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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMontana county attorney’s office to mother of 5-year-old rape victim: ‘Boys will be boys’
By Scott Kaufman
The Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter on Friday to the Missoula County Attorneys Office in Montana detailing a disturbing pattern of deficiencies in how rape cases are handled.
According to the DOJ, county attorneys routinely behaved inappropriately when dealing with the victims of sexual assault. One deputy county attorney allegedly quoted religious passages to a woman, which made her feel like she was being judged.
The mother of a 5-year-old girl who had been raped by an adolescent boy claimed that county attorneys told her that the her daughters assailant only received two years of community service because boys will be boys.
Another woman said that her experience dealing with county attorneys convinced her that she would never suggest that another woman pursue a sexual assault prosecution in Missoula.
The DOJ also claimed that the county almost never solicits the involvement of the crime victim advocate office with its complaining witnesses in cases of sexual assault.
County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg described the allegations as unbelievable.
These are things I have never even heard of, he said. It is impossible to believe these things are true. This is not how the Missoula County Attorneys Office conducts itself. These are half-truths, mistruths and maybe even outright lies.
The DOJs report found Van Valkenburgs statement that his office investigates sexual assaults in its spare time particularly galling. While you have subsequently attempted to explain that by spare time you were referring to the additional time after other courtroom and litigation functions have been completed, the report asserted, the statement seems inconsistent with the diligent investigation and prosecution of sexual abuse.
Van Valkenburg insisted that the DOJ is just playing politics, noting that his office filed a motion on Wednesday asking a U.S. District Court judge to decide whether the DOJ even has jurisdiction over his office. First and foremost, I think that this is one of the most unfair, unethical things that I have witnessed in 35 years of public life, Van Valkenburg said.
For the DOJ to dump this report on the news media at virtually 5 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, three days after we have filed a complaint for judicial relief, is totally irresponsible. Nothing in this report in any way responds to the legal arguments that we have made, in terms of their lack of jurisdiction.
They are trying to manipulate the news in a very, very unfair fashion, he concluded.
Watch an ABC Fox Montana report on the case below.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/16/montana-county-attorneys-office-to-mother-of-5-year-old-rape-victim-boys-will-be-boys/
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Full article posted with permission
Squinch
(50,949 posts)would find friends here.
And about that, I think this:
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)K&R
Hekate
(90,681 posts)...than these so-called civilized men.
Delphinus
(11,830 posts)Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)magical thyme
(14,881 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)between 10-19 years of age. Definitely old enough to know right from wrong!
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)10-12 is prepubescent and pubescent, not adolescent.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/adolescence
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)seabeyond
(110,159 posts)within the institution allowing rape.
this is how we know there is a problem. this is why merely passing laws without changing attitude will always be a fail. this is why feminists are repeatedly showing examples of a culture that creates women as less, one way or another. this is taking it a step further from merely womens rights and laws, to actually addressing the conditioned perception we have of women, that allows this society to treat women adn girls in this disgustingly horrible manner.
and this would be what so many are attacking the feminists on du about
something to be proud about. i say in total fucking snark and anger. this is the battle. and this is what we are battling right here, right now on du.