opinion

Bangert: Sex, lies and … wait, that wasn't rape in a Purdue dorm?

LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Lafayette attorney Kirk Freeman said I wouldn’t have survived the jury selection process in the case of former Purdue student Donald Ward.

That, I can live with.

If Indiana law allows a man to sneak into bed with a woman when her boyfriend leaves the Purdue dorm room and initiates sex, knowing the woman assumes she’s with her boyfriend – as Ward, 20, was accused of doing after a February 2017 party at a Purdue dorm – I’m probably going to say I have more than a few issues about what happened.

“Thanks for being honest,” Freeman told me Thursday morning. “That’s the purposed of voir dire. You won’t be seated on that jury.”

Freeman did find 12 jurors who toed Indiana’s sexual assault laws that define rape as an act of force, involving someone mentally disabled, or when the victim is unaware of the sexual intercourse or sexual conduct. Rape by deception isn’t a thing in Indiana.

Ward walked with a not guilty verdict last week.

Just as stunning was the dismissive post-verdict shaming of the prosecution Freeman delivered for even bringing the case, aired earlier this week by WLFI-TV18.

She thought the man who initiated sex was her boyfriend?

“Just because they are lying or being deceptive doesn't make it rape," Freeman said in an interview with the TV station that included a laundry list of other deception disguised as foreplay. “That’s not rape just in the fact that lots of women this weekend are going to have sex with Navy Seals, going to have sex with football heroes, going to have sex with guys that rescue kittens from the middle of the interstate, and are going to have sex with men who tell them, ‘I love you,” and, ‘I’m ready for a commitment. Just because they are lying doesn’t make it rape.”

His point, I guess: Men are going to lie. Women deserve what they get when they buy it.

Something had to be on the cutting room floor, right?

My apologies to WLFI reporter Kayla Sullivan. On Thursday, Freeman said he couldn’t understand why I’d be checking.

Then he doubled down.

“Big surprise! Kirk Freeman is defending his client on the basis of the law,” Freeman said. “She knew exactly what was going on. There may be a mistake. No one was wearing a mask. No one was saying, ‘I am your boyfriend.’ What matters is there wasn’t any crime. I’m not sure how that’s controversial or creates a buzz.”

Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington told Sullivan that the victim knew “the legal obstacles with Indiana’s current statute” but was brave taking the stand and “bringing attention to this morally wrong act.” Harrington said he planned to reach out to state lawmakers about the law.

That set off Freeman just as much.

“Save it for Sunday,” Freeman said. “You can bring it up at your prayer circle. You can bring it up at your Bible study. You can bring it up at a mosque or a temple. It wasn’t church law. We weren’t there to have a moral trial. … The threshold isn’t: This offends me, therefore I’m going to prosecute you. That's the rule of man, not the rule of law."

He persisted.

“There’s administrative action you can take at Purdue,” Freeman said. (Ward is listed at Purdue as persona non grata.) “You can stop being this person’s friend. You can unfriend him on Facebook. You can get a restraining order. There are lots of other remedies other than to ruin somebody’s life with a felony and make him a sex offender.”

But no remedy for a violation of a woman’s body and security? For women who can add one more things to the list of despicable acts that come with no recourse?

“Here’s the problem: People are offended, so people are saying, ‘There ought to be a law,’” Freeman said. “There is a law. And it’s not ‘unaware of the other person,’ or ‘unaware of the true identity of the other person.’ … I’m going to protest law enforcement using their biases to tell me what the law should be when it differs from what the law is. I will jump up and down, roll on the ground and froth at the mouth about that.”

We’ll just leave that there for now.

But he’s right. People are saying that there ought to be a law.

Because there should be.

Meanwhile, the victorious lawyer froths and makes clear there was no way I was going to make it on that jury.

So unreal.

Reach J&C columnist Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.