Woolsey's leniency plea outrages victim

[Sequoia]

A 17-year-old rape victim lashed out Thursday at Rep. Lynn Woolsey, saying the congresswoman's plea for leniency for her attacker was a misuse of power, and her subsequent apology was politically motivated.

"I will never accept her apology," Tina Phan said. "She supports rapists and that's just the bottom line."

Stuart Pearson, the 20-year-old son of one of Woolsey's staffers and a one-time campaign volunteer, pleaded guilty to raping Phan in a Terra Linda apartment in July.

Before he was sentenced, Woolsey wrote a letter on Pearson's behalf to Marin County Superior Court Judge Terrence Boren.

Boren sentenced Pearson to eight years in prison, the maximum term for rape.

But the revelation of Woolsey's Dec. 2 letter prompted a flood of criticism. Woolsey responded with a second letter apologizing to Phan. The letter was published in the Marin Independent Journal newspaper.

Phan said Woolsey's plea to Boren on official congressional stationery was an inappropriate effort to sway the judge.


And she called the apology a hollow gesture just weeks before the March 2 primary election. If Woolsey was sincere, Phan said, she would have made a personal apology.

"She never even made an effort to find out who I am," Phan said.

<snip>

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/20woolsey.html

[BR_Parkway]

1. Republican Family Values

"If I can do anything to help a friends family, or member of my own family, or family of someone who gave money or support to my campaign - I will!"

[Bertha Venation]

3. Woolsey is a Democrat. eom

[BR_Parkway]

5. My mistake

I made an assumption from:

Brian Sobel, a Republican political consultant who served with Woolsey on the Petaluma City Council from 1988-1992, said the congresswoman had no dark motive in writing the letters and is too popular to feel a backlash from voters.


That's what I get from reading too quickly. ;(

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AndyTiedye]

10. Maybe She Needs some Opposition in the Primaries

Her district is Sonoma and Marin counties.

[Rainbowreflect]

4. Although it should not have been on official congressional stationery,

writing a letter on behalf of someone you personally know before they are sentenced is very common.
I have personally written letters to Judges for a defendant in one case and a victim in another.

[salin]

8. The young man

pleaded guilty to committing rape - and a pretty violent one at that (not that rape is ever anything BUT violent.) One should get the details of the crime before writing a letter, and then should let the details (including the pleading guilty in order to get additional charges dropped) determine whether or not a letter should be written. One can be supportive of a family and of a friend without writing such a letter and thus minimizing the assualt. And of course official stationary was used - it is because of the stature of the letter writer that the letter was written to the judge (e.g., try to get letters from as prominent, "upstanding" people as possible to try to present a scenario in which the judge will show liency.)

Are we ever going to get to the point where we (as society) stop minimizing rape and somehow express the 'tarnishing of a promising future' for even an admitted rapist without expressing the severity of how tarnished the victim's life may be (due to emotional scarring?)

On each level the congresswoman seems to (per info available) handled this situation poorly.

[Isere]

6. Woolsey has a strong progressive record.

Lynn Woolsey is one the strongest feminists in the entire US Congress. This story is entirely out of character for her.

She has endorsed Kucinich, if that's any indication of her liberalism.

[salin]

9. that doesn't prevent someone

from handling the situation very, very poorly.

[Mandate My Ass]

7. Yup, he sure has a promising life ahead of him

as a brutal sociopath.

During the 20-minute ordeal, Phan said Stewart pressed a towel soaked with cleaning chemicals into her face in an effort to subdue her, leaving bruises on her mouth and face.

Kudos to the judge for imposing the maximum sentence and not letting the congresswoman sway him.

[TolstoyAndy]

11. it was the minimum sentence

acc to the snippet.

Something swayed the judge.

[Mandate My Ass]

12. No, according to this article it was the max

Boren sentenced Pearson to eight years in prison, the maximum term for rape.

It was the max but it's damn light for what he did to this woman.

[Bertha Venation]

13. regarding Rep. Woolsey

The Mods called me out because I broke a rule. The mods are right. I apologize to the forum.

In responding to my warning, though, I wrote,

"Please tell me the appropriate reaction of a feminist to news that a WOMAN and a member of Congress -- the sponsor of CEDAW and other legislation ostensibly for the benefit of women -- has urged leniency on the part of a convicted rapist?

"I will follow the rules; in the future I will not call any MC a bitch on the boards. Not even Delay."

In writing in the heat of the moment, and too damned quickly, without reviewing what I wrote, I was wrong on one point: she sponsored a resolution "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Senate should ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)."

Still, what business has any woman asking for leniency for a convicted rapist?! The rapist's mom, maybe. :grr: