A 16-year old rape victim told this story in court of of being raped at a high school graduation party at the tender age of 15:
The girl testified that she was 15 when she attended the graduation party with a group of friends. She said during the party Cooper told her that he was 21 and he asked her to move from the backyard where everyone was gathered to the front yard to smoke a cigarette and for more privacy. She said she agreed.The girl said she and Cooper spent about an hour talking, although her friends told her later that she had been missing for two hours. She said as she got up to rejoin her friends, Cooper pulled her down to the ground and used one hand to cover her mouth and his other hand to unbutton her shorts.
“I tried to crawl away,” the girl said, adding that Cooper grabbed her ankles and pulled her back toward him.
She said he then removed her shorts and raped her. She said afterward she had bruising on her legs and other injuries.
What happened next? What happened next is that she got to spend some quality time with the defendant’s lawyer answering questions that have absolutely nothing to do with the rape itself and absolutely EVERYTHING to do to convincing the jury that the girl — THE 15-YEAR OLD GIRL — brought it on herself.
On cross examination, Cooper’s defense attorney questioned how much alcohol the girl had consumed and whether she had crawled naked into bed with another male at the party. The defense attorney also asked the girl if her friends found her in bed with the other boy and whether she had walked around the party without her top on after swimming.
The article goes on to say that the girl had had five shots of vodka, that she doesn’t remember parts of the event, and that there is some suspicion that she was drugged by her 23-year old rapist.
But none of that matters.
It doesn’t matter if she ran around the party with her breasts exposed or if she didn’t.
It doesn’t matter if she was found in bed naked with a boy or whether she wasn’t.
It doesn’t matter how much alcohol she drank.
What matters is that she was a 15-year old girl who was raped. None of the rest matters. The only reason to follow that line of questioning is to admit that your client raped a drunk 15-year old girl and you are disgustingly trying to get him off on the “she was asking for it” defense.
No girl, no matter how drunk, no matter how flirtatious, is “asking” to be raped and no 15-year old girl can legally give consent to having sex at all. Period.
If I were the judge in this case, I would cite the defense attorney for contempt of court and throw his or her ass in jail.
This is rape culture in America today and unless we all stand up and shout about it, nothing will ever happen to change it.
