Athlete falsely accused of rape

[Fitman's Brother]

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/stor ... conviction

Immediately thought of Fat Man here, where he thinks all athletes are rapists. With that mentality, innocent people are sent to prison while big fat pieces of shit like him get to walk free.

Both Fat Man and the liar who accused this man of being a rapist are criminals and should be fed to a pack of wild animals as punishment to set an example.

[Fat Man]

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/stor ... conviction

Immediately thought of Fat Man here, where he thinks all athletes are rapists. With that mentality, innocent people are sent to prison while big fat pieces of shit like him get to walk free.

Both Fat Man and the liar who accused this man of being a rapist are criminals and should be fed to a pack of wild animals as punishment to set an example.

OK, I read the article.

When he was accused of rape, he pleaded no contest.

If he was innocent, then he should have pleaded not guilty.

But instead, he pleaded no contest.

On advice from his lawyer, of course.

Sometimes lawyers give lousy advice.

If he had pleaded not guilty, then he might have won the case.

If you're innocent, the two most stupid things you can do is plead no contest, or make a confession to something you didn't do.

Well, he did the former, but not the latter, but still, pleading no contest if you're innocent is still stupid!

[Fitman's Brother]

That's bullshit and you know it. People like you would have convicted him regardless of the evidence. Just like you being a sheep and being quick to convict Zimmerman.

It was probably the best call to plead no contest because that would reduce his time, even if he was indeed innocent.

Stay mad, Fatty. He was innocent, he was an athlete, and he was falsely accused of rape. The athlete was the victim of a piece of shit liar.

[Fat Man]

That's bullshit and you know it. People like you would have convicted him regardless of the evidence. Just like you being a sheep and being quick to convict Zimmerman.

It was probably the best call to plead no contest because that would reduce his time, even if he was indeed innocent.

Stay mad, Fatty. He was innocent, he was an athlete, and he was falsely accused of rape. The athlete was the victim of a piece of shit liar.

Yeah! And I have never committed any crimes but I was treated like a criminal just because I was physically handicapped not good at sports!

So, excuse me if I don't have any great love for sports fans or jocks!

I have but one question!

Why weren't any DNA samples taken from the rape victim and from the suspect?

Oh! But like a typical Republican, you don't believe in science!

I keep forgetting! How stupid of me! DUH!

[Fitman's Brother]

Not even a registered Republican.

Quit projecting, and get a brain.

[Earl]

... I was treated like a criminal just because I was physically handicapped not good at sports!

So, excuse me if I don't have any great love for sports fans or jocks!

Your prejudice is quite understandable, but you must realize that only the individuals who abused you were responsible or (in the case of those still alive today) are responsible. No one else. Those who enjoy school sports should understand why those who were bullied by jocks in high school would have no appreciation for sports. This is called empathy. But there should also be recognition of those individual players and coaches who are just as opposed to this sort of bullying as you.

I have but one question!

Why weren't any DNA samples taken from the rape victim and from the suspect?

Oh! But like a typical Republican, you don't believe in science!

I keep forgetting! How stupid of me! DUH!

You raise an excellent question, but you trip yourself up when you make nonsensical statements such as Republicans don't believe in science. Everyone believes scientific technology should be employed in criminal investigations. I mean everyone (except criminals, of course). Including Republicans. That's a given. By the way, Fat Man, I keep telling you Fitman's Brother does not believe in the Genesis account of creation. He's not a religious guy.

I shall address the subject of this topic in my next post below.

[Earl]

(Please read my post above as well.)

Fitmanâ??s Brother, you raise a very sensitive issue.

This case is extremely sad and outrageous. Brian Banks has suffered the incredible indignity of being imprisoned for five years and two months, an extremely long period of time that has been stolen from his life. There is no way to compensate for this loss. Quite likely, he will carry the social stigma of a former prison inmate for the rest of his life because there will always be some people who will assume that he is not innocent.

Wanetta Gibson has possibly ruined an innocent manâ??s life in the fullest sense of the word. She also is personally responsible for what I would consider to be the theft of $1.5 million from the school district her mother sued. I wonder if any schoolchildren had to pay the price. If I were her father, I would hide my face in shame.

I fervently hope this young athlete will still be able to play in the NFL. If he is not hired to play professional football, then he will be robbed of his lifeâ??s dream as well. This is absolutely terrible!

There is another consequence of false accusations of rape, such as in this case; and that is, false accusations of this sort make it even harder for actual rape victims to receive justice in the courts. Just image how women who have actually been raped feel about false accusations, such as those made by Wanetta Gibson.

There are two very sad facts: (1) Innocent men are wrongfully convicted of rape, and (2) Some rapists are never brought to justice. Unless Iâ??m mistaken, it was Edmund Burke who once said, â??Rape is the only crime in which the victim is put on trial.â? There was a time in this country when girls and women who had been raped were not treated well by the justice system or by society at large.

There is another side to the issue of rape accusations against school athletes. For example, there was a scandal at Notre Dame University in July of 1974 involving six members of the football team. A local high-school girl (a graduate, if Iâ??m not mistaken) had accused the players of gang-raping her. There was only brief mention of this scandal in the sports media. The girl declined to press charges, the players were suspended for a year, and the furor died quickly down. A leading sports columnist named Mickey Herskowitz, without offering any evidence whatsoever to substantiate his claim, flatly denied that any rape had taken place. But was that all there was to this scandal?

In the following year, New Times (a magazine that specialized in investigative reporting) featured an article entitled â??That Championship Seasonâ? written by Robert Sam Anson (a reputable journalist who had majored in journalism at Notre Dame) in which he exposed the Notre Dame football scandal. (By the way, there happens to be a Wikipedia article about him.) Unfortunately, the magazine is no longer published.

What I am about to say concerning this scandal is based upon Ansonâ??s article. Eventually I am going to call a public library in a large city near our home to ask if they still have bound volumes of issues of New Times. They might not be available anymore. If the bound 1975 issues are still available, I will drive over to the library, xerox a copy of the article, and type up the text in this forum. But it has been a long time since the magazine was last published; so, unfortunately, I am not very optimistic about ever finding another copy of Ansonâ??s article.

As far as I know, not a single sports columnist did any investigative reporting concerning this scandal. (My sister was once a newspaper reporter; so, I have an insiderâ??s appreciation of investigative reporting, which the sports media seems to have shunned for decades.) I have long been of the opinion that the sports media actually is not a journalistic institution, but is nothing more and nothing less than a propaganda mill bent upon converting as many people as possible into sports fans because of all the money that is involved in spectator sports. The complete coverage of the absolutely pathetic Penn State scandal is only a recent development.

Anson interviewed the girl personally. (Incidentally, there are two reasons why she did not press charges. The District Attorney discouraged her by saying she did not have much of a chance in court. After all, does anyone believe that Fighting Irish fans could serve impartially as jurors in a case in which one or more of their beloved football heroes were accused of rape? Also, once she had publicly accused the six players, she also received death threats.) She presented an interesting angle to Anson that was never reported by the sports media.

A friend of hers had been impregnated by one of the six players. Her friend had asked the player for money so she could pay for an abortion, but he refused to give her any money. So, the girl who became the subject of the scandal threatened to tell the university administration that he had gotten her friend pregnant unless he gave her money for an abortion. The player submitted to her blackmail and gave her friend the money.

Months later in July of 1974, one of the other players invited the girl into the athletic dorm where they engaged in consensual sex. Then he told her he had to leave his dorm room for just a moment, and he left her there alone. Almost immediately the player whom she had blackmailed showed up and threatened to push her out of the window (which was three stories high) unless she submitted sexually to him. So, she submitted to him. Then the other four players showed up and had their way with her. There were nine penetrations.

According to a newspaper article I found online that was published that summer, the girl had to spend several weeks in a mental institution. A smear campaign had been conducted against her, encouraged by the football coach (Ara Parseghian).

The President of Notre Dame (Theodore Hesburgh), who clamped down on the student newspaper to prevent them from reporting about the scandal, showed complete indifference to the girl. He actually said, â??I donâ??t need to talk to the girl; I talked to the boys.â? The fact that Notre Dame is associated with a large denominational church and the fact that Hesburgh is a priest make the hypocrisy shown in this scandal particularly egregious.

If I had been the President of Notre Dame, I would have interviewed the girl and her friend, as well as the players; and I would have required every single one of them to submit to a lie detector test conducted by an accredited expert. I know that lie detector tests are not always reliable; but I think because of the fact eight people were actually involved in this scandal, the truth could have been determined. The accuserâ??s claim about her friend alone were worth investigating. This would mean that there was a compelling motive for instigating a gang rape; namely, revenge.

Am I saying I have absolute proof that a gang rape actually did take place? No, I am not saying that. (Neither was Anson.) Obviously, I was not a personal eyewitness of this incident. But as Anson pointed out in his article, there is no doubt that the university administration conducted a cover-up. What is particularly irksome about Hesburgh is that he had just condemned the Nixon administration for conducting a cover-up in the Watergate scandal. But what did he do? He staged a cover-up of his own. What hypocrisy!

Incidentally, during the same year of this scandal, a nonathletic student who was discovered to have had consensual sex with a coed in his dorm room was expelled from Notre Dame. But the football players, who were suspected of rape, were merely suspended for a year and allowed to return to the university. A double standard, perhaps?

One of the six players chose to transfer to another university or college instead. The other five returned in time for the next football season that turned out to be a winner for Notre Dame. A winning season that the university quite possibly did not deserve. Three of them went on to play in the NFL. No questions asked. One of them may have even been inducted into the Football Hall of Fame. Again, no questions asked.

Believe me, I do not get any pleasure out of saying all of this. Am I saying that many college football players have committed rape? Of course not. Am I saying that most colleges and universities that have a football program have covered up rape scandals of their own? Of course not. But I do believe that some of the really big football colleges and universities such as Notre Dame are inclined to disregard claims of rape against football players because football is more important to them than anything else and that a few individual players have gotten away with committing rape.

So, we have a very sad problem concerning how the legal system and society at large deal with accusations of rape. There are instances of innocent men who have been convicted of rape; and there are instances of rapists (including nonathletes, of course, since there are a lot more of them) who have never been brought to justice. Some girls and women who have been raped do not even report the crime to the police.

As Iâ??m not a legal expert, I have no answer.

[Fat Man]

I have but one question!

Why weren't any DNA samples taken from the rape victim and from the suspect?

Oh! But like a typical Republican, you don't believe in science!

I keep forgetting! How stupid of me! DUH!

You raise an excellent question, but you trip yourself up when you make nonsensical statements such as Republicans don't believe in science. Everyone believes scientific technology should be employed in criminal investigations. I mean everyone (except criminals, of course). Including Republicans. That's a given.

Governor Rick Perry doesn't believe scientific technology should be employed in criminal investigations.

Because he rejects science, he allowed an innocent man to be executed.

DNA evidence proved that the accused was not at the scene of the crime.

Rick Perry rejected the evidence, because he does not believe in science.

During a discussion about climate change, he also rejected the scientific evidence and said that Galileo was out-voted.

Sorry, but these Republicans we have today are very dangerous religious fanatics and are anti-science, and innocent people across this country are going to die because of them.

Anyway, when it comes to executions, Rick Perry loves the use of the gurney for lethal injections!

Yeah! Rick Perry just loves the gurney!



That's because, with the arm rests extended out to the sides, it looks like a cross!

Rick Perry should be impeached!

Also, most jocks and sports fans are superstitious.

Like, the black cat crossing one's path, jocks and sports fans hate and fear people who are physically handicapped, because we can't do sports, and they fear that if they see a handicapped person crossing their path, it will bring them bad luck and cause their favorite team to lose a game.

That's why we handicapped people get kicked out of schools, and sometimes, we even get treated like criminals when we've committed no crimes.

We're like black cats crossing their paths.

OK! OK! I'm just being cynical again!

There is another consequence of false accusations of rape, such as in this case; and that is, false accusations of this sort make it even harder for actual rape victims to receive justice in the courts. Just image how women who have actually been raped feel about false accusations, such as those made by Wanetta Gibson.

I concur.

I don't want to see anyone being falsely accused of a rape, or any crime, and wrongly doing time for it, NOT EVEN JOCKS!

Ya got that? Fit Man's Brother???

OK, I don't like jocks, I have no use for jocks, and yes, to be honest, I am prejudice against jocks!

But even still, before there's a conviction, or not, I would want to see some scientific evidence first, one way or another, and I would go with the scientific evidence first, and if said evidence shows he did not commit the rape, then, as a juror, I would have to vote, not guilty, if the scientific evidence shows he did not commit the crime, EVEN IF HE'S A JOCK! OK?

Why???

Because, I love science even more than I hate jocks!

I may be a real prick, but I'm not a total prick!

I'm just a partial prick!

OK?

[Earl]

Oops! I had forgotten Rick Perry -- you know, Governor Goodhair. He can't even handle Ron Paul in a debate. Perry is an embarrassment. Never was impressed with him.

[Fitman's Brother]

Thank you for your intelligent insight, Earl. We need more constructive feedback like that, and it helps facilitate a better understanding of the topic at hand.

[Earl]

Thank you. I'm honored. That's quite a compliment.

I was afraid you'd get mad because I brought attention to the other side of this problem with reference to a particular scandal.

Thank you for posting the link to the online article about the terrible injustice suffered by Brian Banks. I believe we become more empathetic and grow as human beings when we learn about the injustices others have suffered. Even though I'm not a fan and don't even know how the game is played, I will be very disappointed if the NFL doesn't hire him to play football. After all, he has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt to be innocent. People should not be robbed of their dreams.

If I may be permitted to make a positive observation about Fat Man, he has not chortled over the injustice suffered by Brian Banks, but has indicated that he wants no one accused of committing a crime to be wrongfully convicted. In other words, he takes the correct view that a conviction must be based upon sound evidence.

Fat Man, now I'll make an observation about Fitman's Brother. Notice he did not react negatively to my bringing up the 1974 Notre Dame football scandal, as some football fans would have done. His reaction shows he has a sense of justice, just as you do.

[Earl]

Looks like this story will have a happy ending.


http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/may/30/ma ... ms-two-da/

Man Exonerated Of Rape Contacted By Six NFL Teams In Two Days

Wednesday, May 30, 2012
By Claire Trageser

Brian Banks, a promising football player who was wrongly convicted of rape when he was 17, has been contacted by six NFL teams over the past two days, according to his attorney. His conviction of rape and kidnapping charges was overturned last Thursday in a Los Angeles courtroom.

Banks, now 26, served five years in prison and five years on parole. He has scheduled his first tryout with the Seattle Seahawks for June 7.

The Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins also have called to talk to him about a tryout, according to ESPN.

"This is what I have dreamed about my entire life," Banks said. "I am ready to show the NFL what I am capable of doing. I want as many opportunities with as many NFL teams who are willing to give me a shot."

Banks appeared on KPBS Midday Edition Monday with his attorney, Justin Brooks, the director of the California Innocence Project.

"He served five years in prison. He actually wrote to us while he was in prison," Brooks told KPBS.

Banks was a star middle linebacker at Long Beach Polytechnic High School and said he had agreed to a full scholarship with the University of Southern California Trojans before he was charged.

Then a childhood friend accused him of rape in 2002, and he pleaded no contest.

After Banks was released from prison, the woman who accused him contacted him to say she had made her story up. She gave a statement that it never happened, which the California Innocence Project recorded.

The California Innocence Project is a California Western School of Law clinical program dedicated to the release of wrongfully convicted inmates. The project reviews about 2,000 claims from inmates each year and has earned the exoneration of nine wrongfully convicted clients since it started in 1999.

[rotten]

Oops! I had forgotten Rick Perry -- you know, Governor Goodhair. He can't even handle Ron Paul in a debate. ......

I'm still watching you (insert finger pointing emotiocon)

A Ron Paul debate could actually be quite tough if he is given enough time to explain his position. He just doesn't speak in 3 word or less catch phrases that the media and the public so love.

[Earl]

(Uh-oh! )

But ... but ... but ...

I hope I haven't offended you too much. Yes, I will admit I'm not a Ron Paul fan; but you must remember that in the scheme of things, my opinion of Ron Paul doesn't amount to anything. My participation in the political process of this country currently is nil. Well, actually, this has been true for years. I must make the following confession to show what an evil, unpatriotic person I am: I won't even be voting in the Presidential election this year. I mean, for crying out loud, there is no political contest in the overwhelmingly red state of Texas (of which, as you know, I happen to be a resident). There is no mystery as to which column this state will appear when the votes are counted. I became disillusioned with politcs several decades ago, although it was a gradual process.

I do want to say further that nice people, including people such as you, can be found in just about any political party. Although I'm not a Ron Paul fan, I do recognize that there are some nice people (again, such as yourself) who support Ron Paul. My younger daughter has a nice guy friend (not a boyfriend in the sense of dating) who's a very strong supporter of Paul. I happen to really like this friend of hers. I personally don't begrudge him for supporting him.

Anyway, I hope this will serve to help me out of this embarrassing situation.

[rotten]

I can understand being disillusioned by politicians. Every time someone votes for them, it just seems to encourage them.

The bad thing, is neither side is working for us any more. They are only working for themselves. They no longer fear us, we fear them.

That's why i choose not to be a democrat, or a republican. Don't be fooled though Mr. Paul may have run as a republican, but he is certainly not a republican by today's standards.

By the way Earl, you aren't out of the doghouse yet!