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Old November 21, 2013, 04:27 PM   #120
KyJim
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 26, 2005
Location: The Bluegrass
Posts: 9,142
Quote:
People just don't understand how one-sided the whole process is. The 'victim' is most often a woman who gets thousands of dollars worth of 'free' victim advocate and prosecutor services, police, and other resources to literally harass and destroy the 'perpetrator' which is most often a male.
My experience in this area is limited. However, a number of years ago, proceedings were running long in the court which issues Domestic Violence Orders (DVOs) so I heard a hearing on one of them. The woman seeking the order admitted her husband/signficant other never physically assaulted her or threatened her. There was simply a lot of yelling. The judge said there was an "atmosphere of violence" which justified issuing the DVO. As an impartial observer, I was flabbergasted until I realized the judge was just taking the "easy" way out by issuing the order. This was before Lautenberg but that doesn't matter because it's still on his record.

As far as the rest of the post by LeadCounsel, I'll just say that cases are fact specific. I had a client going through a contentious custody battle (a LONG time ago) and the estranged wife accused him of assaulting her a week before the hearing on temporary custody. She used that to gain temporary custody (handled by another attorney in the firm, I handled the criminal charge). At the criminal trial, the presiding judge ruled we could use none of this to show motive for the wife to lie. I persisted on asking and my client persisted on answering. It's the closest I've ever come to going to jail but he judge's ruling was a complete mockery and a clear constitutional violation. The jury acquitted.

On the other hand, I am also aware that many times, women do not report rapes and other sexual assaults due to embarrassment and fear. If they report it, they often risk opening up intimate details of their sex lives to complete strangers. Child sexual abuse, most often perpetrated by trusted family members or authority figures, is rarely reported immediately and corroborating physical evidence may be difficult to obtain.

Sex crimes, by their very nature, are committed in private. Dismissing reports of crimes simply because they consist of "mere allegations" is cutting too broad a swath. A lot of crimes are prosecuted on "mere allegation." Overall the criminal justice system works. Sometimes there are warts but that means we need to work on the warts and not cut off the hand.
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