The swiftness with which injustice was meted out to Tommy Robinson is stunning. No, more than that: it is terrifying.
Without having access to his own lawyer, Robinson was summarily tried and sentenced to 13 months behind bars. He was then transported to Hull Prison.
Meanwhile, the judge who sentenced Robinson also ordered British media not to report on his case. Newspapers that had already posted reports of his arrest quickly took them down. All this happened on the same day.
In Britain, rapists enjoy the right to a full and fair trial, the right to the legal representation of their choice, the right to have sufficient time to prepare their cases, and the right to go home on bail between sessions of their trial. No such rights were offered, however, to Tommy Robinson.
Bruce Bawer writes: The very first time I set foot in London, back in my early twenties, I kicked up into an adrenaline high that lasted for the entire week of my visit. Never, in later years, did any other place ever have such an impact on me — not Paris, not Rome. Yes, Rome was a cradle of Western civilization, and Paris a hub of Western culture — but Britain was the place where the values of the Anglosphere, above all a dedication to freedom, had fully taken form. Without Britain, there would have been no U.S. Declaration of Independence, Constitution, or Bill of Rights.
“One potentially positive aspect of this ugly turn of events is that it turned heads that should have been turned long ago.”
In recent years, alas, Britain has deviated from its commitment to liberty. Foreign critics of Islam, such as the American scholar Robert Spencer, and for a time, even the Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders have been barred from the country. Now, at least one prominent native critic of Islam, Tommy Robinson, has been repeatedly harassed by the police, railroaded by the courts, and left unprotected by prison officials who have allowed Muslim inmates to beat him senseless. Clearly, British authorities view Robinson as a troublemaker and would like nothing more than to see him give up his fight, leave the country (as Ayaan Hirsi Ali left the Netherlands), or get killed by a jihadist (as happened to the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh).
On Friday, as reported here yesterday, the saga of Tommy Robinson entered a new chapter. British police officers pulled him off a street in Leeds, where, in his role as a citizen journalist, he was livestreaming a Facebook video from outside a courthouse. Inside that building, several defendants were on trial for allegedly being part of a so-called “grooming gang” — a group of men, almost all Muslim, who systematically rape non-Muslim children, in some cases hundreds of them, over a period of years or decades. Some ten thousand Facebook viewers around the world witnessed Robinson’s arrest live.
The police promptly dragged Robinson in front of a judge, where, without having access to his own lawyer, he was summarily tried and sentenced to 13 months behind bars. He was then transported to Hull Prison.
Meanwhile, the judge who sentenced him also ordered the British media not to report on his case. Newspapers that had already posted reports of his arrest quickly took them down. Even ordinary citizens who had written about the arrest on social media removed their posts, for fear of sharing Robinson’s fate. All this happened on the same day.
A kangaroo court, then a gag order. In the United Kingdom, where rapists enjoy the right to a full and fair trial, the right to the legal representation of their choice, the right to have sufficient time to prepare their cases, and the right to go home on bail between sessions of their trial. No such rights were offered, however, to Tommy Robinson.
The swiftness with which injustice was meted out to Robinson is stunning. No, more than that: it is terrifying. On various occasions over the years, I have been subjected in person to an immediate threat of Islamic violence: I have had a knife pulled on me by a young gang member, and been encircled by a crowd of belligerent men in djellabas outside a radical mosque. But that was not frightening. This is frightening — this utter violation of fundamental British freedoms. Read the rest of this entry »
Is rape culture out of control, or have we entered a new era of “sexual McCarthyism?” We sat down with Vanessa Grigoriadis to discuss her new book, Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus.
“Young women are really putting their foot down and saying, ‘These are our bodies,'” says Vanessa Grigoriadis, author of the new book, Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus. “‘We don’t care what you, 55-year-old college president, think is consent.'”
From the conviction of Vanderbilt University football players for raping an unconscious student to the he-said-she-said story behind Columbia University’s “mattress girl” to the discredited Rolling Stone account of a gang rape at the University of Virginia, few topics generate more emotion and outrage than sexual assault on college campuses.
Grigoriadis’s book is a deeply researched and nuanced take on campus relationships and the often-fuzzy boundary separating consensual sex from assault. Over the past three years, she interviewed over 100 students and 80 administrators on 20 different campuses, and her findings further complicate an already complicated story.
Millennial college students are actually having less sex than their baby boomer and Gen X counterparts did, writes Grigoriadis, but today’s encounters take place in a hyper-sexualized and “pornified” social media context that has rewritten the rules of consent and privacy.
The result is confusion and recriminations from all sides when it comes to sex and assault on campuses. Are assault rates and rape culture out of control, or have we entered what left-wing Northwestern Professor Laura Kipnis has called a new era of “sexual McCarthyism?” Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve read and watched the news of Muslim immigration overwhelming Sweden. But how bad is it really? See this firsthand account from documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz, who shows why increased Muslim immigration is leading to a spike in rapes and other violent crime.
Jackie Salo reports: A Texas teen who ran into a church half-naked saying she was raped confessed that the story was a hoax, according to authorities.
“Two weeks ago, Talbott turned up at a local church bloody, wearing only a shirt, bra and underwear. She allegedly told churchgoers that she had been kidnapped and gang-raped in the woods behind the church.”
Two weeks ago, Talbott turned up at a local church bloody, wearing only a shirt, bra and underwear. She allegedly told churchgoers that she had been kidnapped and gang-raped in the woods behind the church.
Talbott told investigators that she was raped by two black men in ski masks while a third pinned her down. She claimed that the suspects had kidnapped near her car in an apartment parking lot, news station KXII reported.
Police found her car with a door open and her phone, keys and shoes scattered on the ground. Read the rest of this entry »
14-year-old Md. girl is gang-raped by two older teens, one of whom is an illegal immigrant, while Baltimore reels from 10 recent homicides. Tucker takes on a Baltimore councilman who wants to make law enforcement kinder and gentler during troubled times.
Hussein said his emirs, or local Islamic State commanders, gave him and others a green light to rape as many Yazidi and other women as they wanted.
Michael Georgy reports: Islamic State militant Amar Hussein says he reads the Koran all day in his tiny jail cell to become a better person. He also says he raped more than 200 women from Iraqi minorities, and shows few regrets.
“Young men need this. This is normal.”
Kurdish intelligence authorities gave Reuters rare access to Hussein and another Islamic State militant who were both captured during an assault on the city of Kirkuk in October that killed 99 civilians and members of the security forces. Sixty-three Islamic State militants died.
Hussein said his emirs, or local Islamic State commanders, gave him and others a green light to rape as many Yazidi and other women as they wanted.
“Young men need this,” Hussein told Reuters in an interview after a Kurdish counter-terrorism agent removed a black hood from his head. “This is normal.”
Hussein said he moved from house to house in several Iraqi cities raping women from the Yazidi sect and other minorities at a time when Islamic State was grabbing more and more territory from Iraqi security forces.
Kurdish security officials say they have evidence of Hussein raping and killing but they don’t know what the scale is.
Reuters could not independently verify Hussein’s account.
Witnesses and Iraqi officials say Islamic State fighters raped many Yazidi women after the group rampaged through northern Iraq in 2014. It also abducted many Yazidi women as sex slaves and killed some of their male relatives, they said.
Human rights groups have chronicled widespread abuses by Islamic State against the Yazidis. Read the rest of this entry »
Jessica Antoinette Jones, 33, taught art in Springfield Public Schools for eight years, starting in 2006.
Claudette Riley A former Springfield art teacher accused of sexually abusing a former student — while in her foster care — pleaded guilty Monday to statutory sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child.
“The girl was interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center in July 2014 but didn’t disclose any information. Days later, a second child in Jones’ care told interviewers that Jones and the girl slept in the same bed and visited an adult entertainment store to purchase pornography.”
Jessica Antoinette Jones, 33, withdrew her previous plea of not guilty and entered the new plea the same day she was scheduled to go on trial for the two felony charges.
A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for March 3 in front of Greene County Judge Calvin Holden. Jones faces up to seven years in prison on each count.
“The case was reopened after the girl disclosed she was involved in a sexual relationship with Jones. The police obtained a warrant to check the phone that had been confiscated a year earlier and the photos were found.”
Court records show no written plea agreement has been entered in the case.
Jones was hired by the Springfield district in August 2006 and spent the bulk of her eight-year career at Watkins Elementary. A state database shows she also taught art at Bissett and McGregor elementary schools, Wilson’s Creek Intermediate, the former Study Middle School and the Springfield Option Site, a school on the Great Circle campus (formerly known as Boys and Girls Town).
She was working for the district when she met the girl, a student of hers. It was not clear where she was teaching when they met.
According to court documents, the teen requested to be placed in the foster care of Jones — who completed the necessary paperwork to become a foster parent — and moved into Jones’ home in May 2013. Read the rest of this entry »
A former Santa Fe High School teacher has been arrested and charged with three counts of having an improper relationship with a student raping a student.
“Gutierrez went to the student’s residence and had sex in his bedroom, court records show.”
Kelsey Gutierrez was arrested Monday, Nov. 28 and is being held in the Galveston County Jail with no bond.
“Investigators said Gutierrez admitted to having a sexual relationship with the student, and that they found evidence on both of their phones about meeting times and the student’s sexual performance.”
Gutierrez was an English teacher at Santa Fe High School, but was terminated after an investigation that began with a tip to authorities, prosecutors said.
“Gutierrez met with the 18-year-old Santa Fe High student around midnight Nov. 12 in the parking lot of the student’s residence. The two began kissing in the front seat of her car, then climbed into the back seat to have sex.”
Four days later, Gutierrez went to the student’s residence and had sex in his bedroom, court records show.
Investigators said Gutierrez admitted to having a sexual relationship with the
student, and that they found evidence on both of their phones about meeting times and the student’s sexual performance.
“Court documents state that in 2015 Gutierrez had a sexual relationship with another teen, who was still enrolled as a student at Santa Fe High School at the time.”
In May 2015, Gutierrez picked up the second student in her car, and they drove to a gas station parking lot, where they kissed in her car, according to prosecutors.
A few weeks later, court documents said Gutierrez picked up the second student and parked on the side of the road, where they made out in her car.
“Gutierrez and the second student met up a few months later and hooked up for a fourth time, according to court documents.”
The two ‘hooked up’ again at the second student’s residence, investigators said…(read more)
“As soon as the district learned of the allegations, an internal investigation began including campus administrators and the district police department, and the teacher’s employment with the district ended,” Santa Fe ISD officials said. Read the rest of this entry »
Kasey Warren, 27, a former substitute teacher in Carlisle County Schools District, Kentucky, is accused of raping two 16-year-old male students on separate occasions in June.
A female substitute teacher has been charged with rape after she had sex with two male teenage students, police say.
Kasey Warren, 27, a former instructor within the Carlisle County Schools District, Kentucky, allegedly had sexual contact with two pupils aged 16.
One boy was allegedly attacked on or around June 3, police told Dailymail.com, while the other was attacked around June 14.
Police say she met the pair while working in the district in the latter half of the 2015-2016 term.
Cops revealed that both of the boys attended the same school, but said they will not be disclosing the name of the institution at this time.
Officers say the alleged attacks took place in neighboring McCracken County, but did not give any further details.
Cops say they received a report of the attacks on June 28, and a grand jury indicted Warren on Friday last week. Read the rest of this entry »
Pegida spokesperson says mass sexual assaults at Cologne train station vindicates her group’s call for a freeze on immigrants entering Germany.
The German anti-Muslim group Pegida will hold a rally outside the Cologne train station where dozens of women were sexually assaulted by a group of men on New Year’s Eve.
“Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers said speculation that the attackers were refugees was ‘absolutely inadmissible’”.
Witnesses and police said that the men involved were of Arab or North African appearance. Pegida are looking to capitalize on anti-immigrant fears in the wake of the attacks, and announced on its Facebook page that it will hold a rally on Saturday outside the train station.
“We don’t currently have any suspects, so we don’t know who the perpetrators were,” he said. “All we know is that the police at the scene perceived that it was mostly young men aged 18 to 35 from the Arab or North African region.”
— Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers
Pegida spokesperson Tatjana Festerling said that the attacks vindicated her group’s call for a freeze on immigrants entering Germany.
“They are exactly what we have been warning for over a year,” she told Russia Today.
Pegida supporters rally outside Cologne cathedral in January 2015
“In Germany, this so-called ‘welcome culture’ is like a religion, and everybody who criticizes uncontrolled flooding with mostly Muslim young men is called a Nazi and has to shut up.”
— Pegida spokesperson Tatjana Festerlin
She claimed that the assaults would rightfully boost anti-immigrant sentiment in the country, as “one cannot blame people that they have become more radical facing this attack on our liberal order”, she said.
“In Germany, this so-called ‘welcome culture’ is like a religion, and everybody who criticizes uncontrolled flooding with mostly Muslim young men is called a Nazi and has to shut up,” she said.
On 31 December, a crowd of around 1,000 men, many of whom were drunk and aggressive, had gathered in the square outside the station and started letting off fireworks. Police eventually evacuated the area because of the risk of injury from the fireworks.
However, gangs of young men soon returned and carried out dozens of attacks and robberies over a number of hours, with little apparent response from the local authorities until well after midnight.
German chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed outrage over the “disgusting attacks” and interior minister Thomas de Maiziere has criticized the police for their handling of the attack.
On 5 January, over 300 people took part in a demonstration against sexual violence outside Cologne station.
“Mrs Merkel, where are you? What do you say? This is scary,” read a sign held by one demonstrator.
Cologne authorities have warned that it is too early to blame immigrants for the attacks, with nobody having yet been arrested or charged in connection with the incident. Read the rest of this entry »
Nancy French writes: Facts are stubborn things. Hillary Clinton and the liberal media just can’t handle those facts.
Let’s recap: Hillary Clinton has intimidated sexual abuse victims, expressing contempt for ‘whiney women’ accusing a Senator of sexual harassment and constantly belittling and discrediting the women who accused her husband of sexual abuse. Then, she had the gall to make a campaign ad telling every sexual abuse victim that they “deserve to be believed.”
Even a few prominent liberal feminists have called her out, with Melissa Harris-Perry saying she “made an appalling choice as a feminist—not that she stayed with her husband, but that she did not speak out in defense of a barely-older-than-teenage girl who was harassed by her husband … And then she used that experience to create sympathy for herself.”
And now, as discussions surround the 2016 campaign dealing with misogyny and a possible female President, CNN’s Don Lemon decides there’s no room to discuss Hillary’s hypocrisy.
This is a very interesting read, because the whole of Europe is heading the same way as Sweden. Sweden is, so to speak, the future of Europe. And in this future, those who can afford it pay security companies – the rest gest license for firearms and forms vigilante groups.
Mr. and Mrs. Swede have every reason to be worried, with the influx of 190,000 unskilled and unemployed migrants expected this year — equivalent to 2% of Sweden’s current population. The number is as if 6.4 million penniless migrants who did not speak English arrived in U.S. in one year, or 1.3 million in Britain. …
And the Swedes are preparing: demand for firearms licenses is increasing; more and more Swedes are joining shooting clubs and starting vigilante groups. …According to police statistics, there are 1,901,325 licensed guns, owned by 567,733 people, in Sweden. Add to this an unknown number of illegal weapons. To get a gun permit in Sweden, you need to be at least 18 years old; law-abiding; well-behaved, and have a hunting license or be a member of an approved shooting club. In 2014, 11,000 people got a hunting license: 10% more than the year before. One out of five was a woman.
“There is also a high demand for alarm systems right now,” says a salesman at one of the security companies in an interview with Gatestone.
“It is largely due to the turbulence we are seeing around the country at the moment.” People have lost confidence in the State, he added. “The police will not come anymore. Truck drivers say that when they see a thief emptying the fuel tank of their trucks, they run out with a baseball bat. It is no use calling the police, but if you hit the thief, you can at least prevent him from stealing more diesel. Many homeowners say the same thing: they sleep with a baseball bat under the bed. But this is risky: the police can then say you have been prepared to use force, and that might backfire on you.”
The salesman, who asked to remain anonymous, also spoke of Sweden’s many Facebook groups, in which people in different villages openly discuss how they intend to protect themselves: “Sometimes you get totally freaked out when you see what they are writing. But you have to understand that Swedes are really scared when an asylum house opens in their village. They can see what has happened in other places.”
At another security company, a salesman said that every time the Immigration Service buys or rents a new housing facility, his firm is swamped with calls. “The next day,” he said, “half the village calls and wants to buy alarm systems.”
Ronny Fredriksson, spokesman of the security company Securitas, said that the demand for home alarm systems first exploded about six years ago, when many local police stations were shut down and police moved to the main towns. This, he said, could result in response times of several hours. “More and more people now employ the services of our security guards. Shopping malls and stores in the city come together and hire guards. We are kind of like the ‘local beat’ cops.”
Even though Securitas makes big money from the increased need for home security alarms and security guards, Fredriksson says they also are worried about the effect on society:
“The problem is that we too need the police. When our guards catch a burglar or a violent person, we call the police but the response times are often very long. Sometimes, the detainees get violent and quite rowdy. On occasion, the police have told us to release the person we have apprehended, if we have his identity, because they do not have a patrol nearby.” … Read the rest of this entry »
A Saudi millionaire who claims he accidentally fell on and penetrated an 18-year-old woman in Britain has been cleared of one count of rape.
Victor Ferreira reports: Ehsan Abdulaziz, 46 was accused of raping the woman as she slept on his sofa after bringing her and her 24-year-old friend home from a London nightclub, the Telegraph reports.
“The court heard Abdulaziz gave the two women vodka to drink before leading the 24-year-old woman to another room to have sex. When the 18-year-old awoke the next morning, she told the court Abdulaziz was on top of her and raping her.”
The woman was with her friend, who was known to Abdulaziz, at the Cirque le Soir nightclub on Aug. 7, 2014. After inviting both to join him at his CA$2,000-a-night table, the millionaire brought the two women back to his home.
“Abdulaziz said he accidentally fell on the 18-year-old woman after she seduced him. He said she pulled him toward her and placed his hand between her legs. He claimed he was only trying to offer her something to wear or a taxi ride home.”
The court heard Abdulaziz gave the two women vodka to drink before leading the 24-year-old woman to another room to have sex. When the 18-year-old awoke the next morning, she told the court Abdulaziz was on top of her and raping her. Read the rest of this entry »
At the end of the 2015 school year, she ‘reached out to the victim and arranged private meetings’.
Michelle Yeh was on a temporary teaching assignment at the San Pedro school’s science department in February, according to a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department.
At the end of the 2015 school year, she “reached out to the victim and arranged private meetings,” the release stated.
The alleged victim, who was one of Yeh’s students, disclosed in July that he was sexually abused by Yeh on multiple occasions, according to police. It was not immediately clear if the boy or his family went to police, or how LAPD learned of the allegations.
Yeh was arrested July 17 and released early the next day on $100,000 bail, inmate records indicated. She was due in court Aug. 12. A Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman said she had no comment in response to KTLA’s request for information on Yeh, whom she called a “former employee.” Detectives believe there may be other cases of unreported sexual abuse other students and Yeh. She had held multiple temporary teaching assignments and provided online tutoring that allowed her to have contact with minors, according to police….
Stephanie McCrea seen in a photo from Evergreen High School Drama’s Instagram account
Prosecutors say McCrea and the boy had sex in her home and her office beginning in December.
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A former Vancouver high school drama teacher has been sentenced to five years in prison for having sex with a 15-year-old student.
“The witness tampering charge came from communication she had with the victim through a fake Facebook page. Prosecutors say she asked the boy to keep their relationship quiet and practiced what to say if he spoke to law enforcement.”
The Columbian reports that 36-year-old Stephanie McCrea previously pleaded guilty to four counts of third-degree rape of a child and one count of tampering with a witness.
Caswell also faces a federal lawsuit from the victim’s father who is seeking $1 million in damages saying he faults the school for not notifying him or police when allegations first surfaced.
HOLLIS, Okla. (CBS Houston)– A former Oklahoma middle school teacher was sentenced to 10 years behind bars after admitting to having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.
“I was in a very unhappy marriage and I received little to no attention from my husband… While working at Hollis Public Schools I started receiving attention from a student. I reacted poorly and irresponsibly.”
The attorney for 29-year-old Jennifer Caswell said he was surprised that the former teacher and mother was handed down a “severe” sentencing of 15 years in prison and eligibility for parole only after 8 1/2 years, as reported by New York Daily News.
“I’m not a monster and I’m not a predator…I made a stupid decision.”
Caswell pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree rape, child enticement and forcible enticement, in addition to having to register as a sex offender upon release.
The former teacher appeared on an episode of Dr. Phil in May to defend her relationship with the teen, going as far as to say she envisioned walking down the aisle with him someday. Read the rest of this entry »
The magazine commissioned an analysis of the article by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and its report in April cited failures at every stage of the reporting process. After the report was made public, Rolling Stone retracted the article.
The magazine has since been the target of lawsuits from an assistant dean at the university and by three members of the fraternity at the center of the article, who filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday.
Everything depends on just 56 pages: His reputation, his future, his life. The lawsuit “Paul Nungeßer versus Columbia University” starts with the statement: “Paul Nungesser has been an outstanding and talented student at Columbia University. He thrived in his first two years and then became the victim of harassment by another student. Columbia University first became a silent bystander and then turned into an active supporter of a fellow student’s harassment campaing by institutionalizing it and heralding it.”
New York in the spring of 2015. A few days before submitting his lawsuit to a New York district court, Paul Nungeßer walks across the Columbia campus. Stately buildings with columns and inscriptions frame the yard. On the lawns, students play soccer. Others laze in the sunshine with a cup of coffee.
Just like Paul did four years ago. Paul the German highflyer from Berlin. Paul, who attended an international school in Swaziland and loved cycling. Paul the responsible one, who was involved in development projects. And even Paul the feminist, who is now notorious around the world as an alleged rapist. Judged by the public, although he was never proven guilty. He is demanding compensation from the university, but more than anything, he just wants to have a court rule that Columbia’s treatment of him was unfair.
The incident made Emma famous and ruined Paul’s life
Paul points to the building. The library where he used to spend his days and that he now avoids. The student union, where he once worked and was later interrogated. The dorm that was the alleged scene of the crime and he was forced to vacate. He looks around repeatedly. Tomorrow there will be a new demonstration by female activists. “I emailed Columbia to request protection,” says Paul. Read the rest of this entry »
Jamie Schram reports: A Manhattan model who once dated actor Gerard Butler brought rape charges against a fashion photographer — but the case fell apart when she claimed he got her pregnant and a DNA test proved he was not the father, The Post has learned.
Latvian-born stunner Alesia Riabenkova, who has done work for Guess and graced the covers of GlamourandElle magazines, met the lensman at a Long Island City lounge in October to discuss her struggling career.
“She tried to destroy my client’s life, and she should be punished for it.”
–The Fashion Photographer’s lawyer, Tom Kenniff
The two chatted over champagne about a potential photo shoot and then went back to his condo in a nearby luxury high-rise.
“The surveillance footage showed her sipping from a water bottle in the lobby without a care in the world while waiting for the police to arrive.”
— Tom Kenniff
About 45 minutes later, Riabenkova told a doorman she had been raped by the photographer and asked him to call 911, said his lawyer, Tom Kenniff.
Police arrested the lensman, and he spent a night behind bars. Prosecutors soon downgraded the charge to sexual misconduct because they found holes in her story and her rape kit tested inconclusive, Kenniff said.
Then, in January 2015, Riabenkova made a shocking claim — telling prosecutors she was impregnated during the alleged rape and wanted an abortion. Read the rest of this entry »
In her decision, DOE officer Haydee Rosario notes that a DNA test revealed both the student’s and the teacher’s saliva were on the teacher’s comforter cover
Julia Marsh reports: A Brooklyn public-school teacher whines in a new lawsuit that she was unfairly fired from her job for bedding her 12-year-old student — even though DNA, videotape, text and financial records pin her to the dirty deed.
“Rosario also says the student recorded a video that shows his teacher putting her pants on in a motel room.”
Claudia Tillery, who spent her 15-year career at the Stephen Decatur Middle School, wants back in the classroom because a jury cleared her of criminal charges.
“Tillery and her young charge exchanged 8,000 text messages over two years using pseudonyms. In one message the teacher texted, ‘What’s up babe?'”
But a Department of Education hearing officer found in April that a “preponderance of the credible record evidence” proves that Tillery raped the youngster — then painted him as a “master manipulator” to duck a criminal conviction.
In departmental hearings, the standard of proof is lower than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard required for a criminal conviction. Tillery was arrested in 2011 and acquitted in 2014.
“…the officer sided with the DOE, which scoffed at Tillery’s claims that a 12-year-old ‘concocted a grand conspiracy and coerced her, a middle-school teacher, to ignore sound judgment and to put him into a fleabag motel and give him hundreds of dollars.’”
The mother of two argues in her Manhattan Supreme Court suit against the DOE that she was deprived of due process because the hearing officer used sealed evidence from her criminal case and didn’t give proper credit to her own witnesses.
Before embarking on a sexual relationship with her 13-year-old student, Letourneau was a married schoolteacher and the mother of four children. Today she is a grandmother, but she remains a registered sex offender.
K.C. Blumm writes: “There is a story of us that has a life of its own, but it’s not our story,” Mary Kay Letourneau told Barbara Walters in a revealing interview on 20/20 Friday.
“There’s a process, there’s a form, you take it to court and then they grant it if it looks like it should be granted.”
The 53-year-old – who spent 89 months in prison for child rape as a result of her relationship with her then-student Vili Fualaau in 1996 – is looking forward to celebrating her 10th wedding anniversary with Fualaau next month and admitted that as the date approaches she’s been looking back on the events that shaped her life.
Before embarking on a sexual relationship with her 13-year-old student, Letourneau was a married schoolteacher and the mother of four children. Today she is a grandmother, but she remains a registered sex offender.
“Recently I said, ‘It’s been 10 years, why don’t I lift that?’ ” she told Walters of her status. “There’s a process, there’s a form, you take it to court and then they grant it if it looks like it should be granted.”
Letourneau, who also said that she’d like to return to teaching, admitted that earlier this year she was banned from visiting her sick teenage daughter in hospital because of her sex offender status.
While Fualaau said he remained faithful to Letourneau in his “heart and mind” while she was in prison, the former teacher says he wasn’t.
“He wasn’t faithful,” she said. “I said he did his thing, I was gone!”
However, the pair did stay in touch while Letourneau was in jail, even though they were banned from contacting each other. The couple communicated through their young daughters, who helped Fualaau propose to Letourneau.
“He had sent a message and they came in singing Hawaiian, ‘Will you marry me?’ They knew daddy would be proposing to mommy as soon as she got to leave [prison].”
As the talk turned to the couple’s children – Audrey, 17, and Georgia, 16, who were born when Fualaau was barely in his teens – Letourneau and her husband revealed that they don’t always see eye to eye when it comes to parenting.
“When the girls get in trouble, I wouldn’t handle it the way she would,” Fualaau, 31, admitted. “It will be a two-hour talk. I’ll be sitting there thinking, ‘When will this be over!’ A lot of the time I’ll give her a hard time about it but actually [it] works in the end.”
While Fualaau added that his wife is “a very good mom,” Letourneau revealed that he’s also a strict father to his girls.
“He told them several years ago, they’re not permitted to have a boyfriend,” Letourneau said. Read the rest of this entry »
Former teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and her student-turned-lover, Vili Fualaau, have revealed the intimate details of how their controversial relationship started — including what went down the night they first had sex
For Hollywood Life, Jason Brow reports: Mary Kay Letourneau, 53, and Vili Fualaau, 31, didn’t hold anything back when they sat down with Barbara Walters for their 20/20 interview, which will air on April 10. The couple that made headlines for their affair — when he was only 12 and she was his sixth grade teacher — address how it all began, even detailing their first sexual encounter!
“After a highly-publicized trial, she was sentenced to six months in jail over the charges of rape. After her release in 1998, Mary Kay and Vili were discovered having sex in a car, resulting in her being sentenced to seven and a half years behind bars for violating the terms of her probation.”
Mary Kay and Vili spoke candidly about everything during their 20/20interview, according to the Daily Mail. They even discussed the night their relationship shifted from student-teacher to passionate lovers.
“The incident was a late night that didn’t stop with a kiss. And I thought it would and it didn’t.”
“I kind of thought, ‘why can’t it ever just be a kiss?’”
The then-34 year old Mary Kay and 12-year old Vili started flirting during the 1996 school-year. The two spent time together under the excuse of her helping out his drawing skills, but it all changed one summer night.
“The incident was a late night that didn’t stop with a kiss,” Mary Kay reportedly said. “And I thought it would and it didn’t.”
When Mary Kay was asked about the affair — since at the time she was married and a mother of four young children — she said that even back then, she knew she loved Vili very much. “I kind of thought, ‘why can’t it ever just be a kiss?’”
Vili Fualaau & Mary Kay Letourneau Sex — Details Revealed In ’20/20′ Interview
The rest is history. At the end of the summer, Mary Kay was pregnant with her and Vili’s first child. Her then-husband discovered the affair and contacted the police. After a highly-publicized trial, she was sentenced to six months in jail over the charges of rape. After her release in 1998, Mary Kay and Vili were discovered having sex in a car, resulting in her being sentenced to seven and a half years behind bars for violating the terms of her probation. Read the rest of this entry »
Apparently, feelings are more important than facts
Katherine Timpf writes: A student at Reed College in Portland claims he was banned from class discussions mainly because he questioned a rape “statistic” — even though that “statistic” has been debunked — just because other students said they were uncomfortable.
Nineteen-year-old Jeremiah True toldBuzzFeed News that his Humanities 110 professor, Pancho Savery, had warned him that his views on campus sexual assault were bothering other students — before ultimately sending True an e-mail telling him he was forbidden from participating in the “conference” portion of the class at all.
“Please know that this was a difficult decision for me to make and one that I have never made before; nevertheless, in light of the serious stress you have caused your classmates, I feel that I have no other choice,” the e-mail stated, according to BuzzFeed.Read the rest of this entry »
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Senate has given preliminary approval to allowing concealed handguns in college classrooms, a day after passing a measure allowing open carry of guns most everywhere else in America’s second most-populous state….(read more)
SeaTac, Wash. (CBS SEATTLE) – A Highline School District elementary teacher, previously named “Teacher of the Year” in the region, is facing child rape charges from allegations she sexually abused a former student living in her home.
“The boy, now 19, told police that Smith, his sixth grade teacher, brought him into her home when he was 12 and began having sexual relations with him…He claims Smith showered him with gifts and affection, but that abuse intensified when Smith drank.”
King County prosecutors have charged Darcy M. Smith, 41, with three counts of child rape, alleging that she brought a boy in to live at her home when he was 12 years old and started to sexually abuse him the following year in 2008, KOMO-TV reports. The boy told police they first had sex when he was 14 and the abuse continued until he moved out of Smith’s Renton home at age 18.
“Smith told him not to say anything and made him promise not to tell . . . (she) said she would go to jail and be in big trouble if he told,” police said in charging papers. He “said he was a boy, thought it was cool.”
Court documents suggest Smith, who taught most recently at McMicken Heights Elementary School, was actively engaging in sexual misconduct with the boy when she was named regional teacher of the year in 2012.
The boy was allegedly living with Smith with his mother’s permission as her home was closer to the hospital in which he was recuperating from an injury.
“There is a lot more to this story than is contained in the cursory investigation that was done prior to the filing of these charges. Darcy looks forward to vigorously defending herself and to being exonerated.”
Smith’s attorney, Brad Meryhew, tells KOMO that she denies the allegations and has maintained her innocence since investigators first contacted her regarding the “false allegations.” In a recorded interview with investigators, Merhew says detectives failed to interview Smith’s husband or any others who would have been present in the home during the young boy’s alleged time living there. Read the rest of this entry »
AWR Hawkins writes: Collins had a concealed carry permit but was not allowed to carry her gun for self-defense because of laws against being armed on campus. She hopes lawmakers will change the laws so that female concealed carry permit holders will be allowed to carry their guns for self-defense from this point forward.
According to News 3, Collins testified “via teleconference” to the lawmakers, telling them about the moment her attacker closed in on her in a campus parking garage on the night of October 22, 2007. She said, “Out of the corner of my eye I could see the university police cruisers parked across the way, and in that same moment I knew that the university police offices had already closed. I knew no one was coming to help me.”
On August 14, 2013, Breitbart News reported that women were among the top beneficiaries of concealed carry laws. Conversely, where gun control is stringent, crimes against women rise.
RIVERSIDE – (INT) – Former Corona special-ed teacher Summer Hansen is expected to get a 3-year jail sentence when she returns to Riverside Superior Court April 3rd.
She pleaded guilty Friday to 16 sex-related crimes involving five underage boys when they were students at Centennial High School.
The incident occurred over a 12-month period in her classroom, a utility room, in her vehicle and at the home of one victim.
Students — even those who are licensed gun owners — are systematically disarmed at the college gates and told to rely on campus security guards, who rarely stumble upon a rape in progress, and call boxes to protect themselves against sexual assaults. And when they are attacked, despite these supposedly good security systems, they are told to rely on college administrators and a jury of their peers to mete out justice. How is this responsible?
S.E. Cupp writes: As the nation contemplates better ways to prevent sexual assault on college campuses, legislators and college administrators alike have recently offered some mind-bogglingly dumb ideas.
One of them is California’s new requirement that students at state schools sign consent contracts before (and during!) sexual intercourse to avoid any confusion — as if most rapes are the result of mere miscommunications.
Others insist that holding fast to the time-honored but totally ineffective tradition of adjudicating sexual assaults within the university instead of in courts of law (as if they are student council issues instead of crimes) is the best way to protect the colleges, er, the rape victims.
“As a woman and a gun owner, I’ve never understood why there wasn’t more overlap between the gun rights groups and feminists. On abortion, the feminists are clear: No man is going to tell a woman what to do with her body, or even that of her unborn child…”
While there are certainly problems on campus that need addressing, binge drinking among them, the obvious solution to make an unsafe environment safer is to give students a fighting chance to fend off attackers. That means allowing them to be armed.
It might not surprise you to learn that guns are banned on most college campuses; most are so-called “gun free zones” (that somehow criminals with guns manage to penetrate).
But many colleges, including my alma mater, Cornell University, also ban knives, stun guns and pepper spray, leaving young women (and increasingly young men) with only their hands to defend themselves in the case of an attack.
“…But when it comes to rape–on college campuses or anywhere else for that matter–feminists are perfectly comfortable allowing men — in particular Democrats in Washington — to tell them how they can and cannot defend themselves.”
Students — even those who are licensed gun owners — are systematically disarmed at the college gates and told to rely on campus security guards, who rarely stumble upon a rape in progress, and call boxes to protect themselves against sexual assaults. And when they are attacked, despite these supposedly good security systems, they are told to rely on college administrators and a jury of their peers to mete out justice. How is this responsible?
With lawmakers in 10 states now contemplating campus carry laws that would finally treat college students like free citizens instead of wards of the state, the usual anti-gun voices are coming out to dismiss this fairly straightforward idea as sheer insanity.
But isn’t this about women’s rights?
As a woman and a gun owner, I’ve never understood why there wasn’t more overlap between the gun rights groups and feminists. On abortion, the feminists are clear: No man is going to tell a woman what to do with her body, or even that of her unborn child. “No uterus? No opinion,” as the saying goes. Read the rest of this entry »
A teacher at South Iredell High School was charged after having a sexual relationship with a student, according to the Iredell Sheriff’s Office.
“Deputies say the student is over the age of 16, but according to North Carolina law it is a felony for a teacher to have a sexual relationship with a student at the same school.”
The investigation began when an Iredell County deputy saw a suspicious vehicle parked in an undeveloped residential area. The deputy said a woman, later identified as 37-year-old Julianna Ortiz Mills, was standing next to the vehicle and a younger male was sitting inside.
After both were questioned at the Sheriff’s Office, Mills was arrested and charged with one count of sexual activity with a student by a teacher and one felony count of taking indecent liberties with a student by a teacher. Read the rest of this entry »
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