evidence -- is not being called to answer for its alleged wrongdoing.
Libertarian media gadfly John Stossel left an indelible impression of Brown in a book he wrote. Stossel described how he went to Brown some years ago to cover the Adam Lack case for 20/20. What awaited Stossel surprised even him -- he discovered that debate on the issue was not welcomed. At a rally against Mr. Lack, Mr. Stossel sought to question to protest leaders about their definition of "rape." Stossel described the scene in words that are a stinging indictment on the intoleance of activists who have politicized rape: "I've covered race riots in Portland, a birth-control riot in Mexico City, yet these privileged students at an Ivy League university were louder, and more intense." They shouted Stossel down, began chanting at him, and made it clear that there was only one side to the issue--theirs. In their world, Stossel explained, "any challenge to their thinking must automatically be hate-filled and sexist (or racist, classist, or homophobic)." J. Stossel, How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media at 275-77.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Officers: Woman filed false rape report against husband’s friend
A Fort Myers woman is accused of filing a false rape report against her lover at the request of her husband.
Jody Mary Ryan, 18, was arrested by Fort Myers police Saturday at her home. She is facing charges of making a false report.
Officers say Ryan and her husband, Mahmoud Koush, 27, filed the report on Saturday.
Koush told officers he received a call from his wife saying a friend of his had touched her inappropriately, according to an arrest report.
Later that day officers responded to the couple’s home to assist EMS. Ryan was taken to Gulf Coast Hospital where reports said she told officers the friend raped her at a motel on Cleveland Avenue, but she was afraid to tell the whole story earlier because she did not want her husband to find out.
Officers spoke with the hotel clerk who told them Ryan did not seem to be in distress when she rented the room.
Hospital employees said Ryan made no statements about being raped. She was only concerned about being pregnant, reports said.
Officers then spoke with the man Ryan accused of rape. According to reports, he and Ryan had been having a consensual affair for about two weeks and he had given her a ring. After going to the hotel, Ryan came to his work and threw the ring at him because Koush found out about the affair, reports said.
Detectives viewed video footage which showed Ryan throwing the ring.
Ryan eventually confessed that her husband found out about the affair and told her to lie about being raped so he could get back at his friend.
Link: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/dec/12/officers-woman-filed-false-rape-report-against-hus/
Jody Mary Ryan, 18, was arrested by Fort Myers police Saturday at her home. She is facing charges of making a false report.
Officers say Ryan and her husband, Mahmoud Koush, 27, filed the report on Saturday.
Koush told officers he received a call from his wife saying a friend of his had touched her inappropriately, according to an arrest report.
Later that day officers responded to the couple’s home to assist EMS. Ryan was taken to Gulf Coast Hospital where reports said she told officers the friend raped her at a motel on Cleveland Avenue, but she was afraid to tell the whole story earlier because she did not want her husband to find out.
Officers spoke with the hotel clerk who told them Ryan did not seem to be in distress when she rented the room.
Hospital employees said Ryan made no statements about being raped. She was only concerned about being pregnant, reports said.
Officers then spoke with the man Ryan accused of rape. According to reports, he and Ryan had been having a consensual affair for about two weeks and he had given her a ring. After going to the hotel, Ryan came to his work and threw the ring at him because Koush found out about the affair, reports said.
Detectives viewed video footage which showed Ryan throwing the ring.
Ryan eventually confessed that her husband found out about the affair and told her to lie about being raped so he could get back at his friend.
Link: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/dec/12/officers-woman-filed-false-rape-report-against-hus/
Officers: Woman filed false rape report against husband’s friend
A Fort Myers woman is accused of filing a false rape report against her lover at the request of her husband.
Jody Mary Ryan, 18, was arrested by Fort Myers police Saturday at her home. She is facing charges of making a false report.
Officers say Ryan and her husband, Mahmoud Koush, 27, filed the report on Saturday.
Koush told officers he received a call from his wife saying a friend of his had touched her inappropriately, according to an arrest report.
Later that day officers responded to the couple’s home to assist EMS. Ryan was taken to Gulf Coast Hospital where reports said she told officers the friend raped her at a motel on Cleveland Avenue, but she was afraid to tell the whole story earlier because she did not want her husband to find out.
Officers spoke with the hotel clerk who told them Ryan did not seem to be in distress when she rented the room.
Hospital employees said Ryan made no statements about being raped. She was only concerned about being pregnant, reports said.
Officers then spoke with the man Ryan accused of rape. According to reports, he and Ryan had been having a consensual affair for about two weeks and he had given her a ring. After going to the hotel, Ryan came to his work and threw the ring at him because Koush found out about the affair, reports said.
Detectives viewed video footage which showed Ryan throwing the ring.
Ryan eventually confessed that her husband found out about the affair and told her to lie about being raped so he could get back at his friend.
Link: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/dec/12/officers-woman-filed-false-rape-report-against-hus/
Jody Mary Ryan, 18, was arrested by Fort Myers police Saturday at her home. She is facing charges of making a false report.
Officers say Ryan and her husband, Mahmoud Koush, 27, filed the report on Saturday.
Koush told officers he received a call from his wife saying a friend of his had touched her inappropriately, according to an arrest report.
Later that day officers responded to the couple’s home to assist EMS. Ryan was taken to Gulf Coast Hospital where reports said she told officers the friend raped her at a motel on Cleveland Avenue, but she was afraid to tell the whole story earlier because she did not want her husband to find out.
Officers spoke with the hotel clerk who told them Ryan did not seem to be in distress when she rented the room.
Hospital employees said Ryan made no statements about being raped. She was only concerned about being pregnant, reports said.
Officers then spoke with the man Ryan accused of rape. According to reports, he and Ryan had been having a consensual affair for about two weeks and he had given her a ring. After going to the hotel, Ryan came to his work and threw the ring at him because Koush found out about the affair, reports said.
Detectives viewed video footage which showed Ryan throwing the ring.
Ryan eventually confessed that her husband found out about the affair and told her to lie about being raped so he could get back at his friend.
Link: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/dec/12/officers-woman-filed-false-rape-report-against-hus/
Another high profile sex crime that didn't happen
Last Halloween, Julian Edelman of the New England Patriots was arrested for groping at night club. In a police report, his still unnamed accuser stated that "she felt the suspects (sic) hand come in contact with her vagina in what she described as 'a purposeful squeeze or swipe.'" She said he groped for two seconds. The woman informed nightclub staff about the incident and requested that Edelman be removed from the club.
According to Prof. KC Johnson, whose chronicling of the Duke lacrosse case helped expose the accused players' innocence: "Early press coverage, especially from the tabloid-ish Boston Herald, presumed if not guilt at the least a demonstration of extremely poor character."
You can watch an actual video of the incident here. You will need to avoid blinking when the alleged "grope" occurs. Edelman, wearing shorts as part of a Reno 911 costume, does not appear to make contact with the woman for the two seconds she alleges. Although the video is difficult to see, you can see Edelman reach out his hand, then look back. Prosecutors say that Mr. Edelman took her hand briefly, that the physical contact between the two was fleeting and did not meet the elements of any crime.
In the video, the woman's face was blurred by the Suffolk County District Attorney's office to protect her identity. The DA issued a statement: "[A] review of both witness statements and video surveillance has revealed that the Commonwealth would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intentionally engaged in a harmful or offensive touching of the complainant that would be regarded by society as immodest, immoral, and improper."
According to David E. Frank, writing for the news blog of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly: "Edelman’s lawyer, Amy McNamee, said that his client has maintained from the beginning that he is innocent. Today’s court action, she added, confirms that he was telling the truth. 'Everyone was very quick to immediately accuse him of being some kind of pervert,' McNamee said. 'It’s not easy to have to walk around holding your head up when you know you didn’t do it.'” The video, according to Mr. Frank, "seriously called into question the alleged victim’s account of the incident."
Prof. Johnson noted that the newspapers covering the story have declined to reveal the woman's identity: "Perhaps, as occurred initially when the New York Times refused to identify [Duke lacrosse false accuser] Mangum after the exoneration, the papers didn’t want to do anything that might deter false-grope accusers from coming forward in the future."
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
'Victims' urged to consider consequences of false rape claims
The thing that pisses me off the most about the following, is that there is not a shred of concern shown over the falsely accused. And that is just despicable.
A small number of sex attacks recently reported to police have proven to be false claims.
Now officers are urging those who may consider making up an allegation, for whatever reason, to think about the consequences of their actions.
Supt Helen Chamberlain, Head of Nottinghamshire Police’s Public Protection Unit, said: “We fully investigate all reports of rape and sexual assault but lately we have experienced some cases where our enquiries have shown the ‘victim’ has either invented a story or regretted their sexual activity and claimed to have been attacked.
“There may be a host of reasons why someone would make this type of thing up; they could be in a difficult place in their personal lives, it could be cry for help for other emotional or psychological problems or they could need an excuse to explain their actions. We are sensitive to this, however false reports can have a detrimental effect on genuine victims.
“When an initial report comes in, resources are allocated to secure the scene of the crime, forensic searches and examinations are conducted and house-to-house enquiries are carried out. Extra patrols are allocated to reassure communities.
“Specially trained officers are utilised to investigate reports of rape and sexual assault and this often requires hours of time spent with the victim, speaking to potential witnesses, and viewing CCTV. We also link in with other services such as Victim Support, to ensure victims are offered the appropriate measures to help them cope.”
Earlier this year, 19-year-old Aisha Mather, of Stevenage, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice, admitting she lied about being raped. Following her claim, a man was even arrested but was released without charge after it was proven she had made it up.
On average, a rape investigation costs around £80,000, this can increase up to £250,000, if it goes to court. However, the financial element is not the biggest expense of a false report.
Supt Chamberlain continued: “The impact that a false report can have on those who have genuinely gone through the experience is significant. It not only takes valuable resources away from helping the real victims of crime, but it can also undermine the trauma they have really had to endure.
“Genuine rape victims first have to come to terms with what has happened, and we find they often question whether people will believe them. It can be an extremely traumatic and distressing time.
“A number of significant jail sentences have handed down to offenders convicted of rape and sexual assault. Their victims have shown significant courage in not only coming forward, but in some cases having to face the person who violated them in court.
“I would urge those thinking of making a false allegation of rape or sexual assault to think twice; you could not only end up with a criminal record but you should spare a thought for those true victims who have actually been through such a distressing ordeal.”
Link: http://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/newsandevents/news/2011/december/08/victims_urged_to_consider_consequences_of_false_rape_claims/
A small number of sex attacks recently reported to police have proven to be false claims.
Now officers are urging those who may consider making up an allegation, for whatever reason, to think about the consequences of their actions.
Supt Helen Chamberlain, Head of Nottinghamshire Police’s Public Protection Unit, said: “We fully investigate all reports of rape and sexual assault but lately we have experienced some cases where our enquiries have shown the ‘victim’ has either invented a story or regretted their sexual activity and claimed to have been attacked.
“There may be a host of reasons why someone would make this type of thing up; they could be in a difficult place in their personal lives, it could be cry for help for other emotional or psychological problems or they could need an excuse to explain their actions. We are sensitive to this, however false reports can have a detrimental effect on genuine victims.
“When an initial report comes in, resources are allocated to secure the scene of the crime, forensic searches and examinations are conducted and house-to-house enquiries are carried out. Extra patrols are allocated to reassure communities.
“Specially trained officers are utilised to investigate reports of rape and sexual assault and this often requires hours of time spent with the victim, speaking to potential witnesses, and viewing CCTV. We also link in with other services such as Victim Support, to ensure victims are offered the appropriate measures to help them cope.”
Earlier this year, 19-year-old Aisha Mather, of Stevenage, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice, admitting she lied about being raped. Following her claim, a man was even arrested but was released without charge after it was proven she had made it up.
On average, a rape investigation costs around £80,000, this can increase up to £250,000, if it goes to court. However, the financial element is not the biggest expense of a false report.
Supt Chamberlain continued: “The impact that a false report can have on those who have genuinely gone through the experience is significant. It not only takes valuable resources away from helping the real victims of crime, but it can also undermine the trauma they have really had to endure.
“Genuine rape victims first have to come to terms with what has happened, and we find they often question whether people will believe them. It can be an extremely traumatic and distressing time.
“A number of significant jail sentences have handed down to offenders convicted of rape and sexual assault. Their victims have shown significant courage in not only coming forward, but in some cases having to face the person who violated them in court.
“I would urge those thinking of making a false allegation of rape or sexual assault to think twice; you could not only end up with a criminal record but you should spare a thought for those true victims who have actually been through such a distressing ordeal.”
Link: http://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/newsandevents/news/2011/december/08/victims_urged_to_consider_consequences_of_false_rape_claims/
Shutting down the fraternity at the University of Vermont is a 'social injustice'
Former president of UVM's Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter Alexander Haller calls it "a social injustice," because it is.
Mr. Haller was referring to the fact that his fraternity was shuttered indefinitely by the national fraternity, with the university's blessing, in the wake of the infamous rape survey.
We've previously reported that the fraternity neither sent out nor sanctioned the infamous question asking "who" the recipient(s) would like to rape. One new frat brother posed the query at issue to a limited fraternity audience. The person or persons to whom the survey was sent refused to answer the question and told the new member who sent it to change it immediately.
According to Vermont Public Radio, Haller says his home away from home, his former fraternity house, was besieged -- by the media, by women's rights groups, and by administrators.
Mr. Haller explained: "I don't know what's going on behind closed doors at UVM, but I feel like they're just looking for any reason to continue to make us look like monsters."
Haller has a good suggestion. Instead of "the whole world" telling the frat brother who wrote the query "in bad taste" that "they hate him because he doesn't get it," the guy could us "some sensitivity training."
Ah, but that's not good enough for the national fraternity, or the University of Vermont. Annie Stevens, director of student and campus life at the university, said she supports Sigma Phi's decision to close down its UVM chapter because of the survey.
If a rogue professor in a department at the university did something similar, no one would suggest shutting down the entire department or cleaning house and bringing in all new professors. The same with a business in the private sector; a symphony orchestra; or an office of the federal government.
But fraternities are different. Why? Dr. Warren Farrell explains why -- and he doesn't pull any punches. Mr. Haller is strongly urged to pay close attention to what Dr. Farrell wrote. And after he reads that, he's strongly urged to contact FIRE, because the university's possible role in shutting down the fraternity raises serious First Amendment questions that ought to be addressed. Here's what Farrell said:
"The freshman male is likely to acquire a new feeling about himself: he is the designated potential perpetrator until proven innocent.
"This message will be reinforced by a barrage of gender courses, the attitudes of a good many faculty, and on many campuses, what Charlotte Allen calls 'the scorched-earth war against fraternities.' The anti-fraternity movement is ostensibly about wantonness and excess (binge-drinking, hazing, date rape), but in reality it’s about erasing the best-known male refuge from the suffocating political correctness on campus and its theory of the evil male.
"The only males likely to escape this pressure are gays, African-Americans, the transgendered, or the harmlessly hetero—docile guys who agree with the standard campus view that males are dangerous. The campus environment is so hostile toward men that it doesn’t allow hostility toward men to be considered a 'hostile environment.' Only established grievance groups get to detect hostile environments."
Sources:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2011/10/chilly_world_of_the_campus_male.html
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/92795/after-sigma-phi-epsilon-closes-bitterness-lingers/
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/15/4125637/fraternity-no-sign-vt-rape-survey.html
Mr. Haller was referring to the fact that his fraternity was shuttered indefinitely by the national fraternity, with the university's blessing, in the wake of the infamous rape survey.
We've previously reported that the fraternity neither sent out nor sanctioned the infamous question asking "who" the recipient(s) would like to rape. One new frat brother posed the query at issue to a limited fraternity audience. The person or persons to whom the survey was sent refused to answer the question and told the new member who sent it to change it immediately.
According to Vermont Public Radio, Haller says his home away from home, his former fraternity house, was besieged -- by the media, by women's rights groups, and by administrators.
Mr. Haller explained: "I don't know what's going on behind closed doors at UVM, but I feel like they're just looking for any reason to continue to make us look like monsters."
Haller has a good suggestion. Instead of "the whole world" telling the frat brother who wrote the query "in bad taste" that "they hate him because he doesn't get it," the guy could us "some sensitivity training."
Ah, but that's not good enough for the national fraternity, or the University of Vermont. Annie Stevens, director of student and campus life at the university, said she supports Sigma Phi's decision to close down its UVM chapter because of the survey.
If a rogue professor in a department at the university did something similar, no one would suggest shutting down the entire department or cleaning house and bringing in all new professors. The same with a business in the private sector; a symphony orchestra; or an office of the federal government.
But fraternities are different. Why? Dr. Warren Farrell explains why -- and he doesn't pull any punches. Mr. Haller is strongly urged to pay close attention to what Dr. Farrell wrote. And after he reads that, he's strongly urged to contact FIRE, because the university's possible role in shutting down the fraternity raises serious First Amendment questions that ought to be addressed. Here's what Farrell said:
"The freshman male is likely to acquire a new feeling about himself: he is the designated potential perpetrator until proven innocent.
"This message will be reinforced by a barrage of gender courses, the attitudes of a good many faculty, and on many campuses, what Charlotte Allen calls 'the scorched-earth war against fraternities.' The anti-fraternity movement is ostensibly about wantonness and excess (binge-drinking, hazing, date rape), but in reality it’s about erasing the best-known male refuge from the suffocating political correctness on campus and its theory of the evil male.
"The only males likely to escape this pressure are gays, African-Americans, the transgendered, or the harmlessly hetero—docile guys who agree with the standard campus view that males are dangerous. The campus environment is so hostile toward men that it doesn’t allow hostility toward men to be considered a 'hostile environment.' Only established grievance groups get to detect hostile environments."
Sources:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2011/10/chilly_world_of_the_campus_male.html
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/92795/after-sigma-phi-epsilon-closes-bitterness-lingers/
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/15/4125637/fraternity-no-sign-vt-rape-survey.html
Monday, December 19, 2011
Girl jailed over rape claims
A 20-year-old girl has been jailed for two years... after falsely accusing two men of raping her.
Kelly Atkins - who was 18 at the time - claimed she was attacked by her boyfriend Wayne Maddox and his best pal Ricky Lambert.
But a jury at Canterbury Crown Court decided her allegations were a tissue of lies - and convicted her of perverting the course of justice.
Judge Adele Williams: "Rape is a repulsive crime but making false allegations of rape is a dreadful crime."
She told Atkins, of Boleyn Avenue, Margate that her claims had resulted in the two men being arrested in front of their families.
They were then held in custody for 12 hours and ordered to undergo "humiliating and degrading" examinations - one of them described it as: "The most uncomfortable experience of my life".
The judge said that Wayne and Ricky were totally innocent but had been held in cells "until your lies were exposed".
She said making false allegations of rape "undermined public confidence" in the judicial system and "allows doubt to creep in where none should exist."
Atkins had been convicted at a second trial after the first jury failed to agree on a verdict.
But the judge said Atkins - who sat passively in the dock - had been convicted on "clear and compelling evidence".
She added: "I have seen and watched you give evidence and I conclude that you are a manipulative young woman".
She said Atkins - who had planned to join the army - had harassed her ex-boyfriend which had then culminated with the rape allegations.
Her barrister James Bloomer handed in a number of references on Atkins' behalf.
He said they claimed she was a "pleasant and decent young woman in the general run of things."
Link: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2011/december/8/girl_jailed_over_rape_claims.aspx
Kelly Atkins - who was 18 at the time - claimed she was attacked by her boyfriend Wayne Maddox and his best pal Ricky Lambert.
But a jury at Canterbury Crown Court decided her allegations were a tissue of lies - and convicted her of perverting the course of justice.
Judge Adele Williams: "Rape is a repulsive crime but making false allegations of rape is a dreadful crime."
She told Atkins, of Boleyn Avenue, Margate that her claims had resulted in the two men being arrested in front of their families.
They were then held in custody for 12 hours and ordered to undergo "humiliating and degrading" examinations - one of them described it as: "The most uncomfortable experience of my life".
The judge said that Wayne and Ricky were totally innocent but had been held in cells "until your lies were exposed".
She said making false allegations of rape "undermined public confidence" in the judicial system and "allows doubt to creep in where none should exist."
Atkins had been convicted at a second trial after the first jury failed to agree on a verdict.
But the judge said Atkins - who sat passively in the dock - had been convicted on "clear and compelling evidence".
She added: "I have seen and watched you give evidence and I conclude that you are a manipulative young woman".
She said Atkins - who had planned to join the army - had harassed her ex-boyfriend which had then culminated with the rape allegations.
Her barrister James Bloomer handed in a number of references on Atkins' behalf.
He said they claimed she was a "pleasant and decent young woman in the general run of things."
Link: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2011/december/8/girl_jailed_over_rape_claims.aspx
Women's activists pat each other on the back for closing a fraternity -- over misconduct apparently limited to one frat brother
Yet another ritualistic gender passion play was staged last week, this time at the University of Vermont, where a chapter of a fraternity was shut down indefinitely because of purportedly misogynistic conduct. A headline on a woman's rights site blared: Success! Frat That Joked About Raping Women Closed.
By now the story is well known: the fraternity circulated a survey among its members asking who they would like to rape. This crude and childish query was presented as yet another instance of misogynistic conduct in the hyper-masculine culture of fraternities, where such conduct not only is common but flourishes.
Except, apparently, that's not what happened. The fraternity didn't send out a survey; apparently, one new frat brother posed the offensive question to a limited fraternity audience. Not only was his action not sanctioned by the fraternity, but the person or persons to whom the survey was sent refused to answer the question and told the new member who sent it to change it immediately.
But hardly anybody cares what really happened. The headline about a frat sending out a rape survey was all they needed to slip into full-blown victim mode. Gender activists couldn't trip over one another to see who could bray their righteous indignation the loudest. An on-campus rally of hundreds of students protested both the fraternity -- even though the fraternity didn't sanction the survey -- and "rape culture," and an on-line petition demanding that the fraternity be shut down got more than 3,500 signatures. All of this occurred before any investigation into the incident had been concluded.
The innocent frat brothers didn't know what hit them. "I feel like this whole entire thing came out of nowhere," former SigEp member K.C. Charles said. "It was a fraternity against the world pretty much during the worst time of the semester."
How did the National fraternity react? Neville Chamberlain would have been proud. It caved in to the activists' screeching overreaction for the sake of political expediency. And today, women's groups are patting themselves on the back -- mission accomplished! Another triumph over misogyny! The site that launched the on-line petition touted the message that it helped send: "rape is not something to casually consider. Ever. Under any circumstances."
But that's not the only message they sent, is it? By punishing all of the members of a fraternity for the actions of, apparently, one frat brother, they sent another message -- a message that goes like this: for purported gender offenses, it is perfectly acceptable to overreact, ignore due process, and punish innocent men for the sins of "patriarchy."
That, of course, is a "justice" grounded in misandry.
The principal lesson from this incident, for anyone paying attention, is exactly opposite to the one most people assume was taught.
Sources:
http://www.vermontcynic.com/news/fraternity-closed-indefinitely-former-members-speak-out-1.2682802
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/uvms-rape-survey-was-not-_n_1153392.html
By now the story is well known: the fraternity circulated a survey among its members asking who they would like to rape. This crude and childish query was presented as yet another instance of misogynistic conduct in the hyper-masculine culture of fraternities, where such conduct not only is common but flourishes.
Except, apparently, that's not what happened. The fraternity didn't send out a survey; apparently, one new frat brother posed the offensive question to a limited fraternity audience. Not only was his action not sanctioned by the fraternity, but the person or persons to whom the survey was sent refused to answer the question and told the new member who sent it to change it immediately.
But hardly anybody cares what really happened. The headline about a frat sending out a rape survey was all they needed to slip into full-blown victim mode. Gender activists couldn't trip over one another to see who could bray their righteous indignation the loudest. An on-campus rally of hundreds of students protested both the fraternity -- even though the fraternity didn't sanction the survey -- and "rape culture," and an on-line petition demanding that the fraternity be shut down got more than 3,500 signatures. All of this occurred before any investigation into the incident had been concluded.
The innocent frat brothers didn't know what hit them. "I feel like this whole entire thing came out of nowhere," former SigEp member K.C. Charles said. "It was a fraternity against the world pretty much during the worst time of the semester."
How did the National fraternity react? Neville Chamberlain would have been proud. It caved in to the activists' screeching overreaction for the sake of political expediency. And today, women's groups are patting themselves on the back -- mission accomplished! Another triumph over misogyny! The site that launched the on-line petition touted the message that it helped send: "rape is not something to casually consider. Ever. Under any circumstances."
But that's not the only message they sent, is it? By punishing all of the members of a fraternity for the actions of, apparently, one frat brother, they sent another message -- a message that goes like this: for purported gender offenses, it is perfectly acceptable to overreact, ignore due process, and punish innocent men for the sins of "patriarchy."
That, of course, is a "justice" grounded in misandry.
The principal lesson from this incident, for anyone paying attention, is exactly opposite to the one most people assume was taught.
Sources:
http://www.vermontcynic.com/news/fraternity-closed-indefinitely-former-members-speak-out-1.2682802
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/uvms-rape-survey-was-not-_n_1153392.html
Easton police say woman lied about rape incident
A 30-year-old woman who claimed she was dragged into an abandoned building in Easton and sexually assaulted fabricated the story, city police said today.
Police had been probing the incident since Saturday when the woman, whose name is not being released, was found partially clothed on the Lehigh River canal towpath across from Brother Thomas Bright Avenue.
She claimed that a man punched her in the face and dragged her into an abandoned boathouse, restrained her and sexually assaulted her. She was subsequently found by passersby, who called police even though the woman did not want them to, police said.
Easton police Lt. Scott Casterline said police found inconsistencies in the woman's story as early as late Saturday night, but "because this person may have gone through a very traumatic event ... we continued to develop information."
Casterline said the woman is not facing charges at this time, but the possibility remains.
Link: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/easton/index.ssf/2011/12/easton_police_say_rape_inciden.html
Police had been probing the incident since Saturday when the woman, whose name is not being released, was found partially clothed on the Lehigh River canal towpath across from Brother Thomas Bright Avenue.
She claimed that a man punched her in the face and dragged her into an abandoned boathouse, restrained her and sexually assaulted her. She was subsequently found by passersby, who called police even though the woman did not want them to, police said.
Easton police Lt. Scott Casterline said police found inconsistencies in the woman's story as early as late Saturday night, but "because this person may have gone through a very traumatic event ... we continued to develop information."
Casterline said the woman is not facing charges at this time, but the possibility remains.
"We thought getting to the truth of the matter was more important because of the alarm to the public," Casterline said. "I'd rather have the public not fear for their safety than file a minor criminal charge."Police said the woman "made the story up for personal reasons," but they would not elaborate.
Link: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/easton/index.ssf/2011/12/easton_police_say_rape_inciden.html
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Policeman struck after man drank eight pints
A MAN who got drunk to celebrate the dismissal of a false rape allegation ended up assaulting a police officer called out to a domestic dispute.
Officers arrived in Wikeley Way, Brimington, and saw Ryan Troth outside the front door of a property asking for his wallet to be returned.
His former partner told him she did not have it and he became abusive towards police, who warned him to stop shouting and swearing, Chesterfield magistrates were told. He then struck out at an officer, the court heard.
Christopher Reynolds, prosecuting, said: “He said in interview he had drunk eight pints and apologised.”
Troth, aged 31, of Outram Road, Newbold, Derbyshire, admitted assault and being drunk and disorderly.
Defending, Steve Brint said : “It was a reckless assault.” Troth was fined £165 and asked to pay £200 to the officer.
Link: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/policeman_struck_after_man_drank_eight_pints_1_4038706
Officers arrived in Wikeley Way, Brimington, and saw Ryan Troth outside the front door of a property asking for his wallet to be returned.
His former partner told him she did not have it and he became abusive towards police, who warned him to stop shouting and swearing, Chesterfield magistrates were told. He then struck out at an officer, the court heard.
Christopher Reynolds, prosecuting, said: “He said in interview he had drunk eight pints and apologised.”
Troth, aged 31, of Outram Road, Newbold, Derbyshire, admitted assault and being drunk and disorderly.
Defending, Steve Brint said : “It was a reckless assault.” Troth was fined £165 and asked to pay £200 to the officer.
Link: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/policeman_struck_after_man_drank_eight_pints_1_4038706
Protest in Wukan
A period of demonstration and protest in the Chinese village of Wukan has caught the attention of world media in the past several weeks (link, link). The village is in Guangdong, the dynamic coastal province. The demonstrations began in September against major land seizures by local government in alignment with developers, and became more intense in the past week when leader Xue Jinbo died in police custody. (Here is a good Wikipedia article on the village.) Land seizures seem to be the most volatile issue in China today, producing a large proportion of the roughly 90,000 civil disturbances the country currently faces a year.
Analysts are interested in probing the causes and dynamics of protest and resistance in contemporary China, including C. K. Lee (Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt
) and Kevin O'Brien (Rightful Resistance in Rural China
). Here, though, it may also be interesting to compare the current situation with the occurrence of similar incidents during the Qing Dynasty.Fortunately, it is possible to do so on the basis of a recent relevant study. Ho-Fung Hung's recent Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstrations, Riots, and Petitions in the Mid-Qing Dynasty
addresses exactly this issue in historical context. He looks at the period 1740-1839 and finds that the character of protest and resistance varied throughout the period. This is the early modernization period of Chinese history, and Hung believes that the subject of popular unrest has been overlooked in this period. The grasp of the central power of the state increased during this period, and it also represented a major advance in commercialization of Chinese society. The main source of data on protests during this period that Hung analyzes is the Veritable Records of the Qing, a compendium of shortened versions of edicts and memorials from the emperor and other officials. Out of the 2,096 volumes of this archive Hung identifies 514 events of popular protest and 450 events of petitions to higher officials (55). His empirical work involves coding hundreds of contentious events during the period, classifying them, and looking for patterns of change over time. But how to categorize? Here is his overview description of his approach:
I classify the documented protest events into different types according to their claims and repertoires. A protest's claim is a set of articulated demands advanced by the participants. The repertoire of a protest is the set of learned or invented acts that the protesters performed to attract the attention of potential participants and the authorities, as well as to persuade or force the authorities to meet their demands. (58)One distinction between events that he draws from the existing literature on contention and rebellion is between backward looking and modernizing protests. Essentially the former represent demands to secure existing rights (or re-establish recently extinguished rights). The latter take the form of proactive protests aimed at creating new opportunities and rights within an emerging set of economic or social institutions. Hung rightly rejects the idea that European experience can provide a full theory of contentious politics. So he insists on using the evidence of non-western movements as an alternative basis of analysis and theory. China's experience in the mid-Qing provides an ample basis for arriving at such a scheme.
Hung doubts the utility of the concept of "backward-looking" protest in the mid-Qing period. Instead, he argues that protests throughout the period were proactive and aimed at securing better outcomes in the future for the protesters, in light of changing political and economic conditions. The large distinction that Hung favors as a way of categorizing contention has to do with the purpose and style of the mobilization. "Filial protest", or "state-engaging" protest, involves collective action intended to implore the state to honor its obligations. "State-resisting" protest involves action deliberately designed to challenge the authority and power of the state, often with the threat or reality of violence (58). And Hung believes this scheme is valuable for China, in part, because some surprising patterns emerge through these lenses. In particular, he finds the frequency of state-resisting protest varies significantly along this timeframe, from a high point in 1600-44 of 94% to a low in 1740-59 of 40%, rising again between 1776 and 1839 (figure 6.1).
Hung's account highlights several important things about Chinese protest. First is the point that protests exist within a set of material social arrangements that provide the interests that lead to mobilization. So an important dimension of analysis for uncovering the causes of a wave of protests is to analyze the changing economic and political circumstances that created new pressures and opportunities for ordinary people. Second is the point that culture and repertoires of resistance give form to the protests that emerge. Here he gives causal importance to Confucian ideas about the state, but also to heterodox ideas stemming from non-Confucian traditions (for example, White Lotus Buddhism).
A very old feature of Chinese protest involves the delivery of petitions to the central government (emperor) to protest abuses by local officials, tax farmers, or other scourges of peasant life.
In Qing times (1644-1911), a common remedy for powerless subjects abused by local officials was to travel all the way to Beijing to appeal to the emperor as their grand patriarch, hoping he would sympathize with their plight and penalize corrupt local officials. (1)And, as Hung points out, this tradition continued through 1989 and beyond.
So what about Wukan? Does Hung's analysis of mid-Qing protest shed any light on the nature of protest there?
Accounts make several things clear. First, the cause of popular unrest that precipitated the first round of protest in Wukan had to do with an important material issue (land seizures) and the actions of potentially corrupt local officials in collusion with powerful developers. Second, the protest intensified dramatically in the past 10 days after security officials took violent action against elected leaders of the protesters, leading to the seizure of Xue Jinbo and his death in police custody. Third, it appears through news reports that protests took the form of non-violent appeals for relief against corrupt officials -- similar to the tradition of filial protest. The tradition of taking the protest to higher officials is also illustrated here, with the stated intention of marching to Lufeng, the local administrative center. Here is an indicative passage from the New York Times:
Almost to a person, the villagers are holding out hope that leaders in Beijing will intervene to settle the dispute and to investigate what they contend is widespread corruption in local affairs, including land sales. Saturday’s rally, laced with chants like “We love the Communist Party,” stressed the villagers’ loyalty to the central government. One prominent banner begged the central government to come to their aid. (link)But the same article raises the possibility that this protest may move from state-engaging to state-resisting as villagers come to believe that they have no recourse from the central government:
“Our original intent was just to get our land back,” a 29-year-old homemaker who identified herself only as Mrs. Zhu said as she stood under a Chinese flag, mounted on a makeshift pole at a protesters’ checkpoint on the village outskirts. “We never intended that things would get into such a situation.”Asked what could be done, she replied: “We have to fight to the end. That’s the only way out. If we retreat now, all the hardships the government imposed on us will come true.”Hung provides an interesting tabulation of several important characteristics of protests in mid-Qing China that I've reproduced below. I've supplemented the table in two ways. First, I've included in this table the data Hung reports on the incidence of state-resisting protests, which vary significantly throughout the period he studies (figure 6.1). Second, I've added an additional column of my own indicating how Wukan seems to measure up on these criteria. The finding that I've come to is that Wukan began as a "filial protest" through which villagers sought to engage the state to obtain relief from local officials. The protest has been pushed into a more "state-resisting" posture, however, as a result of the violence and intransigence of local and county officials, and the fact that Beijing has so far ignored the villagers' demands.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
National fraternity is willing to throw innocent frat brothers under the bus to make a statement about conduct demeaning to women
The national Sigma Phi Epsilon organization has said there is no indication that a University of Vermont chapter of its fraternity sanctioned the online survey asking fraternity brothers whom they would rape, see here, and UVM officials have said it was unclear who wrote the survey, whether the survey was sent out, or whether anybody responded.
Yet, prior to the conclusion of an ongoing investigation, the national fraternity said it is "indefinitely closing” the chapter, noting that "any behavior that demeans women is not tolerated by the fraternity."
Refusing to condone bad taste behavior that is in demeaning to anyone is, of course, an appropriate impulse. The national fraternity has every right to police its image and to insist that a certain level of civility is maintained. What is not an appropriate impulse is caving in to PC bloodlust and to punish all the members of a local fraternity for misconduct that might have been caused by just one or two frat brothers. Sigma Phi Epsilon's rush to judgment smacks of politicized pandering, and that is never done for a proper purpose.
A number of questions present themselves. Two of the more interesting are as follows: first, if the survey had originated in an organization other than a fraternity, would there have been such an overwhelming outcry to punish the entire organization before it was determined whether the organization, or a rogue member, was responsible for it? If the answer is "no," what does that say about how fraternities are perceived to the outside world, and is that perception justified?
Second, as Abby W. Schachter, writing in the New York Post, put it: "Would the . . . national fraternal organization have reacted any differently if the survey had been about potential male rape victims instead of female rape victims?" See here.
Yet, prior to the conclusion of an ongoing investigation, the national fraternity said it is "indefinitely closing” the chapter, noting that "any behavior that demeans women is not tolerated by the fraternity."
Refusing to condone bad taste behavior that is in demeaning to anyone is, of course, an appropriate impulse. The national fraternity has every right to police its image and to insist that a certain level of civility is maintained. What is not an appropriate impulse is caving in to PC bloodlust and to punish all the members of a local fraternity for misconduct that might have been caused by just one or two frat brothers. Sigma Phi Epsilon's rush to judgment smacks of politicized pandering, and that is never done for a proper purpose.
A number of questions present themselves. Two of the more interesting are as follows: first, if the survey had originated in an organization other than a fraternity, would there have been such an overwhelming outcry to punish the entire organization before it was determined whether the organization, or a rogue member, was responsible for it? If the answer is "no," what does that say about how fraternities are perceived to the outside world, and is that perception justified?
Second, as Abby W. Schachter, writing in the New York Post, put it: "Would the . . . national fraternal organization have reacted any differently if the survey had been about potential male rape victims instead of female rape victims?" See here.
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