Sep 13, 2013
“Rape the gay away” pastor won’t serve time
Notorious Iowa pastor gets his sentence reduced and visitation rights with his children
By Rod Bastanmehr
Iowa pastor and youth counselor Brent Girouex, who claimed with a straight face that he was trying to “cure” teenage boys of their “homosexual urges” by having sex with them, has had his sentence reduced from 17 years in prison to sex offender treatment and probation.
Since Girouex confessed to having sex with four underage boys, eight additional young men have come forward saying they were sexually violated by the 31-year-old pastor. Girouex, who is not longer a pastor at the Victory Fellowship Church, believed that he could rape away the gay by “praying while he had sexual contact” with the boys, all in an effort to keep them “sexually pure” for God.
According to reports, he told police that “when they would ejaculate, they would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind.”
Girouex, a married father of four, has had a fair share of backlash since he publicly made his disturbing practices known. One of his most ardent opponents is his wife Erin, who has spoken out against both him and the reduced sentence he received after the initial 17 years he was to serve in prison.
“I don’t want [my children] anywhere near him,” Erin Girouex said to KCII local news. She stated that she has plans for divorce, but that her husband’s wanting to see their kids has complicated matters. Currently, he has a court-ordered, twice-per-month visitation schedule, where he must be supervised by his own mother.
While the claim of raping in order to make the victim sexually pure is novel, rapists having their sentences reduced to virtually nothing is not. Girouex’s drastic sentence reduction follows closely behind the heels of the actions of a Montana judge, who sentenced a convicted rapist to serve just 30 days in jail, and made comments about how his 14-year-old victim was an active participant in the sexual relationship. The victim, a girl in this case, subsequently committed suicide, and the judge apologized for his remarks, but left the light sentence in place.
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/13/notorious_abusing_pastor_wont_serve_time_pastor_partner/
Cleveland rape survivor speaks out, says police failure let her rapists go free while she lived in fear
By Leila Atassi
August 08, 2013
CLEVELAND -- Jennifer Moore can almost forgive them -- the seven men who kidnapped her, when she was just 12 years old, held her captive in a house for three days and raped her repeatedly.
If they had become better people since then, changed their lives and stopped hurting others, she might be able to find compassion for them in her heart.
But Cleveland police, who did little to investigate the attack 20 years ago -- then let her down again when another man raped her in 2005 -- must be held accountable, she said during a recent interview. Not only must the department atone for its failures on her own case, she said, but for every woman who was raped by any of those seven men to whom prosecutors say she fell prey on July 26, 1993.
"I just want to say something to all of the women who have gone through something and came after me," Moore said, choking back sobs. "I'm so sorry. I'm just so sorry that they passed me off as a joke. And you had to go through what I did. ... I'm so saddened that law enforcement treats the victims as if they are the ones committing these crimes, which is so unfair."
Moore agreed to an interview as part of this final installment of a four-day series on rape, and agreed to be identified by name for this story.
Her recollection of the gang rape and the days that followed is fractured and incomplete.
Some details, she remembers clearly….
She was walking around her East Side neighborhood with her puppy, Peppy, a German Shepherd and Collie mix, when three men drove up in a car and blocked her path.
One of the men asked about her older brother, who was 17 at the time. He told her that she had a cute dog -- then he ordered her into the car.
She refused.
Two other men got out. One yanked the dog’s leash from her hand and shoved her into the backseat.
Peppy went home to Moore’s parents, while the men took Moore behind a nearby school. All three raped her. Dusk came quickly, and they drove her to a house -- only a few blocks from where her family lived.
There, the men beat and raped her again and again, while she remained tied to a bed. She remembers the windows darkened with heavy curtains, making it impossible to tell if it was day or night. She recalls the smell of the men smoking drugs and their discussions about how letting her go would be too risky.
DNA analysts working on a statewide initiative to test evidence in decades-old rape cases eventually would determine that at least seven men were involved. But until prosecutors told her earlier this month, Moore didn’t know how many men raped her; they didn’t always take turns.
After some time, Moore recalls it was about three days, all of the men left but one -- a dark-skinned man with braids, who answered to the name “Skillet.”
She asked him if she could use the bathroom, and he allowed it. Then someone came to the front door -- someone who knew nothing of her captivity, she could tell. As the two men talked, Moore saw her opportunity and walked right past them.
“I’m going now,” she remembers saying, as she slipped through the door, shoeless and disheveled.
Then she ran.
Her parents took her to the hospital. Traumatized nearly to the point of catatonia, Moore answered a police officer’s questions through her father.
She spent the next several months in a hospital psychiatric ward, trying to cope with her fears and a number of medical problems caused by the attack.
What police did to investigate the case during that time is unclear. Police records are incomplete and trail off after the case was referred to sex crimes detectives. A two-page police report states that Moore was a reported runaway, who said she had been raped by three men behind a school. It makes no mention of her three days in captivity or her parents’ alarm at seeing her puppy mysteriously return home without their daughter.
Maureen Harper, communications director for the city, said in an emailed statement Wednesday that police are researching the case files to understand what happened in Moore's investigation. But she added that Police Chief Michael McGrath believes that revisiting the old cases is the "right thing to do," and that the city hopes Moore finds the justice she seeks.
For years, the attack haunted Moore. She felt unsafe in her own home as a teenager and went to live with relatives, even spent some time in a shelter. Depression and shame, she said, drove her to gain nearly 100 pounds.
Several years after the attack, Moore recalled, she saw one of her rapists again. Her mother called police, and an officer came to talk to her. She recounted again what had happened to her and pointed out the house where she was raped. She doesn’t remember ever receiving another phone call from police.
Then, as she had begun to heal and move on with her life, Moore was raped again in 2005. She was working as a manager at a fast food restaurant when she offered to give a co-worker a ride home. After dropping off her friend, a man forced his way into her car and raped her at knife-point.
She drove to a police station nearby and flagged down a patrolwoman walking into the building.
“I need help,” Moore remembers saying. “I’ve just been raped.”
The officer barely turned around. She told Moore that she didn’t have time to deal with her report and advised her to go to a hospital.
She did. Several years later, DNA evidence collected as part of her rape case indicated a match to serial rapist Mondale Artis. He was convicted last year for attacking Moore and raping another woman around the same time. Artis was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Moore, now 32, has largely overcome the traumas of her past. She went to college, has a good job and is raising three children with her husband in a city outside of Cleveland. She says she is grateful to have escaped those nights with the help of a credo that there is more good in the world than bad.
But she never walks her dog, never lets her children spend the night at friends’ houses and is hyper-vigilant of her surroundings. The news that that DNA evidence -- finally tested after all the years -- has identified possible suspects in her decades-old rape case caught her off guard in recent weeks.
The seven men were all due in court today to face charges of kidnapping, rape and complicity to rape. Each of them has been convicted of felonies. At least two have been convicted of sex crimes. Only one, Gene Turner, showed up. He pleaded not guilty and was given a $100,000 bond. Two of the other men are in prison. The others have warrants out for their arrest.
Moore shudders when she hears their names for the first time and takes deep breaths. Knowing now that none of them lived law-abiding lives in the past two decades, Moore wants to see them prosecuted for what they did to her. But the chance at getting the kind of justice that her 12-year-old self needed is lost, she says.
In turns, she speaks of searing guilt because she knows other women were raped after she made her reports, then redirects her ire at Cleveland police, for seemingly doing nothing to find the men who destroyed her teenage years.
“The cops had it that it was my fault because I shouldn’t have been that young out walking my dog,” she said. “They thought I was just a runaway, they didn’t believe my story.”
http://www.cleveland.com/rape-kits/index.ssf/2013/08/post_3.html
'Rape in America is an epidemic': Brave rape victim speaks up about her ordeal to help others after she was attacked by man outside her dorm 'because he was bored'
15 September 2013
By Matt Blake
A brave rape victim has spoken out about her horrific ordeal in a bid to help others after she was attacked by a man because 'he was bored'.
Student Taylor Walker, 22, was walking through her dormitory carpark at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, on a Friday evening in March 2012 when 25-year-old Tyrone Batts pounced from the shadows as she approached her car.
As he forced her inside the vehicle and raped her she thought of reaching for the pepper spray in her handbag. But she couldn't move.
'The big responses are fight or flight,' she told The Tennessean. 'But a huge one during rape is freeze. It’s just the most powerless thing ever.'
But it wasn't until the ordeal was over that Batts did something that chilled her to her core.
'He kissed me on the head before he left,' she said. 'That was just the craziest thing. Like, you just did that and you’re going to act like this is a tender moment?'
He then demanded she give him the $22 in her purse and skulked off into the night.
When Batts was arrested he allegedly told police he approached her because 'he was bored'.
More staggering still, he also claimed the encounter was consensual and that Miss Walker has 'given him a look' before he came over.
At the time of the assault, Batts was already on bail for aggravated robbery and attempted rape in 2001. And before the weekend was through, police claim, he would attack and rob three more women in the carparks of three nearby hospitals.
He has pleaded not guilty and awaits hearings on all of the charges having been transferred to a mental health clinic to determine if he is capable of standing trial.
In the aftermath of the attack, Miss Walker became unrecognisable to herself. She became too terrified to go outside and became a recluse, imprisoned by her own fear. She says she stopped dressing up or wearing make up because, thereafter, she simply 'didn't care' about her appearance.
But now the law graduate says she has turned a corner after a year of therapy to help handle her anxiety and gradually return to a normal life.
I do not remember who I was before the rape,' she said. 'I do not remember who that girl was.'
Now she says, while she may never 'recover' from the ordeal, she is on the way to creating 'a new normal' and wants to share her experience with others 'less lucky' than her.
'I’m past the point of feeling shameful about it,' she said. 'Because it’s not even my shame to carry.
'For me, it would almost be dishonest not to come forward and say who I am. I want people to know, number one, that I have nothing to hide. And it’s not my fault.'
She has now become an advocate for rape victims and is soon to train as a lawyer to 'put the needs of victims first'.
'Rape and sexual assault [in America] is an epidemic,' she added. 'In order for a victim of any sort of crime to heal they need each step along that process to be the best it can be.
'That means we need to have good police officers, we need good hospital staff, you need to have good attorneys that understand, and you need to have counselors. And all of those need to work together.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2420279/Rape-America-epidemic-Brave-rape-victim-Taylor-Walker-speaks-ordeal.html#ixzz2f0b7nM2I
California Lawmakers Demand University Audits In Wake Of Sexual Assault Complaints
08/21/2013
A California legislative committee has unanimously approved a state review of the University of California-Berkeley and three other campuses, after a federal complaint alleged failures handling sexual assaults by school officials.
On Wednesday, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee moved forward a request, drafted by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), to the state auditor's office for an audit of sexual misconduct policies at UC-Berkeley, as well as one other UC campus and two California State University campuses that have yet to be determined.
The audit request is the first legislative action in response to a wave of federal complaints filed against public and private colleges around the country.
A group of students filed a federal Clery complaint against UC-Berkeley in May, alleging underreporting of sexual violence on campus and a failure to keep victims safe. The Clery Act is a federal law requiring universities to accurately report and disclose all crime on campus. Although the U.S. Department of Education has not said whether it will review UC-Berkeley, it has opened investigations at Occidental College and at the University of Southern California, both private schools that have been the targets of similar complaints by students and recent alumni.
"These incidents are terrible and shouldn't be tolerated," Rendon told The Huffington Post, "but the reaction, or lack of reaction on behalf of campus officials, was just something that was just as reprehensible."
Officials from both the UC and CSU systems vowed to cooperate with the audit if their schools are involved.
"We are prepared to fully address, respond to, and make any and all changes necessary to address the concerns expressed here," said Linda Williams, associate chancellor for UC-Berkeley, who noted her own college-aged daughter had a stalker.
California state auditor Elanie Howle said the audit of sexual misconduct policies under Title IX -- the federal gender equality law requiring schools to properly respond to complaints of sexual violence -- would likely take six months, but lawmakers moved in unanimous favor of prioritizing the audit.
Sofie Karasek, a UC-Berkeley student who was among the women who filed the Clery complaint, testified during the Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing that she was sexually assaulted in February 2012 by a student who she later learned also assaulted three other women.
"I wasn't notified until seven months after I filed a report with the Center for Student Conduct that there had ever been an investigation into my assault," Karasek testified. "Last fall, I found out from a friend that my assailant had admitted to sexually assaulting me."
When Karasek followed up, she said, a university official told her in a brief email the school had charged her alleged assailant with a violation of student conduct, but resolved it in an "early resolution process." The accused male student was not removed from campus and later graduated; officials never told Karasek if he received any punishment, she said.
"I am so disappointed in my administration's handling of sexual violence, and I am so worried for my friends' safety," said Haley Broder, a UC-Berkeley student, in her testimony at the hearing.
State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) said the stories shared by students at the hearing are similar to ones presented 30 years ago, and that university officials were not responding adequately.
"They go through the motions, and they give lip service," Jackson said, "and darn it, it's time for change."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/california-sexual-assault-uc-csu_n_3790726.html
Yale Fails To Expel Students Guilty Of Sexual Assault
08/01/2013
Yale University found six students guilty of "nonconsensual sex" during the first half of 2013 and allowed all of them to continue pursuing an Ivy League diploma from the school.
Only one of the six students that a university committee or administrator found guilty of nonconsensual sex was suspended, according to a semi-annual report on Yale sexual misconduct. That student was excluded from Yale for two semesters and was placed on probation for the remainder of his time at Yale. Four students who were found guilty of nonconsensual sex were given written reprimands, with one required to attend gender sensitivity training. One student received probation.
Yale, in New Haven, Conn., said it responded to eight reports of sexual assault in 2013, through June 30. Two students who were found not guilty of nonconsensual sex allegations against them were counseled by administrators on appropriate conduct, the school said.
Yale spokeswoman Karen N. Peart said the university does not tolerate sexual misconduct, but said the school won't discuss the specific cases.
"One result of this commitment to confidentiality is that the descriptions in the report do not fully capture the diversity and complexity of the circumstances associated with the complaints or the factors that determined the outcomes and sanctions," Peart said. "Nonetheless, the range of penalties described in the semi-annual report reflects our readiness to impose harsh sanctions when the findings warrant them."
Yale released its fourth semi-annual Report of Complaints of Sexual Misconduct on Wednesday night. Yale has produced the report since the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation into the university's handling of sexual violence on campus in 2011. The investigation concluded in 2012 with a "voluntary resolution agreement." Yale was fined $155,000 this year by the Education Department for failing to properly report all sexual violence crimes on campus, a violation of the Clery Act.
Yale graduate Alexandra Brodsky, a sexual assault victim whose federal complaint helped spark the 2011 investigation, said it's disheartening that Yale will allow multiple students who have been found guilty of sexual assault to return to campus this fall.
"It's so, so frustrating to have reported to the school, been let down by the school, brought it to the federal government and then get let down by the federal government," Brodsky said.
The Education Department has faced tough criticism for not coming down harder on Yale following the investigation. Nathan Harden, a Yale graduate who now runs the conservative College Fix website, wrote that he was astonished the department did not penalize the university. A group of sexual assault victims and allies have started a petition calling on the Education Department to levy sanctions for violations of Title IX, the federal gender equity law that requires colleges to respond to reports of sexual misconduct on campus. The law doesn't authorize financial penalties.
The government continues to monitor Yale to ensure it follows the resolution agreement. Failure to do so may result in further governmental action, including the possible loss of all federal funding.
The new report on sexual misconduct punishments shows that Yale hasn't changed its approach to sex crimes, despite the federal investigations, Brodsky said. Brodsky will return to Yale this fall to study law. She said she plans to continue to pressure the university and the Education Department to take a more serious view of sex crimes.
Brodsky said she's heard from other Yale campus sex crimes victims who told her they were dissuaded from filing formal complaints. Yale graduate student Hannah Slater, who helped start the campus discussion group Sexual Literacy Forum, said victims frequently tell her they don't bother attempting to report to the university at all.
"Most of them don't use the Yale complaint system because they don't trust that their needs will be served, and this report proves them tragically right," Slater said.
A wave of universities and colleges have been slapped with federal complaints this year from students who have said that students found guilty of rape were receiving light punishments. At the University of Colorado-Boulder and Occidental College in Los Angeles, for example, students said their assailants were assigned book reports and brief suspensions as sanctions.
Other schools have made progress on their own. Duke University, for example, announced in July that expulsion will be the "preferred sanction" when a student is found responsible for sexual assault.
"We really need the Education Department to really be enforcing" Title IX, Brodsky said. "No wonder Yale is behaving this way. It's gotten away with these violations so far, why would it think it needs to do better?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/yale-sexual-assault-punishment_n_3690100.html
College Sexual Assault Policies Come Under Scrutiny As Students File Complaints
The Huffington Post/UMass-Amherst
By Rosemary Kelly & Shaina Mishkin
05/31/2013
Colleges nationwide took notice when a federal complaint was filed against the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill alleging lax enforcement of Title IX regulations and a failure to adjudicate sexual violence on campus. That, together with a high-profile op-ed by Angie Epifano claiming similar failures at Amherst College, has brought the issue of sexual assaults to the forefront of the collegiate world over the past academic year.
College administrators are required to abide by regulations set forth in the Clery Act and Title IX when dealing with cases of reported rape. The Clery Act requires an annual and accurate report of all crimes on college campuses. Title IX, an anti-discrimination law, has become associated with college athletics, but applies to the college as a whole.
It wasn't until April 2011's "Dear Colleague" letter from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights that many began to see Title IX as a regulation dealing directly with sexual assault. The letter from the OCR directed schools to "take prompt and effective steps to end the sexual violence" and outlined specific obligations administrators have under Title IX in that regard.
"The survivor who is neglected and not given the proper support, resources, or housing changes often drops out," said former UNC Assistant Dean of Students Melinda Manning, who resigned from her position after assisting students in filing their Title IX complaint. "But the survivor who is supported very often completes their education and thrives."
Manning believes the "Dear Colleague" letter was one of two tipping points that spurred the sexual assault awareness movement on college campuses. She dubbed Epifano's op-ed as the other cornerstone in the current movement. And now several new initiatives are beginning to gain traction.
BYSTANDER EDUCATION
Many sexual assault prevention programs focus solely on teaching students how to avoid risky situations. Bystander education, by contrast, insists that such situations can be avoided completely when a witness intervenes.
The main goal of the University of New Hampshire's "Bringing in the Bystander" effort is to emphasize that preventing sexual assault isn't the responsibility of the victims, but oftentimes of the bystanders.
"I wouldn't hesitate to help someone who was in a sketchy situation or someone who was being assaulted," said UNH senior Emily McCauley.
UNH's initiative influenced Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan's bystander campaign, which is meant to teach consent and "the difference between sex and rape." The video campaign, which primarily features University of Massachusetts-Amherst students as actors, focuses on situations in which a student can intervene in potentially dangerous interactions.
"The old myth with sexual assault and rape education was that a person needed to be prepared to fend off a stranger who would attack them," Sullivan said. "The truth is that most sexual assaults involve an acquaintance or friend. The male captain of the basketball team who tells his teammate he is not treating women with respect is going to be much more effective than some stranger lecturing the same offender about relationships."
Enku Gelaye, UMass' dean of students, expects to incorporate the bystander campaign into the university's student orientation soon.
MANDATORY REPORTING
Duke University is one of a few educational institutions that has instituted a mandatory reporting policy.
"We became convinced that if we were serious about intervention and prevention, we had to make a bold statement that sexual misconduct could not be kept secret," said Larry Moneta, vice president of student affairs at Duke and co-chair of the university's Gender Violence Task Force.
Adopted about two years ago, the mandatory reporting policy at Duke states that if anyone within the campus community confides in another about a sexual assault, the employee, staff or faculty member may not treat the conversation as confidential. So even if the victim of sexual assault does not wish to report his or her case, the employee cannot promise confidentiality.
While the employee may refer the student to a counselor, the case must also be reported to the administration. From there, the employee, staff or faculty member must, as a matter of policy, alert the Duke administration or campus police and submit the information to a website. That information is then sent to the Office of Student Conduct, which decides on the appropriate action to take.
Reports of sexual assault at Duke increased from 20 to 30 to more than 100 in the first year, according to Moneta, and to more than 200 in the second year. While not all of the incidents reported had occurred in the previous year, the numbers are significant.
But Manning questions whether mandatory reporting will prevent students from taking the important first step to confide in a trusted staff or faculty member.
"The question with mandatory reporting is: What do you do with that information?" Manning asked.
AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT
But they didn't say no.
This statement is often used against survivors who claim to have been sexually assaulted, and can misguide the decisions of the college hearing boards that weigh crimes of sexual violence.
“Without a policy that accurately and precisely defines sexual misconduct, grievance boards are left to their own prejudices to decide cases,” said Alexandra Brodsky, a graduate of Yale University.
Brodsky, along with 15 Yale students and alumni, sparked a 15-month investigation by the Education Department when they filed a complaint in March 2011 claiming the Ivy League school failed to make necessary changes in policies to correct a sexually adverse campus climate. The university responded to the complaints while working with OCR to reestablish the University Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct in July 2012; the university also hired a new Title IX coordinator.
In the wake of the Yale investigation, Harvard University announced it had no future plans to alter or change its policies, much to the chagrin of some concerned students and staff.
A group called "Our Harvard Can Do Better" formed with the aim of "dismantling rape culture at Harvard." One of its first efforts was to get Harvard to change its current policy from the negative consent policy to one of affirmative consent, i.e., changing "no means no" to "yes means yes."
Although more reforms may be needed, Manning said she is stunned by how much has happened at universities in the past few months.
"The great thing is we are starting to reach the more general public that wouldn't necessarily look at these issues," Manning said. "I think we're starting to reach others."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/college-sexual-assault-policies_n_3362515.html
lesson: if you are the victim if a sexual trangression but dont want the guys life to be over ...
Quote:lesson: if you are the victim if a sexual trangression but dont want the guys life to be over ...
lesson: If the guy doesn't want his "life to be over" he should make sure he doesn't violate sexual assault laws...
I am in charge of me, no one else.
the men who birthed this nation must be throwing up in their graves
people who live under an unjust state should reform or overthrow it
People who don't like the penalties imposed for committing sexual assaults, should make sure they don't violate those laws.
Man, 67, sentenced for rape of son's prom date
By Craig Kapitan : September 9, 2013
A 67-year-old who was convicted by a jury last month of having raped his son's prom date was sentenced Monday to 35 years in prison.
Ismael Cruz faced a minimum 25-year term because of two prior trips to prison for driving while intoxicated. His attorney asked state District Judge Ray Olivarri for the minimum.
Cruz's accuser, then 19, told police in May 2012 that she had fallen asleep at her boyfriend's home after drinking heavily on the night of her prom. She recalled waking up in the middle of the night with her dress partially removed and the defendant on top of her.
She pushed Cruz away and screamed after realizing it wasn't her boyfriend, the teen told police. Cruz's son beat him up and continued to charge at him after police arrived, court documents state.
Cruz indicated he had consumed more than 60 beers that night.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Man-67-sentenced-for-rape-of-son-s-prom-date-4799959.php
