Posted on 06/21/2004 11:48:26 AM PDT by presidio9
On the eve of what would have been his third trial date in Bucks County court, Douglas Aster pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually assaulting a woman during "thong night" at a Bensalem tavern.
As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors did not drop any of the charges against Aster, 32, but agreed to seek a sentence of 111/2 to 23 months, with possible work release privileges. Aster had been facing at least three years behind bars.
Assistant District Attorney Anastasia Filopoulos said the deal was offered, in part, to spare the victim the trauma of taking the stand again. During three prior hearings, the 24-year-old Levittown woman was visibly distraught as she testified about the attack.
"It was just grueling for her," Filopoulos said. "She didn't want to have to relive what was a very difficult time for her again."
Aster pleaded guilty before county Judge Mitchell Goldberg to charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault and indecent exposure. He'll be sentenced in about 60 days, following a Megan's Law evaluation, and remains free on bail.
He did not testify during the hearing Tuesday in Doylestown but answered "yes" when Goldberg asked him if he understood what he was pleading guilty to. Aster was arrested shortly after the May 30, 2003, incident at the Street Road Bar and Grill. The victim said that Aster, whom she believed to be an employee, approached her and told her that the manager of the tavern wanted to see her.
She said Aster then led her to a secluded bathroom where he forced her to perform a sex act.
The woman escaped and told her friends in the bar immediately about the alleged assault. They called police.
Aster had been set to stand trial in March but the case was delayed after Goldberg ruled that the woman's participation in the thong contest - where female patrons strip down to their underwear and compete for prizes - was not protected under rape shield laws and could be told to the jury.
His trial began in May but was quickly halted when the victim testified that she overheard Aster talking on his cell phone, trying to concoct an alibi. Defense attorneys cried foul, saying the prosecution hadn't warned them that she would say that. As a convicted sex offender, Aster will have to register his address with the state police for at least 10 years after he's released from prison. Goldberg ordered him to have no contact with the victim while he's awaiting sentencing.
Um, men can be raped, too. Read about what goes on in prisons.
I just don't think those who broadcast their Empowerment such should have recourse to pretense they were sending a "No Consent" sort of message.
Well, it's a cliche, but no does mean no, at least legally-speaking. Any guy who ignores a "no" from a woman deserves whatever jail sentence he gets. Participating in a wet t-shirt contest in no way is implied or implicit consent.
Prostitues can say "no" too.
And guys who can't control themselves should be in jail.
Thanks for posting the pic of Clinton's former sweetie, I WAS enjoying my lunch. Monica, baby, throw away the thong, buy some sensible underwear, and switch to floorlength mumus.
=== Catalysis is for chemicals. Men have volition. That is what distinguishes them.
So do women. Her choice indicts her as deserving of minimal, at best, recovery given her portion of blame for the event by compounding her initial retarded decision by electing to follow the first stranger who flattered her.
This "choice" thing is a two-way street.
But I do think it funny you claim only chemicals succumb to catalysts given the way most Americans so readily accept the notion a "chemical imbalance" is to blame for the poor judgment, perpetual despair and sagging self-image.
You are so preaching to the choir here!
=== Who would have seen that one coming?
That's just it.
Thrillseekers who walk on the edges of cliffs, strap themselves to rockets or play with combustible materials get "Darwin Awards" and a big laugh.
I'm sick of those who pretend there is something tragic about the Rape Division of the Darwin Awards.
It's time folks got used to some serious Post-Christian realities ... particularly the Big Lie that is Safe Sex.
You ought to go and buy/wear a thong or two yourself...Askel..
At least that way there we could find some justification for your hoity toity posts.
We'll just know you REALLY have something stuck up your butt, rather than just acting like it.
=== You ought to go and buy/wear a thong or two yourself...Askel.. At least that way there we could find some justification for your hoity toity posts. We'll just know you REALLY have something stuck up your butt, rather than just acting like it.
Aw ... how sweet it is to hear from one of FR's fairest damsels.
To be perfectly honest, I probably ride hard on threads such as this because I know only too well how costly it can be to ignore the "signs" and flaut the realities of which Camille Paglia speaks.
The "stupid bitch" I'm still upbraiding is me, in other words ... though I don't think trusting a co-worker's offer of a ride home when literally falling-down-drunk after a political fundraiser, having forgotten to eat anything, rises to the same level of heading down a hallway with some stranger while sporting a thong on Thong Night.
Hopefully that much makes sense and my posts on this thread now are as "justified" as your own considered contributions.
"You ought to go and buy/wear a thong or two yourself...Askel..
At least that way there we could find some justification for your hoity toity posts.
We'll just know you REALLY have something stuck up your butt, rather than just acting like it."
HIGH FIVE Neets! Good one :)
She didn't think so ;-)
=== Your indignation on behalf of your own fair gender
Gender?
I can't believe you -- you! -- said that.
Funny. :)
Augustine would disagree, as would St. Paul.
Paul mentions more than once the war between mind and the members of the body, while you may recall Augustine specifically addresses the problem of the flaccid penis in the would-be adulterer. In overstating your case you're not giving due thought to the psycho-somatic dis-integration we call "original sin". Keep in mind that the experience of conversion is presented -- from the parable of the prodigal son, to Dante, through Walker Percy -- as an experience of grace enabling one's recovery of and return to the radically shattered self.
The fact that you retroactively count yourself as one of the "stupid bitches" is a deft bid for recovery, but wholly unacceptable. Speaking of yourself and, by projection, other women with high-risk habits, if it were OK for you thus to regard them/yourself, it would be OK for me and every other man to do the same. But it's not, because to do so is to surrender to anger and bitterness and self-pity. It is a sentiment that conveys no grace, Askel. As such it's a sentiment that can only come from an evil direction. The mortal peril that stalks weak women is quite enough to occupy the full scope of anyone's rage and disgust and contempt.
For Ash Wednesday two years ago, Frederica Mathews-Green wrote a splendid essay on Repentence. Here's an extract:
"Repentance is not blubbering and self-loathing. It is insight.
"The insight is about our true condition. We begin to see our fallen inclinations the way God does, and realize how deep-rooted is the rottenness in our hearts. This awareness grows slowly, over many years, because he mercifully shows us only a little at a time. But he sees it all. His is like the eye of a surgeon, which sees through to the sickness deepest within. There is no other way for us to be healed. It's when the surgeon says, "All we can do is keep him comfortable," that you're really in trouble.
"Some will object, "But I don't think I'm a fine person. I hate myself. I feel ashamed and like a failure all the time." That miserable feeling can be pride with a twist: we have an inflated idea of how wonderful we can be, and find the inevitable failures crushing. God's assessment of our abilities is more accurate to begin with, so he doesn't share our surprised dismay. Repentance, "great understanding," replaces our distorted self-image with God's perspective.
"Other times the wash of self-hatred is due to feelings of hopelessness. We have all committed a million wrongs, large and small. We can get stuck there, aware that God forgives us but unable to apply that fact, and feeling bound to continue to fail. It seems like there's no solution, so we sit in the garbage pile feeling miserable.
"This is not repentance; this is despair. The early church differentiated between the two, perceiving that healthy repentance is vigorous and clear-minded, while despair is debilitating, and in fact sinful."
I simply note that you are quite hard on young women, (not that there is anything wrong with that) and suggest it has something to do with your life of relative virtue.
=== and suggest it has something to do with your life of relative virtue.
Scary ... you not only use "gender" you now opt for psychoanalysis to explain -- judging by the links -- what appears to be a comprehensive and consistent effort on my part to decry atheist genderbending and restore a more just order to Male and Female where Restraint and Modesty are concerned, respectively.
What's happened to you, Taliesan?
If I were basing my responses on the "relative virtue" portion of my life, I'd be suggesting that women who participate in sex shows for cash and prizes likely are on birth control, have done far worse on an impromptu basis with guys they'll never want to see again and should get over it when someone they've encountered on the playground of Recreational Sex they've chosen to habit (fully clothese or otherwise) cheats or plays rough.
Ya win some, ya lose some on the Sexual Revolution's level Playing Field.
Women mostly lose but they'll not understand the whys and wherefores of that so long as folks continue to bend the rules for them.
The supposedly Gender-Blind Diversity mentality ought to apply in rape cases. I think there's room for mitigation of damages where Participant A has chosen to show up wearing next to nothing at a drinking establishment full of randy Participants for whom Sexual Titillation is the proprietor's primary draw for the evening.
So Participant B got so drunk he thought he could get away with pretending to be an emissary of the Manager in order to pick off one of the herd.
Maybe if Participant A hadn't been so interested in cashing in on her ass, she wouldn't have been so stupid as to head off alone with a stranger.
I have no sympathy and find it amazing that folks who can buy notions that 9/11 changed the world, the War on Terror is a whole new war and Old Rules don't apply, still can pretend this is "rape".
Are they not watching the Mommies headed off to war these days? What part of "equality" don't they understand?
Obviously, a clumsy attempt. Beg your pardon.
I'm sorry in turn.
You're probably right about the "relative virtue" thing.
I don't expect anyone to be perfect, but I'm not going to pretend invincible ignorance is a defense this woman can bring.
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