Posted on 06/19/2007 8:45:29 AM PDT by george76
Tory Bowen says she knows what happened to her ...
But she won’t be able tell her story to jurors... because a judge’s order bars witnesses from using words like “rape” and “sexual assault” in the trial of Pamir Safi, who is accused of sexually assaulting Bowen.
In my mind, what happened to me was rape,” said Bowen, 24. “I want the freedom to be able to point in court and say, ‘That man raped me.’”
Last month, Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront denied a motion by prosecutors that would have prohibited Safi’s attorneys from using words like “sex” and “intercourse” when describing the encounter between Safi and Bowen.
The Lancaster County Attorney’s Office had argued the words would imply Bowen consented to have sex.
Cheuvront also has sustained an earlier motion by defense attorneys barring the words “rape” and “sexual assault kit.”
In Bowen’s opinion, Cheuvront’s ruling means she will have to lie on the witness stand.
“The word ‘sex’ implies consent,” she said. “I never once would describe (what happened) as sex. He’s making me commit perjury.”
“I have a problem (with a judge) directing a witness, not the government, to say certain words. It impugns their candor, their credibility.”
Most of all, Murphy said, Bowen won’t be able to explain to jurors why she’s using clinical words — or, worse, words that imply consent — when she describes the encounter with Safi.
“Jurors will go back to their room and say, ‘She didn’t feel it was harmful. After all, she called it sex,’” Murphy said.
“It’s like saying to a robbery victim, ‘You can’t say you were robbed, because that’s a legal judgement. You can only say you gave your stuff to the defendant,’” she said. “That’s absurd.”
(Excerpt) Read more at journalstar.com ...
Maybe the judge should be “gravitationally suspended” from an “arborescent form” that is “vertically superior” using a “vegetable-based cord.”
We need to know this guys history. If he is drugging his dates this may not be the first time.
No, it doesn't.
I wonder if she had any friends at the bar who could have helped her if she was drunk or if he put something into her drink ?
Drinking alone at 1 am as the bar closes...
Date rape drugs avoid all of that, please note her testimony that she awoke to find a man having sex with her.
Where is the ACLU ?
Very true. Read the clip below from a juror's handbook covering jury nullification.
Meanwhile, out in Nevada, a 50-year-old florist and grandmother almost landed in prison for her efforts to help spread the word to jurors. When her son went on trial for drug charges in federal court, Yvonne Regas and a friend papered the windshields of nearby parked cars, hoping to let the jurors learn the completely unexpected fact that her son faced 450 years in prison for a single drug transaction nine years earlier. Federal authorities charged her with jury tampering and obstruction of justice, but eventually dropped the charges. Presumably, they gave up hope of figuring out how they could get jurors to convict her without showing them the contents of the pamphlets she had been distributing--and then her jury would know the truth about nullification.
Who is Pamir Safi?
Somehow I don’t think he is that nice Norwegian boy from down the street.
And he probably isn’t Presbyterian, either.
Seven of the jurors at the first trial voted to convict Safi, but Chuck Morrison and four other jurors were either undecided or in favor of acquittal.
Yeah there is. Like “I was forced by Safi to have an intimate encounter that I objected to”. Geeze. There are lots of words in the English language.
Won’t hold up on appeal. Victim can testify to whatever she wants to, and the defense attorney can cross-examine her to cast doubt on various aspects of her testimony.
If he drugged one of her drinks, she didn't "leave willingly." To a rapist, that's the beauty of these drugs. You can just stroll your victim out of the bar and onlookers are none the wiser.
Happened to a friend of mine. Fortunately, someone she knew spoke to her in the parking lot, realized she wasn't tracking, and pulled her away from the guy. Tests confirmed she'd been drugged. She had no recollection whatsoever of leaving the bar.
Sounds like a loony judge, but it's nothing a clever person couldn't get around...
"When he shoved his genitalia into me without my permission, consent, or willingness, I..."
The jury will get it.
In Bowen’s opinion, Cheuvront’s ruling means she will have to lie on the witness stand. "The word ‘sex’ implies consent,” she said. “I never once would describe (what happened) as sex. He’s making me commit perjury.”
Hyperbole, but that's nothing new for a courtroom debate. He made a stupid ruling (probably while trying his best to make sure that there are no grounds for appeal). Take it and move on. Use it later (in your own appeal) if need be.
Seems Mike Tyson was put in prison for exactly the same thing. When a woman says stop or no, no matter when she says it, it means stop. Not stopping can get you 20 years.
Many of the date-rape drugs leave the system so quickly that if you don't test for them within a few hours, you can't find them.
Don’t go to a bar alone if you are going to get so drunk you don’t remember where you went and with whom.
‘Drinking alone at 1 am as the bar closes...’
Yep, bad things happen on a routine basis in such situations.
‘Date rape drugs avoid all of that, please note her testimony that she awoke to find a man having sex with her.’
Uh huh, so does a ball peen hammer, but as we see neither a hammer nor a date rape drug is alleged.
Please note she picked up a man in a bar, left for his home at 3 AM, and then claims to have woken up during sex.
‘If he drugged one of her drinks,’
Yep, and if he beat her senseless that would also apply. If he held a gun to her head, that would work as well. If he tied her to a boat and dragged her home via a local waterway that would also qualify.
Lets see...nope, nothing to suggest a ‘drug’...nor a beating....nor a gun to the head....nor a boat come to think of it.
And thats why the case ended in a hung jury.
I think rapists should be imprisoned for life, btw.
I also think personal responsibility is personal responsibility...and this young woman errored in that.
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