Friday, August 3, 2012

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: University of Montana Quarterback Date Rape Travesty

 University of Montana quarterback, Jordan Johnson (pictured left) , accused in March of rape, was formally charged late Tuesday afternoon with sexual intercourse without consent.
The felony charge, which carries a potential sentence of two years to life in prison, was filed just before the close of business in Missoula County District Court by Suzy Boylan, assistant chief deputy county attorney. Johnson was immediately suspended from the Grizzlies football team, which is scheduled to start practice Monday, said UM President Royce Engstrom. That suspension continues until the outcome of legal proceedings.

 All over the Internet, the comments following some 300 news articles about this case are cheering in support of women who have been date raped and how thrilled they are that this lowly bastard has been charged with this horrific crime. I am not one of them. I am appalled at our system of justice and the support of this travesty. Below are the facts (from the victim's own mouth) and my analysis of her claims.


In the affidavit, [assistant chief deputy county attorney.Suzy Boylan] described a chain of events that began with a text message from Johnson suggesting that he and the alleged victim get together that night. They decided to watch a movie at her house, and she picked him up because he'd been drinking and didn't want to drive, according to the affidavit.
One of the woman's roommates was asleep, the other was playing video games in the living room, it said.
Johnson began kissing the woman as they watched a movie in her room, it said. Although she first kissed him back, she then said, "Let's just watch the movie," the affidavit said.
"She tried to keep things light and tried to discourage his advances," according to the affidavit.
Although the woman said she told him "no" repeatedly, he persisted, saying at one point, "I will make you," it said. Then he raped her, it said.
The documents described the woman as feeling "scared and ‘shut down,' " and said, "She was afraid he would hit her if she resisted further."
Afterward, according to the affidavit, the woman texted her roommate in the living room, saying "Omg … I think I might have just gotten raped ... he kept pushing and pushing and I said no but he wouldn't listen … I just wanna cry ... Omg what do I do!"
           The woman drove Johnson home that night and went to UM's Student Assault Resource Center the           next morning. Since then, she's been treated for Rape Trauma Syndrome.


 Seriously? Really? This young man's life gets destroyed, his name is ruined, because of the word of this girl that she was raped (and there are many false reporters of rape for a variety of reasons)? Let's review this whole scenario.

The "victim" has known this guy for a year. They have been texting for months. Consequently, she should have some idea of his character and whether he is a guy that would want to have sex with her or rape her.

On the night in question, he calls her up drunk wanting to get together. She says yes. She suggests a movie - to the drunk college boy - at her apartment in her bedroom.

She drives over to get him (because he is too inebriated to drive himself over) and brings him to her apartment.

She takes him to her bedroom where they lie together on her bed (I doubt there is a couch in their room, but this is possible). The young man notes her roommate is right down the way playing a video game in the livingroom. The "victim" states there is yet another woman supposedly asleep in her room (but at that time she could not have known if she was awake or not).

They start kissing on the bed (or couch); she kisses him back indicating she is more interested in a sexual encounter of some kind rather than the movie they are supposed to be watching.

Then she claims she tried to discourage his advances repeatedly. Note: she did not get up and leave the room.

She claims she told him repeatedly, "No," and at some point he said, "I will make you." Note: she did not get up and leave the room.

Now, she claims she was afraid he would hit her and so she let's him have sex with her. Note: she did not even try to leave the room and she did not shout out to her roommates for help, in spite of the fact one of her roommates was clearly awake nearby.

Afterwards, she texts that roommate, saying, "Omg … I think I might have just gotten raped ... he kept pushing and pushing and I said no but he wouldn't listen … I just wanna cry ... Omg what do I do!"

She think she might have just gotten raped? That is a very deceptive statement which indicates she does not believe what she is saying herself. She then explains that "he kept pushing and pushing and I said no but he wouldn't listen." Pushing someone to have sex is NOT rape; it is obnoxious, it is annoying, and it is ungentlemanly, but it is not rape if the woman gets tired of the pressure and gives in. If a woman "gives in," she has not been raped; she has been seduced in a rather unerotic manner. It seems like what we are dealing with here is "buyer's remorse".

Having been "raped," the "victim" then kindly drives her rapist home. She goes to the clinic the next day but doesn't report the "rape" to the police for six weeks.

This is utter rot. The woman has not in any way described a rape. The prosecutor's office should be ashamed of charging Jordan Johnson with rape when there is no proof of one. The University of Montana should be ashamed of tossing Johnson off the football team. And all those folks who I see jumping up adn down in support of this woman and gleefully clapping that Johnson has gotten his comeuppance should be ashamed that he has been tried by the public and with not one shred of evidence proving his guilt.

There ARE women who have suffered being raped by an acquaintance or a date and it is sad that the victim, the female, most often cannot prove she was raped very successfully in a court of law because of the lack of visible trauma (especially if she was too drunk to be able to make any move to defend herself which is most often the case) and the he said/she said problem of it all. Usually, the rape occurs in a location where a threat might scare the victim enough not to fight back or she is so out of it she can't. In this case, neither of these two circumstances applied, so the "victim's" story has no credibility to me at all.

It is not okay for our daughters to be raped by college boys who think they are entitled to "hit it" if they want. But, it is also not okay for our sons to be accused of crimes they did not commit and have their futures completely destroyed. And, most importantly, it is not fair to rape victims, true rape victims, to  have cases like this cause a backlash against them.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

August 3, 2012          

                 
How to Save your Daughter's Life by Pat Brown will be out on August 15, 2012. Pre-order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

There is a whole chapter in the book about Date Rape and how to keep your daughter from becoming a victim of this crime and the realities of date rape in our society and court system.

                                   



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen, Pat. You're doing much good to women AND men. Châtelaine

Anonymous said...

ETA
I "think" I just got raped ... ?

Anonymous said...

The lady should come to Africa and hear the testamonies of real rape victims, often gang raped. They don't wonder if they have been raped, they know and the injuries confirm it.

Anne Guedes said...

I wish media would question you about this topic. I wish thousands of women could hear your casual and firm statement.
By the way, when did the woman text "I think I just got raped..." ? Before crossing the living room to drive the man home ?

Anonymous said...

This is too ridiculous for words and damages rape claims from real victims, as it is alw
ays up to them to deliver proof ... BTW reminds me of Assange's extradiction to Sweden for very doubtful rape claims too ...
Châtelaine

Anonymous said...

I can understand the case Pat is making, and I agree with her on almost everything and am a longtime fan of her work. However, I had an incident that wasn't all that far off from this one when I was young. I don't think whether the girl brought him to her apartment drunk automatically disqualifies her from having felt she'd been intimidated and/or forced. I describe my incident as "almost a date rape."

I lived in an apartment with no phone and hung out with a certain crowd. This guy was one of the crowd, so many people knew him, mostly guys I knew and worked with or ran with. I'd talked to him briefly a number of times out at clubs watching bands. It was the seventies and, other than this incident, a very fun and adventurous time for me, and I brought him home with me.

As soon as he got there, his personality changed. He began trying to play head games. He began projecting his issues onto me, saying I was frigid, etc. Now, bear in mind that I brought him home knowing I was likely going to sleep with him, but when a guy changes before your eyes into a creep, a woman, even one who picks up guys at bars sometimes, is entitled to change her mind.

I could have screamed, but I didn't know the neighbors, didn't even speak their language, the ones nearby. It was the middle of the night, no phone. I tried just beating him at his mind game, but if you've ever debated with a sick person who also has low self-esteem and is following a script, you may understand how futile that is. Nothing I could have said would have made a difference. I started trying to maneuver where I could just leave out my front door, with my keys, but he would stand in front of it. I didn't know what he was capable of, but by this time I knew he was sick. At that time, most of the psychology I'd read was antiquated, but reading 12 volumes of Freud case histories plus some Carl Jung gave me enough tools to recognize a creep when I saw one change personalities in front of me and know this guy could be dangerous.

I finally just told him basically, Let's get it over with. I didn't want to be physically forced, and best I could tell, that's where it was headed. I thought probably he'd leave if he got what he wanted.

I was wrong. He went to sleep. I laid awake until the place I worked across the street opened in the morning and then ran over there. I took a friend and went home at noon, and he was gone.

Leading up to this encounter, I realized in retrospect, I'd been stalked, but I didn't know much about stalking at the time. I'd been getting nasty phone calls at work but wasn't sure they were all for me, and once I'd seen him a few weeks before in the hallway to my apartment. I thought nothing of it at the time, had no reason to think he didn't know someone there or any reason to think he was focused on me. We'd had nothing but small little chitchat before then.

So was I raped? Guess not, and I didn't report it, although some months later I let a man I knew know about it when the creep began coming into my work again, and he had a talk with him in the parking lot. No problems after that. But I felt violated, just as I had in earlier times when my house had been robbed twice by a teen I never saw or knew who took all my underwear. It was the same feeling. Should his life have been ruined? At least for a little while, I think, don't you?

Now, only the girl in the blog you write about knows what really happened, and certainly there are many who just go on the offensive when they regret something, but I wouldn't automatically write her off, and if I did, it would have nothing to do with whether she drank or picked up guys. It's still supposed to be consensual.

Pat Brown said...

The problem with "consensual" is just how much of a YES and how much of a NO is just that. Much sex goes forward without any statement of any sort and much goes forth with statements to the contrary afterwards the woman would say the sex was consensual. We do not make a contract, other than marriage, that puts us in a bed together and approves the sex act and if we are going to say the woman must make a specific statement as to her acceptance of a sex act, then maybe we should require a signature or a tape recording. When you come right down to it, sex outside of marriage is a commonplace event that commonly occurs without any statement of any sort

Barring some level of true proof that the sex was not consensual, no one should be convicted on a mere statement of one of the parties. It COULD be a true statement, but we can't prove it and we shouldn't convict on he said/she said. The fact we need to get into our brains is that women DO have to be responsible and protective of their own sexuality. If they don't want to end up in a situation where nonviolent sex occurs without permission, the woman needs to not get drunk with questionable characters, not bring such fellows home, and not go with them to their homes. We must PROTECT ourselves from situations these crimes can occur in the same way we would not drive through certain neighborhood at night or walk around in expensive jewelry in a gang area.

The situation presented above Anonymous is not uncommon. The idea was to have sex but then changing one's mind. The guy expected sex and made his move, Anonymous decided he scared her and went along with the program. I can't say you were wrong, Anonymous, in your assessment of the man, but the fact is, no forcible act occurred, so, no, technically you were not raped. You had crappy sex with a creepy dude, but you were not raped. Such a situation wouldn't have occurred if you would not have allowed a man you really didn't know back to your place and given him the feeling he was going to get something. He was a douchbag but you were a sucker. Hey, many of us, myself included, have been there, done that, and were pissed off later. But it isn't rape; it WAS consensual sex even if it was unpleasant and humiliating.

The problem is the accusation of rape when really we are not sure such a thing happened. Having heard the stories from my own two sons, there IS another side to these stories; girls who tease, girls who like to get guys in trouble, girls who like to get back at guys. Sometimes girls are pretty creepy, too! So the question is, who is really telling the truth and did rape actually occur rather than unfortunate sex?

It is often very confusing and, in the University of Montana case, the girl definitely does not sound like she did anything of any real sort to stop the sex from occurring when she clearly could have. I see no real evidence of any physical threat especially when she had roommates in the next rooms and she didn't even say she tried to stand up and walk out of the room. I think she just got pressured into it and wasn't happy about it. Sorry, lousy, maybe the guy is an a-hole, but not rape.

Anonymous said...

In my case, no kissing or closeness occurred until I finally agreed to sex. We didn't start anything. He just started acting creepy as soon as the door was shut. It wasn't like I started making out with him and then said no. As soon as he started acting different and began acting out his verbal script, I just started looking for ways to get rid of him or get out myself. So that's a bit different than lolling around with someone and saying no after it's gone to a certain point, though I have to say, a woman still has a right to say no at any point and under any circumstances. The words "date rape" weren't even invented at the time this happened, so there was never any idea I'd go to the police. Today, I'd have gone for the frying pan instead, but that's because my defenses are now fully informed. Then, I was just trying to process things as they were happening.

You can't fault a woman for not having good radar on men such as these, because you know better than most that they develop skills and cons to charm you and get you where they want you. This guy was no genius, but he knew how to put up a safe casual-seeming facade, plus I knew people who knew him and had heard nothing negative. In the single world in the seventies, that's about as "recommended" as anyone could come.

I had sex to try to stop myself from coming to more violent harm in that situation, but in my mind, it was not consensual because I tried to get him to leave and I also tried to leave.

Certainly unless I had let this guy beat me up, hitting me in places it would show, this would have been he said/she said to the police. At the time they never would have even questioned the man, in all likelihood. The recourse I would follow now is going on the offensive, but it's not that simple when you're young and you grew up in a man's world.

Anonymous said...

You probably won't print this but here goes.
I take it that the photo you posted was taken at a time when he was free and before he was charged and just looking at the photo makes my heart sink and sends shiver down my spine. I think a lot can be told by looking at someone's eyes - and his eyes don't give me good vibes.
Now I don't agree with anyone being judge and jury over someone on a one off accusation of rape or assault but it wouldn't surprise me one jot if this man has done something like this before and got away with it!
The scenario sounds feasible - woman knows man and agress to go and bring him (drunk) to her apartment. How drunk was he? Drunk enough not to be capable of having an erection? Not by her account - so was he pretending to be more drunk than he really was? If so then questions have to be asked as to why he appeared to her to be drunk.
Sometimes an assault is too traumatic to be accurately reported right away and after shock wears off and reality sets in the woman realises that what happened was rape.
No means "NO" and as I have already said, I would be very surprised if this is the first time he has forced himself on a woman.

Statement Analysis Blog said...

It would be interesting to have her entire statement. In false rape claims we look for pronouns for guidance.

In her text she "thinks" she was raped, leaving room for her, or others, to "think" otherwise. It is a weak assertion.

A rape is a violent, overpowering sexual assault. A rape victim knows what rape is, and leaves not room for debate. Obnoxious and unpleasant, yes, but rape, no.

In her statement, we follow her pronouns. One particular key is the pronoun "we." The word "we" means agreement, unity, it after the rape, the word "we" does not exist between rapist and victim. The victim is so defiled and disgusted that she does not associate with the rapist. Even in POW statements, the "Stockholm Syndrome" is not supported by the language. Victims do not say "we" in regards to herself and the rapist AFTER the rape (chronologically).

Another interesting word that is very common in false rape claims is the word "left." We find it in many false rape claims and the context is not difficult to guess.

"And then he left..." is found in many false rape claims.

If we can get a hold of her entire statement, we will likely see why she used the word "think" in her text.

Peter Hyatt