Tuesday Tunes

Sexual assault is a real thing. It happens, way too often. It is likely underreported. The statistics on sexual assault can’t be trusted due to this.

In high school, we had to do a mock trial. Because I knew the District Attorney for the area, I spoke to him and asked if he could provide a real case for us to use for the mock trail.

He gave me a case. I took it to my teacher, and we agreed to use it.

The case had been redacted before I got it. I then broke it down into what each person would have known and would have seen.

The students getting the different parts got only their part. Only they knew what they had said and done.

We went through the mock trail. They “jury” discussed it for a bit, then came back with a not guilty verdict.

The next day, the District Attorney came to talk to us about the case. He tore us apart. 15 minutes to come to a verdict? This case had been through three trails so far, all ended in a hung jury.

Why? Because the victim was raped, and the case was a rape trial. Proving rape was extremely difficult. There were enough places in the two stories where it could have been consensual and not rape. There were too many places where it was unclear if a sexual assault had taken place.

There was too much “she said” vs. “he said”.

And then he dropped the kicker, if she had gone for assault, the asshole would have been in jail. If she had gone for battery, he would have been in jail.

There is good reason to believe that most women have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. I do not mean a mistaken action, but the real thing. It is a sad state of affairs.