Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Juliette Grimmett" <>]

For those that have not yet heard about this story, it is just
unbelievable.  The video in the first link is really powerful in many
ways.  If you double click on it, it becomes full screen.



this video of two of intervening soccer players is powerful:
 
http://www.ktvu.com/news/13370961/detail.html ;

 
On 5/25/07, matt ezzell 
<>
 wrote: 
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2007/05/4482_das_office_refu.html

 
DA Refuses to Prosecute Rape Case, Despite Eye Witnesses, DNA
What's the penalty for the alleged gangrape of a drunk, 17-year-old
girl at a party with 10 of your buddies? Bupkus, said the Santa Clara,
California District Attorney's office yesterday.

The alleged rape occurred March 3 at a wild, off-campus party hosted by
a member of the DeAnza College men's baseball team in San Jose,
California. Three partygoers, members of the school's women's soccer
team, said they saw a young girl on a mattress on the floor, clothes
around her ankles and vomit on her face, with one man on top of her and
approximately 10 more looking on in a dark bedroom. Feeling "something
wasn't right," the girls pushed their way into the room and rushed the
victim the the hospital. 

In the months since the contested rape, a grand jury has taken
testimony in the case, DNA samples from some partygoers have been
obtained, but an assistant district attorney cited "insufficient
evidence" as the reason the DA would not prosecute. The men will not be
charged with a crime, not even statutory rape. The only consequences so
far have been that eight baseball players were suspended, resulting in
the cancellation of three games. At least one of the players brought in
by the grand jury thinks justice has been served: "From the beginning, I
kind of felt like it was a witch hunt and the De Anza players were
victims, and not really this girl," pitcher Chris Knopf told the San
Jose Mercury News. 

One of the infamous Duke lacrosse players made a similar statement just
last month when prosecutors dropped all charges in that case, saying
that "this entire experience has opened my eyes up to a tragic world of
injustice." He was talking about himself, not the African American
stripper hired for the players' party. 

Undoubtedly, the Duke case and its rush to judgment is in the minds of
those at the Santa Clara DA's office when they say they don't have
confidence the case could be proved without a doubt. The District
Attorney in the Duke case, Michael Nifong, was removed from the case and
now faces ethics complaints from the North Carolina state bar related to
the year-long investigation. The Santa Clara DA office may be looking to
avoid a similar debacle. But there are essential differences in the two
situations: this girl was underage, and three eyewitnesses have come
forward. 

Granted, eyewitness accounts are not always what they seem, something
the media often glosses over, but the Santa Clara sheriff's office says
it's not yet done investigating the case. Two of the witnesses have gone
to the media to draw attention to the case. "What we saw was rape. It
was a crime," one told told a local television station . The other said
the lack of charges "makes us think that no girl is ever going to want
to come forward and say they were violated as this girl was, because
they're going to think it doesn't even matter...But it does." 

-Jen Phillips

Posted by Mother Jones on 05/23/07 at 10:22 AM | E-mail | Print | Digg
| de.licio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Yahoo! MyWeb | StumbleUpon |
Netscape | Google | 




Juliette Grimmett, MPH
Rape Prevention Education Coordinator
NC State University
Women's Center
3120 Talley Student Center
Campus BOX 7306
Raleigh, NC 27695-7306
Office: (919) 513-3232
24 Hour Sexual Violence Hotline: (919)618-RAPE (7273)
Fax: (919) 515-1066
email: 

website: http://www.ncsu.edu/womens_center