Gang Rape is Not OK: Women respond to the De Anza Rape Case by danielsan

Saturday Jun 2nd, 2007 8:30 PM

Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr recently announced that her office would not be filing any charges in the De Anza gang-rape case, in which an underage, unconscious girl was assaulted by a group of De Anza College baseball players. At a press conference Thursday May 31st, women gathered outside the DA's office in San Jose to demand justice for the victim of this crime.

Organizations like NOW, Stop Family Violence, and the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes organized a protest and press conference Thursday in response to the apparently closed case in which a 17-year-old girl was gang raped at a party thrown by members of the De Anza College baseball team.

Listen now: Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page: <audio preload="none" src="https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/06/02/deanzarape1kathredmond.mp3" controls="controls"></audio>

Katherine Redmond, founder and president of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, spoke to the local and the national outrage at the failure to investigate and prosecute this case. Redmond demands transparency in the investigation: since the DA's reasoning in refusing to bring charges is the lack of evidence, she wonders why the eyewitnesses to the crime (who were sober at the party) were not called to the grand jury to give their testimony. "Thanks to these brave women, we have eye witnesses to the ugly truth," she says. She decries the decisions behind made on behalf of the victim, or rather, in spite of the victim's wishes: "The victim wanted charges brought, and the DA told her no."

Redmond goes on to discuss the public response to this kind of case and the rape culture that refuses to deal with the truth about rape. "Rape is about the violent and degrading theft of a person's bodily integrity and personal autonomy." MP3 audio above.

Listen now: Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page: <audio preload="none" src="https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/06/02/deanzarape2mandynow.mp3" controls="controls"></audio>

Mandy Benson, the President of California NOW (National Organization for Women), says that the message sent by the handling of this case is that "If you send your daughter to school in Santa Clara County, she might be raped--and if she's raped there will be no one to protect her." MP3 audio above.

Listen now: Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page: <audio preload="none" src="https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/06/02/deanzarape3lettertoboys.mp3" controls="controls"></audio>

Carol Garvey read an amazing statement focused on the male witnesses/enablers/perhaps-perpetrators who have apparently not contributed to the body of evidence for the investigation. She pleads with the boys who were in the room to come forward, to break the code of silence, to break ranks and identify the rapists.



"They are hiding behind you, the witnesses, hoping that the jock code of silence holds and that they won't be found out for the cowards that they are, even while tarnishing your good name. I call you who witnesses the event 'boys' because that is what you are. Real men would come forward and name the perpetrators. If the perpetrators are allowed to go free, they will keep that sense of entitlement and be free to rape again. The girls and women you love will not be safe. Your unborn daughters will not be safe. I know that may sound funny to you, but when I was raped thirty-four years ago, the man was old enough to be my father. After he raped me and I was crying hysterically he tried to calm me by saying 'I never meant to hurt you--I thought you wanted it, and I have a daughter your age.' So I ask you boys to examine your heart, the kind of people you are, and the kind of people you want to be, and for your family, and for your college, which is also my alma matter, and for your community, and most of all for your selves: Do the right thing, and report the perpetrators. We'll all be better for it, and your good name will not be scarred forever for a crime you didn't commit."

She is the President of DAWN (Democratic Activists for Women Now), a local Democratic Party organization.

Listen now: Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page: <audio preload="none" src="https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/06/02/deanzarape4irene.mp3" controls="controls"></audio>

Irene Weiser is the founder and Executive Director of New York-based Stop Family Violence, and she spoke with the unidentified victim of the rape on the morning of the press conference. She relayed the following message on her behalf:

1. She wants her day in court

2. She has lost confidence in the DA's office

3. She calls on the state Attorney General's office to intervene on her behalf and on behalf of other victims of rape who may be afraid to come forward.

4. Women and all victims of sexual assault must stand together to demand justice. MP3 audio above.

Listen now: Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page: <audio preload="none" src="https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2007/06/02/deanzarape5kredmondinterv.mp3" controls="controls"></audio>

During the press conference, I noticed that the KCBS (740 AM) reporter showed up late, and allowed the door to slam behind him, interrupting the statement of Katherine Redmond with a loud bang (probably quite noticeable in the audio). After the conference wrapped up, I noticed the same reporter talking to Redmond, and got a bit closer just in time to hear him ask her if she "understood the reasoning" (!) of lacking sufficient evidence to secure a conviction. Astounded, I listened to her on-point response about the eye witnesses never called to testify. I also watched the KCBS reporter give a 'dude-nod' to a male acquaintance, and chew gum throughout her response to his question.

After this interaction, I spoke with Redmond about her organization and its work. She founded the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes after she was raped while at school at Nebraska, carrying the first Title IX lawsuit that dealt with rape on a college campus.

For Redmond, this whole case is simply astounding. "None of this makes sense," she says, "You don't get a more egregious open-and-shut case like this." She decries the "system of protection in place" to protect athletes, but goes on to say that the public is responding to cases like this better than in the past, saying that "the public (now) believes that athletes get away with things."

MP3 audio above.

Dolores Carr has said that community response and protest prompted her decision to submit the De Anza Gang Rape case to the state Attorney General's office for review. No timeline has been given for the review process, and several possibilities are left open: including that Jerry Brown's office will agree with Carr and leave the case closed with no charges.

Whether you seek justice through the "Justice System" or through some other community response, this is an important case. Whether the charges are for statuatory rape (the girl was underage, whether intoxicated or sober), or for rape (the girl was unable to consent, whether conscious or not), or for something like lewd acts on a minor or false imprisonment or something, the bottom line is that by all accounts a crime was committed against this girl--and she wants to see someone held responsible.

If charges are filed, and this goes to court, and someone goes to jail, then maybe something like justice is to be found. But if a community discussion about what is sex and what is rape, what is a party and what is a crime, what is jock-culture and what is rape-culture,... if people can talk about underage drinking, teen sex, the protection of boys by men, the perception of male athletes as young-men-with-potential-not-to-be-ruined by some drunk girl,...

If charges aren't filed, and nothing ever goes to court, and no one does any time, maybe the community can come up with something different in response to the question of justice. We have to do more than look to the cops.



The reality is that just as there are rape survivors walking, working, eating, living alongside and among us: our moms, our sisters, our daughters... so too are there rapists alongside and among us. Where and how do we seek justice for millions of survivors? The victim of these ballplayers asks for justice on behalf of all of these women. She asks that they stand together to demand it.



There's work to do, and it means a whole lot more than waiting around for the Attorney General.