Posted on 12/20/2019 6:59:55 PM PST by conservative98
Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin defended his pardon of a man found guilty of raping a 9-year-old child, saying the conviction was not based on physical evidence.
Micah Schoettle was in the second year of a 23-year sentence when Bevin controversially pardoned him of rape, sodomy and other sexual crimes last week.
"There was zero evidence," Bevin said during a 17-minute radio interview with talk show host Terry Meiners on Thursday, according to The Courier-Journal.
He noted the girl's sister was in the room during the alleged incident and denied the sexual assaults occured.
"Both their hymens were intact," he added. "This is perhaps more specific than people would want, but trust me. If you have been repeatedly sexually violated as a small child by an adult, there are going to be repercussions of that physically and medically."
“He obviously did not do any research on this matter or he would know that only 2 percent of sexual assault victims show any visible physical injury as a result of the rapes that they’ve suffered,” said Rob Sanders, prosecutor in Kenton County who put Schoettle away. “This is the kind of foolish ignorance that prosecutors have been working for decades to overcome.”
Kentucky's former chief medical examiner Dr. George Nichols said Bevin's comments were factually inaccurate.
“Rape is not proved by hymen penetration,” he told the newspaper. “Rape is proved by phallic penetration ... where the vaginal lips meet the outer surface of the vagina."
“He not only doesn’t know the law, in my humble opinion, he clearly doesn’t know medicine and anatomy,” he added.
Bevin, a Republican, pardoned 428 people, including some violent offenders
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
And it’s Trump fault he couldn’t save this guy? He can’t seem to stay out of his own way.
Stating gynecological reasons to back your actions when you’re not a doctor or even someone experienced in investigating this kind of crime is pretty stupid and low.
Yep.
Bevin’s an ass. We’re well rid of him.
so what do you do with the claim that the alleged victims sister was in the room and denied that any assault happened?
I have no problem with the most cruel and unususal punishment for an actual child moleter but I also believe that there is some percentage of these “crimes” that never even happened; there is an accusation by someone who wants revenge, like an ex wife, mother in law, or something similar
Trump tried to make Bevin’s reelection about himself. He could have left it alone.
Any negative outcome for him - I don’t see any - is 100% his own fault.
It was said she wasn’t always in the room.
Maybe the free market will take care of both Bevin and Schoettle in whatever way these things are handled in KY. Elections and whatnot.
Stop putting GOP loyalty just to maintain a semblance of "winning." If the Republican is a POS crook too, he's gotta go.
Bevin seems to be a klutz.
I remember when he was running for the senate. He made a speech before a cockfighting group and later said he didn’t know it was such a group. He ended up looking foolish. Seems to be a clown show that follows him.
Word is with Bevin, is that he’s a complete @sshole. That’s why he barely won and lost while other Republicans won their races.
I don’t know the guy, just what I have read on the thread here, but this guy seems to be retarded in some way.
Based on this article, I’m starting to side with Bevin. It’s reminding me of the climate debate. That is, I would like to see some response to the so-called experts the say he’s wrong.
I have met the guy. I consider him to be a well-spoken equivalence of Donald Trump for our state. people need to realize a lot of this stuff is like watching CNN articles against Trump. You need to hear both sides of the story, and that’s not we’re getting in an article like this. we’re given what he said, and then a bunch of experts to contradict what he said. But what about the experts agree with him, if any?
he lost, and just barely, because the teachers union was furious with what he was doing with pensions as he was trying to clean up one of the worst pension problems of any state in the nation. I have friends were strong conservatives but they have teachers and their families and they hated the man. and the only reason they did was because of what he was doing to try to save this state’s budget. basically he was going the oxus of the employees and they didn’t like it. what happened to this state is a microcosm of what will happen in the country if a leader actually tries to do the things necessary to get the budget in order. They will be handily voted out by the people. And the fact that he lost my only 5,000 votes is a testimony to how many people did like what he was doing.
Whether or not this particular guy (Micah Schoettle) was railroaded in this case or not, what I find disturbing is the many other pardons. It seemed like a great big FU to the citizens of the state for not re-electing him.
Pardons are traditional at the end of a governor’s term – and most of the Republican’s more than 400 pardons were for drug offenses. But a number of the pardons were for particularly violent crimes, like a woman who gave birth in a flea market porta-potty and dumped her newborn into the toilet’s septic tank; a man who hired a hitman to murder his business partner in front of his family; a man convicted of beheading a woman and stuffing her body in a 55-gallon drum; a man convicted last year of raping a nine-year-old child; and a man convicted in a home invasion homicide whose brother hosted a fundraiser for the governor last year.
In that last case, Patrick Baker was pardoned just two years into his 19-year sentence for an incident in which he and several others impersonated law enforcement officers to gain entry to a home before shooting and killing a man inside. Two others imprisoned for the crime were not pardoned, despite prosecutors saying that Baker was the one who pulled the trigger.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/13/kentucky-matt-bevin-pardons-violent-offenders
As to the conviction of Micah Schoettle, I do find it concerning that it hinged in great part on a Daubert hearing, in which the Commonwealth presented evidence regarding the behavioral patterns of children who have been sexually abused. The hearing was the first of its kind in the Commonwealth and allowed testimony to be presented at trial regarding delayed disclosure in cases of child sexual abuse and absent any physical evidence or direct witness testimony.
The other witnesses called by the Commonwealth included school resource officer Kevin Schwartz to whom the victim had originally disclosed, the victim’s mother, and Detective Blake. The Commonwealth also called Dr. Kathi Makoroff from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Dr. Stuart Bassman, who specializes in the psychology of sexual assault.
Prior to Bassman’s testimony, a Daubert hearing was conducted in which the Commonwealth presented evidence regarding the behavioral patterns of children who have been sexually abused. The hearing was the first of its kind in the Commonwealth and allowed testimony to be presented at trial regarding delayed disclosure in cases of child sexual abuse.
https://www.nkytribune.com/2018/08/kenton-county-man-gets-23-years-for-multiple-offenses-including-rape-sexual-assault-of-a-minor/
That sort of thing sounds perhaps bit too much to me like the McMartin Pre-school case were innocent people were wrongly imprisoned and tried on charges of child abuse and their livelihoods and lives completely ruined based solely on the psychological manipulation and coaching of the children, many if not most of whom later recanted.
But here’s also the important thing to consider - child molesters most often don’t molest in front of any witnesses and the whole “hymen not being broken” is not a plausible defense against sexual molestation or rape of children as rape and sodomy doesn’t necessitate it nor does sexual assault have to involve deep penial penetration. Boys don’t have hymens so is that to say they can’t be raped or sodomized? Good thing Jerry Sandusky didn’t use that as a defense.
IMO if Bevin wanted to defend his pardon of Schoettle, he would have been better to have brought up the Daubert hearing and questioned the psychologist testimony and the sometimes faulty “delayed disclosure” (repressed memories and such) rather than trying to play “doctor” and talk about the lack of broken hymens. To do so makes him sound, and perhaps rightly so, as an idiot.
I think Bevin is either a very evil man or just did what he thought was right and didn’t care what the voters think, since he’s not running for anything.
Interesting you brought up the McMartin case. For me, what always goes through my head is the Wenatchee case. I have family there and spent a lot of time there in my childhood and even adult years.
And then there is the Nefong/duke lacrosse thing. So I don’t have an opinion on bevin in this case, since I’m not intimately aware of any of those cases. Bevin’s defense was not a courtroom defense. It was a couple of quick comments. Those can ALWAYS be disputed, especially if there is no follow up explanation. But then, that is why court cases last more than a few minutes.
So I’m not defending him, but I also refuse to condemn him. I don’t have enough “intimate” information to form an opinion.
BTW, Wenatchee case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenatchee_child_abuse_prosecutions
I think it is very much “possible” that Bevin did the right thing. Or not.
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