This is messed up
One way to look at the Duke lacrosse case - not necessarily the view I personally take - is that the players should not have been indicted because there wasn’t enough evidence.
This seems like quite the opposite - a situation where there appear to be witnesses and evidence, but the prosecution chose not to press charges.
Saying “we don’t make decisions based on public outrage or outcry,” District Attorney Dolores Carr on Wednesday defended her office’s decision not to pursue charges in the alleged gang rape of a high school girl at a party attended by De Anza College baseball players …
Carr’s first public comments came two days after the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced there was insufficient evidence to file charges in the case.
According to a previous story:
The three, all soccer players at De Anza College, were about to leave around 12:30 a.m. when a girl they didn’t know gestured to a room off the kitchen and said, “Hey, there’s eight guys in that room with one girl.”
Thinking that was strange, the soccer players - April Grolle, Lauren Chief Elk, and Lauren Bryeans, all 20, knocked on the French doors to the room, which were being held shut from within.
A De Anza college baseball player opened the door about three inches. “You girls don’t know what the f— is going on,” they remember him saying. “Get the f— out of here.”
But a black sheet draped behind the door was lifted a bit at the bottom. As the lights flickered, Chief Elk bent down and saw a mattress, a girl, a man thrusting above her and a number of pairs of legs surrounding them in a horseshoe.
“We immediately knew what was happening,” recalled Chief Elk, 20, as she and Grolle told their story publicly Tuesday for the first time. “We knew it was not right” …
What they found after the boys departed is etched in their memories forever, every last tawdry detail. On her back on the queen-sized mattress was a semiconscious 17-year-old girl, naked from the waist down. Her eyes were shut. Vomit covered her mouth and ran down the side of her face. Her jeans, panties and one shoe were all shoved down on one leg. The only thing the victim could mutter was “I’m sorry.”
The soccer players said that the girl was a friend, then picked her up and took her to a nearby emergency room. They saw what happened and the hospital collected physical evidence. However, the victim can’t remember what happened. Carr chose not to pursue the case.
“We did have the best minds in our office looking at the case,” she said. But in the end, she said, her prosecutors felt the case could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
An editorial in The Mercury News called for Carr to explain why she opted out.
Not enough facts have been made public to issue a verdict on whether Carr made the right call. But Carr owes the public more of an explanation for her decision. As district attorney, she has some latitude about how much information to disclose, while still respecting individual rights and privacy …
In this kind of high-profile case, the victim, witnesses and the community deserve to know more than her determination that there was “insufficient evidence.” And, at the very least, she missed an opportunity to better educate the public about the complexities of a prosecutor’s job.
To say so little in a case like this undermines law enforcement’s credibility and casts doubt on the integrity of nearly all involved: witnesses, suspects, victim, investigators. The lack of information also may unintentionally send the wrong message to victims of sexual assault: The DA’s office doesn’t care. We know that’s not true …
The community can agree or disagree with her decision, but it is entitled to at least understand the reasoning behind it.
It would be very valuable to learn the DA’s logic and this certainly is a teachable moment. If nothing else, it would be reassuring to young girls and parents of young girls. But it’s horrifying to know that justice won’t be served in this instance. Hopefully this is a situation in which reasonable people can agree that a crime did take place here and that the victim deserves better than to see her attackers scamper off scot-free.
Also, a commenter recently complained that my stance on protecting the identity of rape accusers is “accuser-friendly.” I would agree - it’s important that we maintain an accuser-friendly culture towards rape. Rape accusers face an uphill battle. It’s usually pretty difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that rape occurred rather than consensual sex. Even when rape is apparent, like in this case, sometimes charges aren’t pursued.
It’s crucial that the justice system support victims and encourage them to come forward and one way to do that is to protect their identities, even if no charges are pressed, if for no other reason than the next time, it could be your sister, your girlfriend, your mom, your grandmother.Â
May 28th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
One way to look at the Duke lacrosse case - not necessarily the view I personally take - is that the players should not have been indicted because there wasn’t enough evidence.
So what view do you take personally?
I note that the NC AG has come out and said that they are innocent.
It would be very valuable to learn the DA’s logic and this certainly is a teachable moment. If nothing else, it would be reassuring to young girls and parents of young girls.
The DA has actually discussed her logic: Carr: Based on the evidence, De Anza case had to be dropped (Note, it is behind a registration screen, but it is free.)
As the parent of young females (both under 20) the case has provided a teachable moment. It reinforces my message to them that they should never put themselves in a situation where they do not control what is going on. Alcohol is bad for self control. Perhaps that is what you were thinking of?
May 31st, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Hi not a lacrosse player, thanks for visiting.
One perspective I take on the Duke lacrosse case is the one mentioned above (that the players should not have been indicted because there wasn’t enough evidence) - I’m sorry that wasn’t clear.
However, I also think that declaring the Duke lacrosse players innocent is right either. It’s fair to say that there wasn’t enough evidence to sustain a sexual assault conviction. But no one knows exaclty what happened at that house that night and no one ever will.
Thanks for your article reference, it was published after I wrote my post. I hope that it serves as a comfort for some but I doubt that it will.
I appreciate your perspective as the parent of two young women. However, I don’t know that teaching people to avoid putting themselves in a situation where they don’t have control is a perfect solution because in the real world, no one ever has complete control over a situation. The 17 year old, in this case, may have participated in a keg stand for all I know. But maybe someone put something in her drink. Maybe someone gave her a drink and she didn’t know how much alcohol was in it until it was too late. When I was 17, I didn’t know what alcohol tastes like. I don’t know exactly what happened. No one does. But no one is ever in complete control of a situation. I don’t know that this young woman did anything wrong. One can take harm reduction steps - go to a party with a friend who won’t leave without you, keep your hand over your drink at a bar, mix your own drinks. Maybe this young woman took those steps. Who knows?
The problem with this whole conversation is that it puts the whole onus of responsibility on women. A young woman is just as entitled to go out to a party and pound shots as a young man is. For all the Monday morning quarterback-ing people would like to do, when anyone is a victim of a crime, *it is not their fault.* It doesn’t matter if that crime is sexual assault or carjacking or armed robbery. If a friend was the victim of a breaking-and-entering, I wouldn’t say “well, you shouldn’t have (fill in the blank).” It. Is. Not. Their. Fault.
Young women have to live with the responsibility to protect themselves from being raped. There are countless self defense classes women can take, tips women give each other, etc. In school, I was told to look under my car and into my back seats before getting in the driver’s seat. Who is teaching young men not to rape? Why is sexual assault one of the few crimes where the victim has to prove she didn’t deserve or ask for it? People don’t say to carjacking victims, “you must have asked for it.” Why is rape different?