At the beginning of all this last March, I really sided with this woman. I really thought this woman would have hardly a chance in a predominately Caucasian area of Durham, North Carolina as a African-American woman claiming a crime by Duke LaCrosse players that also happened to be white. Dealing with players from a big name school, that more than likely have parents with deep-pockets that can afford high-power defense attorneys. It brought of issues of “Brotherhood” and would the team band together to defend the players in question. I expected the attitude to come out that because she had personally chosen of her own free-will to earn money in the sex-industry that some might say when someone is in a “profession” like that has no right to claim victimization afterwords because, “Well, what does she expect?!”
But since my last post on December 22, 2006 regarding this issue, it’s really been something stuck in my craw as some would say. The legal definition of rape being the physical penetration of a body cavity by a penis, and she can’t “recall” if that’s what happened?! Come again?! While viewing things as “black n white” can be an immature and childlike way of looking at issues, I have yet to hear a good argument where the “grey” is on that. To me, it IS very simple. It WAS, or it WAS NOT. Period. She has three children. She should be more than acquainted with the mechanics of how it IS or it ISN’T.
Amazingly the changes in the details are not even over YET! Today, she changed her time-frame of events even in the face of concrete evidence of time-stamped photographs proving she was dancing at a particular time and other evidence such as ATM receipts and cell phone records that would be able to contradict other claims.
Oh, no… that’s not all…. not yet!
Now she says that a man she has accused from the beginning Reade Seligmann, a sophomore student at Duke during the time of the crime did not actually participate in the attack. He was just a voyeur that looked on.
Am I the only one that gets a headache over the volleying of these details?! You can barely follow along if you sincerely are attempting to!
Yes, the most severe charges of forcible rape were dropped, as there was no legal basis to maintain such a charge. I believe this was a necessary thing. But you know what? This story has changed so many times, over almost a years time, I am ready to say that her credibility in this case is as sealed as swiss-cheese. I am ready to say publicly that more attention at this point needs to be given to whether or not these allegations to this young woman are more about secondary-gain (perhaps of a large monetary settlement) than justice for a paralyzing crime that occurs in America approximately ever two-minutes.
This is not so uncommon.
Psychologists often have to conduct evaluations of people that have claimed physical injuries in accidents and on the job that seem to require more medical care, etc, than even the treating physician can understand. My roommate conducts neuropsych batteries at a large urban hospital. More nights than not she comes home claiming she clearly had a “malingerer” client on her caseload that afternoon. People that hope to gain from the weak, underdog, or victim status. In this case, those clients are hoping for documentation to qualify for the greatest amount of state and federal assistance in any way possible.
People that have anti-social personality disorder lack empathy for the suffering of others. They also often seem to disregard the consequences of their actions. Deceitfulness, and conning or using others for personal gain-as well as lack of remorse are all part of diagnostic criteria.
This woman clearly needs help. But looking to the justice system may just be barking up the wrong tree in this situation. If I were the judge overseeing this case, before the rest of the case goes to trial, I would be ordering a full psychiatric battery. Understandably, those results may not be admissible in court. However,someone needs to get to the bottom of what the truth is here with all this flip-flopping of the details. This is unacceptable.
I can’t understate the fact of the statistics. Every 2 minutes in America this real crime occurs. Every time I hear that this accuser has changed her story I literally cringe on behalf of all the women that seek to bring their perpetrators to justice. Because this case has been so high-profile, I don’t hesitate to say it’s going to keep more women in the dark and in the closet, and afraid to go forward for fear of comparison to the Duke LaCrosse accuser. I can hear the defense attorney spiels now:
“If it was good enough for the Duke LaCrosse accuser, why wouldn’t it be good enough for you to be “unsure ” of exactly what happened?”
I believe standing for justice requires advocating for it’s appropriate use. At this point, I am ready to withdraw as being an advocate for this accuser seeking legal justice. I do however advocate that she gets whatever assistance is necessary to help her sort out what all might be behind the story she tells. We’re all sinners, we all fail, we all do ugly things to ourselves and each other. If we love God and accept his free gift of grace, we can be forgiven of even the most filthy and horrendous motives and things we’ve done. But I think it’s important to know why we did something, so that we can let it go and move on with our lives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_rape_case