From Channel 2 Boise, Idaho:

BOISE - Two people have plead guilty to sexual assault against a 16-year-old girl.



The Ada County Prosecutor's office says John Rainey and Rose Gloria plead guilty to the incident, which occurred in June of 2007. Boise Police responded to a 911 call to a residence after Gloria reported that a household member had been raped by a stranger while she slept in her bed at home.



Police initially arrested an individual and held him in the Ada County jail on the charges for more than two weeks pending DNA analysis. He was eventually cleared of the charges after the analysis.



This case highlights the reality that those who are guilty of a crime, and those who side with criminals, can and do falsely direct investigators to those they know are innocent. Yet in many discussions of the harm done to innocent suspects it is only crime victims and those who freely decide to falsely claim to be crime victims who are given the blame for the harm done to those who are innocent.

The girl was raped while she slept and then told Gloria correctly about the identity of her rapist, but rather than protecting a girl who had just been raped this woman coerced this rape victim into saying she didn't know who had raped her. Gloria also lied and said that Rainey wasn't home at the time of the rape.

Threats against this girl didn't need to be explicit for them to be effective. If this girl didn't agree to the deception, she likely wouldn't have been allowed to get a forensics exam done which would have allowed her rapist to escape justice and it may have resulted in additional rapes.

Thankfully, the police collected DNA from Rainey before he knew that DNA had been found in the rape kit.

Forcing or coercing rape victims into lying serves 2 purposes. It misdirects the police and it paints the rape victim as someone who has no credibility in case the police realize they have been misdirected.

Anyone who blames this rape victim for being coerced either doesn't understand crimes such as this one or understands and simply doesn't care.

Technorati tags: rape crime politics sexual violence sexual assault feminism

Labels: legal