OH YES SHE DID: Meryl Streep Targeted by Street Artists With ‘She Knew’ Posters
Posted: December 20, 2017 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Activism, Barbara Kruger, Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood, Meryl Streep, Posters, Sexual abuse, Street art Leave a comment
The posters appeared in several locations in Los Angeles.
In posters that appeared in several locations in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Meryl Streep was seemingly depicted as a Harvey Weinstein enabler by anonymous street artists.
Posters hung early in the morning, before the sun came up, feature an image of Streep next to Weinstein with a red strip across her face with the text “She knew,” an apparent reference to Weinstein’s alleged sexual abuse of women over the course of decades.
The posters are a riff on the work of artist Barbara Kruger, whose signature text in red banners has been adapted and copied for decades.
Introducing: The Woody Allen Center for Sexual Health & Rehabilitation
Posted: October 16, 2017 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere | Tags: comedy, Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood, Mia Farrow, Parody, Rehab, Rehabilitation, Ronan Farrow, satire, scandal, Sex Counseling, Sexual abuse, Show Business Leave a comment
Weinstein Bonfire: Harvey Got Exposed Because He’s Not Profitable Anymore
Posted: October 16, 2017 Filed under: Cinema, Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: "The Case Against the Iran Deal: How Can We Now Stop Iran from Getting Nukes?, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Asia Argento, Gwyneth Paltrow, Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood, Hookers, Mira Sorvino, Prostitution, Rosanna Arquette, Rose McGowan, scandal, Sexual abuse, Sexual Misconduct 1 Comment
A collective jaw dropped this week as Asia Argento, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Mira Sorvino, Rosanna Arquette and a host of other women joined Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan in speaking publicly about being harassed, mauled and even allegedly raped by Hollywood’s heavyweight gorilla, Harvey Weinstein.
Media outlets ironically wrung their hands and asked in big, bold block letters: How could this have gone on for so long? If everyone knew, why didn’t anyone say anything? And the inevitable: What can be done?
To answer these questions, let’s look beyond the Harvey-shaped elephant in the room. Behind the touted veneer of creative genius and imagination, the Hollywood studio system (an umbrella term that now encompasses movie studios, television networks, news organizations, tech companies and new media) was built on top of the cushions of the casting couch. And, as we’ve seen several times this year, that couch was never retired.
I witnessed a lot at Page Six — only a fraction of which ever hit the paper (for a multitude of reasons). But I will share one incident in May 2004 that has always summed up for me how this industry really feels about women.
[Read the full story here, at the New York Post]
I had gone to dinner with a friend who was in town for the upfronts (the big annual congregation where television network executives fly in from Los Angeles and present their upcoming slates of new shows). He worked at United Talent Agency and was psyched when I scored us an 8 p.m. reservation at the hottest place in town, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market, unfortunately, next to a table of three drunk and loud television executives, one of whom I knew headed up a cable network.
“I need a hooker while I’m in town,” one man quasi-yelled.
“Dude — the top-shelf whores go for $1,000 an hour, $5,000 a night,” the cable exec bragged to his friends.
“That’s all? All night?”
“All night — whatever you want — and these are working actresses.”
“No way — who are we talking about?”
The executive, in between ordering more bottles of Patron silver, proceeded to bray out the names of women who were indeed working actresses as well as models — including one woman who was cast in a show on his network. He was her boss.
“How do you think she got the job?” the executive joked, as the others high-fived him.
That incident always ate at me — it was the crystallization of just how lousy it is out there for women trying to either get a job, do their job or advance in one of the most powerful industries in America. Read the rest of this entry »
Shabir Ahmed: the Rochdale Sex Gang Ringleader Who Blamed White Community for Not Looking After Girls
Posted: May 20, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Global, Mediasphere | Tags: Adolescents, Afghan detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Alan Sugar, Alexis Jay, Allah, Arrest, DNA, murder, Sexual abuse, United Kingdom Leave a comment
Shabir Ahmed, the man at the heart of the conspiracy carried on a secret affair with the white teenager who acted as his recruiter.
For a year he lived in fear that people in his own community might find out about the relationship and ostracise him.
On every occasion the couple had sex he would “go home, say two units of prayer and ask Allah forgiveness for doing wrong”.
He told the jury that fellow Pakistanis would regard him as having “infested” their community by sleeping with a white girl. “It’s not just them who are racist. We are racist too”.
Ahmed, who could not be named during the original trial, cut a belligerent figure in the courtroom, hurling insults at the judge and prosecution barristers and claiming he was the victim of a police-led conspiracy.
He dismissed the allegations against him as “white lies” made up by girls who had built up a profitable business empire by working as prostitutes.
“They were clever girls,” he told the jury. “If they’d gone on Lord Sugar’s Apprentice programme they would have won.
“They knew more Pakistanis than I as a Pakistani know. They knew what they were doing. They were earning good money”.
But for all his bravado he was unable to refute one crucial piece of evidence about DNA found on the clothing of a girl he raped and later trafficked around the north-west.
The defendant came to Britain as a boy in 1967. He settled in Oldham and raised a family, but has been separated from his wife since 2000.
Sources: Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to Announce Tuesday He Will No Longer Seek Re-Election
Posted: May 8, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Americans, Associated Press, Ed Murray (Washington politician), Seattle, Sexual abuse, The Seattle Times, United States Leave a comment
SEATTLE — Mayor Ed Murray will announce Tuesday morning that he will no longer seek re-election to a second term, two sources close to the mayor confirmed Monday night.
Murray will make the surprise announcement at a news conference at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the sources confirmed.
Murray previously said he would continue to run for re-election but his campaign has been troubled since a 46-year-old Kent man, Delvonn Heckard, filed a lawsuit in April claiming Murray paid him for sex when the man was a teenager in the 1980s and Murray was in his 30s.
Murray denied the allegation and said it was politically motivated. Read the rest of this entry »
FOURTH man Accuses Seattle Mayor Ed Murray of Paying Him for Sex
Posted: May 3, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Adam Johnson (footballer), Alaskan king crab fishing, Ambassadors of the United States, Associated Press, Ed Murray (Washington politician), King County Superior Court, Lawsuit, Seattle, Sexual abuse, The Seattle Times 2 Comments
In a handwritten declaration from jail, a fourth man has accused Seattle Mayor Ed Murray of paying him for sex. A Murray spokesman denied the latest allegations, calling them a ‘sensational media stunt.’
A Murray spokesman denied the latest allegations, made in a court filing late Tuesday, calling them a “sensational media stunt.” The mayor’s lawyers Wednesday morning redoubled their effort to get a judge to sanction the attorney who submitted the new court filing and is representing another man who filed a lawsuit last month.
The new accuser, 44-year-old Maurice Jones, said in a sworn court declaration he was introduced to Murray by Delvonn Heckard, the Kent man who filed last month’s lawsuit claiming Murray sexually abused him as a teenager in the 1980s.
Jones’ declaration, filed in King County Superior Court, was brief, saying he had been to Murray’s Capitol Hill apartment at an unspecified time and that Murray “gave me money for sex.”
ulie Kays, one of Heckard’s attorneys, said Wednesday that Jones was in his midteens at the time. “He recalls at least two instances when, as a teenager, Murray paid (him) for sex. Once at Murray’s apartment and once in a car,” she said.
Jones’ declaration added he was “not part of any right-wing conspiracy” and that he is gay — a reference to Murray’s argument that accusations against him by Heckard and two other men are politically motivated.
The handwritten declaration was taken at the King County Regional Justice Center in Kent on Tuesday by Kays and Lincoln Beauregard, Heckard’s lead attorney.
Jones, who has a lengthy criminal record, has been held on drug charges since late March.
The document was prepared and passed through a glassed-off visitation partition to Jones for his signature, Kays said. The declaration was filed in court along with a photograph of Beauregard holding the document, with Jones on the other side of the glass partition. Both men are smiling.
As he has with previous allegations, a Murray spokesman vehemently denied the latest claim. Read the rest of this entry »
Former Art Teacher Jessica Antoinette Jones Pleads Guilty to Sodomy of Former Student
Posted: December 8, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Education, Health and Social Issues | Tags: AMBER Alert, Ankle monitor, Foster care, Jessica Antoinette Jones, Rape, Sexual abuse, Sexual assault, statutory sodomy, The Canadian Press Leave a comment
Jessica Antoinette Jones, 33, taught art in Springfield Public Schools for eight years, starting in 2006.
“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 »
Former Middle Teacher Serena Milan Admits Sexual Relationship with 14-Year-Old Student
Posted: June 30, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Education, Health and Social Issues | Tags: Probation officer, Serena Milan, Sex offender registration, Sexual abuse, Sexual Misconduct, Teacher 1 Comment
Milan will serve 10 years probation on six felony counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and 22 felony counts of exploitation of a minor.
Jamie Satterfield reports: A former middle school teacher pleaded guilty Thursday to luring a 14-year-old student into a months-long sexual tryst, but she won’t be going to jail.
In a plea deal brokered between defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs and Knox County Assistant District Attorney General Rachel Russell, Serena Milan, 28, received a probationary sentence.
“The charges included six counts of statutory rape by an authority figure for specific sex acts, as well as several charges of sexual exploitation of a minor related to sexting between the pair.”
Milan will serve 10 years probation on six felony counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and 22 felony counts of exploitation of a minor.
She also must register as a sex offender and remain on the registry for 20 years.
Her victim’s mother, who is suing Milan, Knox County Schools and a former coach 
at the school, approved the deal, according to statements made in Knox County
Criminal Court on Thursday.
“On at least one occasion she met up with the boy at West Town Mall and then had sex with him in her car, according to the lawsuit attorney Eddie Daniel filed in Knox County Circuit Court last week on behalf of the boy’s mother.”
Milan faced a 29-count indictment filed as the result of an investigation by Knoxville Police Department Investigator Patty Tipton after the boy’s mother learned of the relationship, which spanned five months in 2015. The charges included six counts of statutory rape by an authority figure for specific sex acts, as well as several charges of sexual exploitation of a minor related to sexting between the pair.
Milan was working as an English “intervention” instructor at Northwest Middle School when in February 2015 she began coaxing the boy with sexual advances, including graphic text messages and photographs. Court records state the two had sex on at least a half-dozen occasions, including in Milan’s classroom. Read the rest of this entry »
‘One Boy’s Grades Improved’ says Brianne Altice, Former Utah English Teacher Accused of Sex with Students
Posted: April 29, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Education, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Allegation, Brianne Altice, Child sexual abuse, Complaint, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hush money, Illinois, Plea, Sexual abuse, United States Attorney Leave a comment
The parents claim the school did nothing when employees complained about Altice’s behavior with students.
A former teacher in Utah who pleaded guilty to sexual abuse charges made surprising admissions in a written response filed Tuesday in federal court.
Brianne Altice is facing a total of 14 felony charges for allegedly having sexual relationships with three male students. (Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Brianne Altice is in prison for having sexual contact with three boys aged 16 and 17. She filed a two-page response last month after one of the victim’s parents filed a lawsuit against her and the school district. The parents claim the school did nothing when employees complained about Altice’s behavior with students.
Brianne Altice listens to the testimony during a preliminary hearing in 2nd District Court in Farmington, Utah. (Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
Altice, a former English teacher, said the then-16-year-old boy whose parents are suing her would “thwart inappropriate comments directed at her.”
[Read the full story here, at nbc41.com]
Altice wrote that the teen would come to her for advice on his relationship with his parents. She said she told him “to communicate with his parents and continue to do his best in school.” Read the rest of this entry »
In Flagrante Delicto: Middle School Teacher Christine Taylor Invited a Teen to Her Home for Pizza, But His Mom Walked In On…
Posted: January 4, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Education | Tags: aperville, Arraignment, Brooklyn, Child sexual abuse, Christine Taylor, Prison, Sexual abuse, Teacher Leave a comment
44-year-old teacher Christine Taylor of Naperville, Ill. has been accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old teen after inviting the teen and his mother to her home for pizza on New Year’s Day.
“Around 9 p.m., police said Taylor convinced the victim’s mother to allow him to walk Taylor’s dog with her. Instead of walking the dog, Taylor allegedly took the boy to her bedroom and sexually abused him.”
Taylor, a language arts teacher at Jefferson Middle School, allegedly convinced the mother to let her son go with her to walk the dog. Little did the mother know that “walk the dog” meant “take him to the bedroom.”
“The mother apparently caught her in the act. Another resident in Taylor’s house called the police and Taylor was arrested.”
According to ABC7, “around 9 p.m., police said Taylor convinced the victim’s mother to allow him to walk Taylor’s dog with her. Instead of walking the dog, Taylor allegedly took the boy to her bedroom and sexually abused him.”
The mother apparently caught her in the act….(read more)
[VIDEO] JOURNALISM: Don Lemon Ends CNN Interview After Guest Kurt Schlichter Calls Bill Clinton a ‘Serial Sexual Abuser’
Posted: December 27, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Bill Clinton, CNN, Dennis Hastert, Don Lemon, Federal Bureau of Investigation, harassment, Hush money, Nancy French, Patheos, Plea, Rape, Sexual abuse Leave a comment
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.”
[Read the full story here, at patheos.com]
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.
When outspoken conservative Kurt Schlichter called Hillary herself an enabler of sexual harassment, pointing out her denial of allegations against her husband, Don Lemon cut him off… (read more)
Source: patheos.com
[VIDEO] BABY WHAT I WANT: Everybody Thinks They Know What ISIS Wants
Posted: December 11, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Terrorism, War Room, White House | Tags: Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, ISIS, Islamism, Jihadism, Obama administration, Policy, Sexual abuse, Syria, The Pentagon, United States Armed Forces, Washington Free Beacon Leave a comment
The Islamic State Wants Us to Destroy It
Blake Seitz reports: The Islamic State terrorist group wants nothing more than for the U.S. Armed Forces to destroy it, politicians and pundits say.
“They are begging for U.S. troops on the ground. That’s what they want.”
— former Obama administration official Van Jones
Dozens of thought leaders familiar with the terrorist group say that its members yearn for the day that close air support from an A-10 Warthog cuts them in half while coalition soldiers storm Raqqa.
“The one thing ISIS wants the most: American boots on the ground.”
— CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria
“They are begging for U.S. troops on the ground,” former Obama administration official Van Jones said. “That’s what they want.”
“The one thing ISIS wants the most: American boots on the ground,” CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria said.
“As long as we’re relying on military force, this is the kind of terms [sic] that ISIS wants. This is what strengthens them,” Institute for Policy Studies scholar Phyllis Bennis said….(read more)
Source: Washington Free Beacon
Liberalism’s Imaginary Enemies
Posted: December 1, 2015 Filed under: Global, Mediasphere, Science & Technology, Think Tank, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Amateur Athletic Union, Association of American Universities, Boston, Harvard Law School, Office for Civil Rights, Sexual abuse, Sexual assault, Title IX, United States Department of Education, University of Virginia 1 Comment
Little children have imaginary friends. Modern liberalism has imaginary enemies.
Bret Stephens
writes: Hunger in America is an imaginary enemy. Liberal advocacy groups routinely claim that one in seven Americans is hungry—in a country where the poorest counties have the highest rates of obesity. The statistic is a preposterous extrapolation from a dubious Agriculture Department measure of “food insecurity.” But the line gives those advocacy groups a reason to exist while feeding the liberal narrative of America as a savage society of haves and have nots.
The campus-rape epidemic—in which one in five female college students is said to be the victim of sexual assault—is an imaginary enemy. Never mind the debunked rape scandals at Duke and the University of Virginia, or the soon-to-be-debunked case at the heart of “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about an alleged sexual assault at Harvard Law School. The real question is: If modern campuses were really zones of mass predation—Congo on the quad—why would intelligent young women even think of attending a coeducational school? They do because there is no epidemic. But the campus-rape narrative sustains liberal fictions of a never-ending war on women.
[Read the full text here, at WSJ]
Institutionalized racism is an imaginary enemy. Somehow we’re supposed to believe that the same college administrators who have made a religion of diversity are really the second coming of Strom Thurmond. Somehow we’re supposed to believe that twice electing a black president is evidence of our racial incorrigibility. We’re supposed to believe this anyway because the future of liberal racialism—from affirmative action to diversity quotas to slavery reparations—requires periodic sightings of the ghosts of a racist past.
I mention these examples by way of preface to the climate-change summit that began this week in Paris. But first notice a pattern. Read the rest of this entry »
Michelle Yeh Update: Teacher, 28, Suspected of Sexual Abuse of 15-Year-Old Student
Posted: November 22, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Education, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Associated Press, Barack Obama, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Police Department, Misconduct, Rape, Sexual abuse, South Los Angeles, Tesla Model S, The Police Leave a comment
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….
Source: KTLA
Federal Government Ruling: High School Girls Forced to Undress Next to Naked Boys
Posted: November 3, 2015 Filed under: Education, Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Chicago, Federal law, High school, John Knight, LGBT, Office for Civil Rights, Sexual abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Teresa A. Sullivan, Title IX, Transgender, United States Department of Education, University of Virginia 2 Comments
FEDS RULE TO FORCE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS TO UNDRESS NEXT TO NAKED BOYS WHO THINK THEY’RE GIRLS
Ben Shapiro reports: On Wednesday, the federal government declared itself fit for the madhouse by mandating that a Chicago high school allow a full biological male into the girls’ locker room for all purposes, including nudity. This biological male, the feds determined, was different because he thinks he is a female.
The feds have ruled that the presence of a twig-and-berries in the girls’ locker room has been mandated by Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. Yes, ladies and gents and non-cisgenders: 
it turns out that the battle against sexism enshrined in the ill-written Title IX was actually intended to force underage young women to look at the penises and testicles of mentally ill boys.
Progress.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights spent almost two years checking out the Township High School District 211 because of the transgender “girl.” He filed a complaint with the feds in 2013 after the school refused “unrestricted access” to the girls’ locker room. The district eventually agreed to allow the boy into the girls’ room so long as he used a privacy curtain while disrobing.
[Read the full story here, at Breitbart.com]
That wasn’t good enough. The feds determined that this still constituted discrimination. Why? As John Knight, director of the alphabet-soup LGBT and AIDS Project at the ACLU, stated, this was “blatant discrimination.” He explained (well, we think it’s a he, unless he identifies differently today):
It’s not voluntary; it’s mandatory for her. It’s one thing to say to all the girls, “You can choose if you want some extra privacy,” but it’s another thing to say, “You, and you alone, must use them.” That sends a pretty strong signal to her that she’s not accepted and the district does not see her as a girl. Read the rest of this entry »
Excuses: Woman Charged with Raping Teen Boy; ‘I May Have Been Drunk’
Posted: August 24, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption | Tags: Drunk, Samantha D. Cooper, Sexual abuse Leave a comment
A no-bail arrest warrant was issued for Samantha D. Cooper earlier this month when she failed to appear in court.
A 24-year-old woman charged with raping a young teen boy claims she may have been “black out drunk” when it happened, court documents show.
“The woman allegedly used a derogatory name to describe how she gets when she drinks in interviews with police.”
A no-bail arrest warrant was issued for Samantha D. Cooper earlier this month when she failed to appear in Benton County Superior Court.
“The boy told police that afterward, he shared what happened with a friend. That friend was interviewed by police and confirmed the conversation.”
Cooper had been mailed a summons to appear, but it was returned to the Clerk’s Office with no forwarding address, according to court records. Another court date has been set for Aug. 27.
Cooper is charged with third-degree rape of a child. Read the rest of this entry »
Former High School Teacher Michelle Yeh Accused of Having Sex with Underage Students, Taking One to Disneyland
Posted: August 11, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Academic term, California, Crime Stoppers, l substitute teacher was charged Tuesday with sex crimes involving multiple underage male students, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Unified School District, Michelle Yeh, one of whom she a, San Pedro High School, Sexual abuse 1 Comment
Yeh was charged with four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under 16, two counts of oral copulation of a minor under 16, and two counts of lewd act on a child 15 years of age.
LOS ANGELES — A former San Pedro High School substitute teacher was charged Tuesday with sex crimes involving multiple underage male students, one of whom she allegedly took to Disneyland, KTLA reported. 
The news station said Michelle Yeh, 28, was set to be arraigned Wednesday in Long Beach, Calif., on multiple felony and misdemeanor charges.
Yeh became a “permanent substitute” teacher at the Los Angeles Unified School District campus in February, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Police said last month that she was a science teacher who had “arranged private meetings” with her students at the end of the school year.
She bought gifts for students while pursuing relationships with them, taking one alleged victim to Disneyland and meeting another at a hotel, the DA’s office said.
In connection with two male victims, Yeh was charged with four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under 16, two counts of oral copulation of a minor under 16, and two counts of lewd act on a child 15 years of age, the DA’s office said. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Alan Dershowitz Rips Charges Against Baltimore Cops: ‘Sad Day for Justice’
Posted: May 2, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Alan Dershowitz, Baltimore, Bill Clinton, Jeffrey Epstein, Kenneth Marra, Matt Lauer, Sexual abuse, State's attorney, Steve Malzberg, United States Attorney Leave a commentJosh Feldman writes: Alan Dershowitz really went after Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby today for charging the six cops involved in the death of Freddie Gray, saying it was entirely based on politics and “crowd control.”
Dershowitz lamented that “this is a very sad day for justice” and told Steve Malzberg that Mosby acted out of a “desire to prevent riots.” It will be “virtually impossible,” he predicted, for the six officers involved to get a fair trial. Read the rest of this entry »
Are Female Teachers Who Sexually Abuse Students Losing Their Gender Privilege?
Posted: April 21, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Education | Tags: Academic achievement, Connecticut, David Finkelhor, High school, New York City, Saturday Night Live, Scott Malone, Sexual abuse, Stamford, United States Department of Education Leave a comment
Is the era of deferential treatment that protects women sex offenders from going to jail finally coming to an end?
(Reuters) – Barbara Goldberg reports: A “Saturday Night Live” skit about a male student having sex with his female high school teacher painted the relationship as every teen boy’s dream, but drew a firestorm of criticism on social media.
“Law enforcement is increasingly feminized, and women are much less prone to the old attitude: ‘Oh, this is just some kid who got lucky’. They recognize the issues involved and they go after women who violate the statutes.”
— David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center
The reaction to the comedy sketch reflected a growing view among law enforcement and victims’ advocacy groups that it is no laughing matter when a woman educator preys on her male students.
[Also see – Meredith Powell, Boy-Crazy High School Teacher Accused of Rape Resigns, Surrenders Teaching Certificate]
[ More – Joy Morsi Update: Queens Gym Teacher Gets Probation For Sex With Underage Students]
The crackdown is the result of ‘two seismic shifts’, says Christopher Anderson, executive director of Male Survivor, the largest U.S. advocacy organization for male sex-crime victims.
“One is a recognition that it does not matter who the perpetrator is or what the circumstances are. A teacher has absolutely no business engaging in sexual contact with a student…”
In U.S. schools last year, almost 800 school employees were prosecuted for sexual assault, nearly a third of them women. The proportion of women facing charges seems to be higher than in years past, when female teachers often got a pass, said Terry Abbott, a former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education, who tracked the cases.
[Also see – High School Teacher Julianna Ortiz Mills Charged with Indecent Liberties with a Student]
“…The second is a shift in the culture where boys and their parents are feeling empowered to come forward to say that something has been done.”
— Christopher Anderson
This year’s numbers are already slightly ahead of last year with 26 cases of female school employees accused of inappropriate relationships with male students in January compared to 19 cases the previous January.
Erica Ann Ginnetti, Lower Moreland High School math teacher who had sex with a 17-year-old student
“There are contrary examples, such as Pennsylvania’s Erica Ann Ginnetti, 35, the Lower Moreland High School math teacher who had sex with a 17-year-old student and was sentenced to 30 days in jail by a male judge who said, ‘What young man would not jump on that candy?'”
Female educators who sexually abuse their students are facing tougher prosecution in part because there are more women police officers. There is also a greater awareness among prosecutors, judges and the general public that students who are victimized by an authority figure, regardless of gender, experience trauma with life-long consequences.
Terry Abbott, a former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education
“Social media enables the behavior to start. There is no way that a teacher is going to walk up to a kid in the hallway and say, ‘Hey, would you like to see a naked picture of me?’ They won’t do it. But they will do that on social media. It’s like it erases what used to be that barrier.”
— Terry Abbott, a former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education
“Law enforcement is increasingly feminized, and women are much less prone to the old attitude: ‘Oh, this is just some kid who got lucky,'” said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center. “They recognize the issues involved and they go after women who violate the statutes.”
[More – Gifts & Affection: ‘Teacher Of The Year’ Darcy Smith Accused Of Raping 14-Year Old Student]
[More – Teacher in Fullerton Arrested for Alleged Relationship With 14-Year-Old]
Depression, low-self esteem and difficulty maintaining future relationships are among the long-term consequences that male victims face, according to experts. Those problems are sometimes compounded by confusion and guilt over whether they are actually victims since their adolescent bodies involuntarily respond to physical contact. Read the rest of this entry »
Reed Humanities Professor: ‘In light of the serious stress you have caused your classmates, I feel that I have no other choice’
Posted: March 19, 2015 Filed under: Education, Politics | Tags: Bill Cosby, Buzzfeed, Campus, CBC News, Christina Hoff Sommers, Jian Ghomeshi, Katherine Timpf, Rape, Rape culture, Reed College, Rolling Stone, Sexual abuse, Sexual assault, Student 1 Comment
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 told BuzzFeed 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 »
Self Defense Update: Texas Senate Approves Concealed Handguns In College Classrooms
Posted: March 18, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Self Defense | Tags: Austin, Civil Rights, Concealed carry in the United States, Gun rights, Handgun, Open carry in the United States, Rape, Second Amendment, Self-defense, Sexual abuse, Texas, Texas Senate 1 Comment
Closing the Victim Loophole
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)
Gifts & Affection: ‘Teacher Of The Year’ Darcy Smith Accused Of Raping 14-Year Old Student
Posted: March 7, 2015 Filed under: Education, Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Child sexual abuse, Darcy M. Smith, Darcy Smith, King County Superior Court, KOMO-TV, Police, Rape, SeaTac, Sexual abuse, Teacher, Washington, Washington State 3 Comments
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.
[Highline teacher charged with rape of former student Highline Times]
[Suddenly, We’re Discovering That Sexual Abuse of Boys by Women Is Vastly More Common Than Previously… pjmedia.com]
[Teacher Of The Year Allegedly Raped 14-Year-Old Student The Inquisitr]
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 »
Are Today’s Millennials a New Victorian Generation?
Posted: January 26, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: American Enterprise Institute, Andrew Cuomo, Arrest warrant, Assault rifle, Bail, Bill Cosby, Michael Barone, Millennial generation, Millennials, Pregnancy, Sexual abuse, Sexual assault, Teens, Victorian, William Strauss and Neil Howe 1 Comment
Michael Barone
writes: Public policymakers and political pundits tend to focus on problems — understandably, because if things are going right they aren’t thought to need attention. Yet positive developments can teach us things as well, when, for reasons not necessarily clear, great masses of people start to behave more constructively.
“What accounts for this virtuous cycle? …I think what we are seeing is a mass changing of minds.”
One such trend is the better behavior of the young Americans of today compared to those 25 years ago. Almost no one anticipated it, the exception being William Strauss and Neil Howe in their 1991 book Generations, who named Americans born after 1981 the Millennial generation and predicted that “the tiny boys and girls now playing with Lego blocks” — and those then still unborn — would become “the nation’s next great Civic generation.”
The most obvious evidence of the Millennials’ virtuous behavior is the vast decline in violent crime in the last 25 years. The most crime-prone age and gender cohort — 15-to-25-year-old males — are committing far fewer crimes than that cohort did in 1990.
Statistics tell the dramatic story. In two decades the murder rate fell 49 percent, the forcible rape rate 33 percent, the robbery rate 48 percent, the aggravated assault rate 39 percent. Government agencies report that sexual assaults against 12-to-17-year-olds declined by more than half and violent victimization of teenagers at school declined 60 percent.
Binge-drinking by high school seniors is lower than at any time since 1976, sexual intercourse among ninth graders and the percentage of high school seniors with more than three partners has declined. Read the rest of this entry »
Low-Age Mile-High Club Membership: Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’
Posted: January 22, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Alan Dershowitz, Bill Clinton, Business jet, Child sexual abuse, Duke of York, Erotic massage, Hillary Clinton, Jeffrey Epstein, Lewinsky scandal, Prince Andrew, Sexual abuse Leave a comment
Bill Clinton took repeated trips on the “Lolita Express“—the private passenger jet owned by billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein—with an actress in softcore porn movies whose name appears in Epstein’s address book under an entry for “massages,” according to flight logbooks obtained by Gawker and published today for the first time. The logs also show that Clinton shared more than a dozen flights with a woman who federal prosecutors believe procured underage girls to sexually service Epstein and his friends and acted as a “potential co-conspirator” in his crimes.
“Clinton shared Epstein’s plane with Kellen and Maxwell on at least 11 flights in 2002 and 2003—before any of the allegations against them became public—according to the pilots’ logbooks, which have surfaced in civil litigation surrounding Epstein’s crimes.”
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to one count of soliciting underage girls for sex (and one count of adult solicitation), for which he served just over a year in county jail. But sprawling local, state, and federal investigations into the eccentric investor’s habit of paying teen girls for “massages”—sessions during which he would allegedly penetrate girls with sex toys, demand to be masturbated, and have intercourse—turned up a massive network of victims, including 35 female minors whom federal prosecutors believed he’d sexually abused. He has reportedly settled lawsuits from more than 30 “Jane Doe” victims since 2008; the youngest alleged victim was 12 years old at the time of her abuse.
Epstein’s predatory past, and his now-inconvenient relationships with a Who’s Who of the Davos set, hit the front pages again earlier this month when one of his victims, Virginia Roberts, claimed in a federal court filing that Epstein recruited her as a “sex slave” at the age of 15 and “sexually trafficked [her] to politically-connected and financially-powerful people,” including Prince Andrew and attorney Alan Dershowitz. (The latter, the filing claimed, had sex with the victim “on private planes”; Dershowitz vigorously denies the charges, as does Prince Andrew.)
Two female associates of Epstein—the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein’s former assistant Sarah Kellen—have been repeatedly accused in court filings of acting as pimps for him, recruiting and grooming young girls into their network of child sex workers, and frequently participating in sex acts with them. Kellen in 
particular was believed by detectives in the Palm Beach Police Department, which was the first to start unraveling the operation, to be so deeply involved in the enterprise that they prepared a warrant for her arrest as an accessory to molestation and sex with minors. In the end, she was never arrested or charged, and federal prosecutors granted her immunity in a 2007 non-prosecution agreement that described her as a “potential co-conspirator” in sex trafficking.
Maxwell, the daughter of the late media mogul Robert Maxwell, has been accused by Roberts of photographing Epstein’s victims “in sexually explicit poses and [keeping] the child pornography on her computer,” and “engag[ing] in lesbian sex with the underage females she procured for Epstein.” She has denied the allegations in the past. Read the rest of this entry »
[CHART] Child Sexual Abuse Reality Check: Catholic Priests vs. Public School Employees
Posted: December 28, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Education, Religion | Tags: Catholic Priests, Child Safety, Child sexual abuse, corruption, Department of Education, Public Schools, Rape, Sexual abuse, Teachers Leave a comment
SPIKED: Rolling Stone‘s Rape Hoax Speaks to a New Hysteria on U.S. College Campuses
Posted: December 14, 2014 Filed under: Censorship, Education, Health and Social Issues, U.S. News | Tags: Jann Wenner, North American fraternity and sorority housing, Phi Kappa Psi, Rape, Rolling Stone, Sexual abuse, Sexual assault, University of Virginia 5 Comments
The Unravelling of the Rolling Stone Article is Not an Isolated Event
Sean Collins reports: For years now, academics and activists, backed by university administrators and government officials, have promoted the idea that there is a rape epidemic on US campuses, enabled by a ‘rape culture’ that pervades social life. This notion has created a frenzied and highly emotional atmosphere in colleges, with accusations flying and campus tribunals handing down sentences for what are essentially criminal acts. The stunning news that Rolling Stone now disowns its story that claimed a female student was gang-raped at a University of Virginia (UVA) fraternity shows that the drive to root out ‘rape culture’ is spinning out of control.
“We’re living through a full-blown panic, akin to the daycare sexual abuse scandals of the 1980s and early 1990s, with bad consequences for both women and men.”
The Rolling Stone article, written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, described in graphic terms how a young woman, ‘Jackie’, was lured by her date to a room in a fraternity, where she was allegedly raped by seven men, as part of a premeditated initiation ceremony. The terrible details included: smashing Jackie through a plate-glass table, cutting her badly; the men laughing in response to her cries, and saying things like ‘grab its motherfucking leg’; the men calling each other names like Armpit and Blanket. Appearing after a three-hour ordeal, three friends discourage Jackie from reporting this to the police or the university, or from going to a hospital, because they fear they will be banned from future parties at this fraternity. Read the rest of this entry »
Capitol Hill Staffer Avoids Jail Time After Pleading Guilty To Sexual Abuse
Posted: December 9, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Alcoholic beverage, Associated Press, Bing, Democratic Party (United States), Plea, Prosecutor, Sedative, Sexual abuse, Superior Court of the District of Columbia, The Washington Post 3 Comments
A former Capitol Hill staffer who worked for Democrats has pleaded guilty to sexual abuse in a plea agreement that apparently won’t require him to spend any time in jail.
Donny Ray Williams, Jr., 37, reportedly pleaded guilty to four charges: third degree sexual abuse, two misdemeanor charges of sexual abuse, and one misdemeanor count of threatening to do bodily harm in connection with two incidents that allegedly occurred in the summer of 2010.
Prosecutors claim that Williams allegedly invited a female congressional co-worker back to his apartment, spiked her drink with Ambien, and raped her while she was asleep. A month later, he allegedly got another woman drunk and “had sexual contact with her” without her consent, The Washington Post reported. A third woman made similar claims against Williams, while a fourth alleged that Williams had threatened her.
The case was scheduled to go to a jury trial on January 5, 2015. The court trial was originally scheduled for March, 2013.
As the Inquisitor previously detailed, Williams was originally indicted in August, 2012 on 10 charges related to sexual abuse allegations.
The remaining charges are subject to dismissal as part of the plea deal entered into last week.
At the time of the 2012 indictment, Williams deemed the allegations “absolutely and completely false,” and insisted that he was not guilty. “I’ve never done anything to hurt anybody. I tried to live my life to help people,” he added.
Instead of jail, prosecutors plan to ask for a suspended prison sentence with five years of supervised probation. Williams will also have to register as a sex offender for 10 years. Read the rest of this entry »
University of Arkansas Student Arrested In False Sex Assault Report On Campus
Posted: May 17, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Education, U.S. News | Tags: Campus, False rape report, Glenn Reynolds, Julia Garcia, Sexual abuse, Sexual assault, University of Arkansas, Washington County Sheriff's Office (Maryland) 3 Comments
For 5NEWSOnline, Shain Bergan reports: An 18-year-old student was arrested Wednesday after police said she filed a false report that she was sexually assaulted on the University of Arkansas campus.
[See also: Video Uncovered Fake Sex Assault Report On UA Campus, Police Say]
Investigators used the video of the Garland Avenue parking garage from Sunday to determine Julia Garcia’s report about being sexually assaulted there was false, according to the preliminary report released by the University of Arkansas Police Department.
Julia Garcia was arrested on suspicion of filing a false police report and released from the Washington County Detention Center without bond, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
“I like that they published her name and picture. When you file a false rape report, you’re not a victim.”
Garcia’s arraignment is scheduled for May 30, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The woman on Sunday reported to police that she was sexually assaulted in the Garland Avenue parking garage on campus. Officers immediately began searching for her alleged assailant, a 6-foot-tall man with a muscular build, according to the University of Arkansas Police Department.
Convicted Murderer from ‘Bernie’ Released, Will Now Live in Richard Linklater’s Garage
Posted: May 7, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere | Tags: Austin, Austin Texas, Bernie, Bernie Tiede, Richard Linklater, Sexual abuse, Texas, Tiede 1 Comment
AUSTIN, Texas, May 6 (UPI) –The subject of 2011’s Bernie could be released from prison on Tuesday on the condition that he live with the film’s director, Richard Linklater, at his home in Austin.
Bernie Tiede, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Marjorie Nugent, would also be required to receive counseling for sexual abuse.
State district Judge Diane DeVasto will hear testimony from psychiatrists who will argue that Tiede should have received a lighter sentence because he was sexually abused as a youth.
“Through counseling, Mr. Tiede can address his past abusive experiences and develop appropriate coping skills that would allow him to form and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships,” psychiatrist Richard Pesikoff wrote in a report after evaluating Tiede.
The former funeral director, then 38, shot 81-year-old Nugent in the back and hid her body in a freezer more than 17 years ago in 1996…(read more)
From E.W.
Bernie Tiede, the convicted murderer portrayed by Jack Black in Richard Linklater’s 2011 dark comedy Bernie, was released from prison on Tuesday after a lifetime sentence was reduced to time served. There were a few conditions, in addition to a $10,000 bond. The oddest and most notable of them: living in Linklater’s garage apartment. Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE: Boy-Crazy Tacoma Math Teacher Meredith Powell: FORTH Student Comes Forward to Allege Sexual Misconduct
Posted: April 5, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Education | Tags: Child sexual abuse, KOMO News, Lincoln High School, Meredith Powell, Powell, Sexual abuse, Snapchat, Student, Tacoma Public School, Tacoma Washington, Teacher 2 Comments
According to the updated charging documents, Powell engaged in a sexual act with a then-17-year-old student in her classroom after he expressed a desire to raise his math grade.
“…he needed help getting his grade up and she asked what he would want to do. He said he would do anything. ‘You’ll do anything?’ …and reached over and unzipped his pants…”
[Flashback: Meredith Powell in Custody of Her Mother: Boy-Crazy High School Teacher Accused of Rape Resigns]
TACOMA, Wash. — KOMO News‘s Michael Harthorne reports: A fourth student has come forward alleging sexual abuse at the hands of a 24-year-old former math teacher at Lincoln High School, according to new charges filed Thursday with Pierce County Superior Court.
[VIDEO] Libido Update: Boy-Crazy Teacher Meredith Powell Arrested [See also – Exclusive: Controversial Female Teachers’ Group Dedicated to “Woman-Boy Love” Pledges Legal Support to Meredith Powell]
Lincoln High School teacher Meredith Claire Powell was released on personal recognizance to her mother in Wa. Photo/Lui Kit Wong
Meredith Powell was arrested in February and charged with two counts of child rape and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes. According to the original charges, Powell engaged in sexual activity — often in her classroom — with three students between the ages of 15 and 17 and sent inappropriate text messages and photos. Powell’s alleged misconduct came to light when she wrote a letter apologizing to the girlfriend of one of the abused students, according to the charging documents. [NSFW Powell court document detailing confessed abuse] She now faces a fourth charge, sexual misconduct with a minor. According to the updated charging documents, Powell engaged in a sexual act with a then-17-year-old student in her classroom after he expressed a desire to raise his math grade. [The girlfriend letter: “Obviously nothing physical or emotional ever happened between (the boy) and I, nor would it ever…”]
Meredith Powell is alleged to have engaged in oral sex with two of her students in her classroom here at Lincoln High
Study: Can Boys Be Coerced Into Sex?
Posted: March 28, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Coercion, Daily Beast, Masculinity, Rape, Sexual abuse, Sexual intercourse 3 Comments
The notion of teenage boys as sexual aggressors is so engrained, the results of a new study, which reveal that they are being coerced into sex by girls and young women, will surprise many.
“This study should be a wake-up call to parents and educators everywhere…”
— Dr. Barbara Greenberg
The idea that boys (those sex-obsessed little monsters) could be victims of “sexual coercion,” while young girls (so often on the receiving end of clumsy and aggressive sexual advances of the sex-obsessed little monsters) could be perpetrators is, to many, both counterintuitive and unlikely.
“This is such an under-discussed topic,” clinical psychologist Dr. Barbara Greenberg told The Daily Beast. “We’ve been grossly negligent when it comes to talking to teenage boys about sex because society makes the assumption that young adult men are sex-crazed maniacs. But men and teenage boys have tender feelings too, and we often neglect them when it comes to sexuality.”
That females can be sexually aggressive—and young men and teenage boys can sheepishly submit to sexual aggression—is considered peculiar because “coerced sex” is narrowly imagined as violent or forced sex. But according to French’s research, only “18 percent [of respondents] reported sexual coercion by physical force” while 31 percent said “they were verbally coerced [and] 26 percent described unwanted seduction by sexual behaviors.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Woody Allen, Sex Abuse Allegations, and Believing the Victim
Posted: February 13, 2014 Filed under: Entertainment, Health and Social Issues, Think Tank | Tags: Allen, Canada, Cathy Young, Dylan Farrow, Jessica Valenti, Mia Farrow, Sexual abuse, Woody Allen 1 CommentHow a new feminist dogma asks us to throw reason to the wind — harming both men and women
Cathy Young writes: The revived sexual abuse allegations against filmmaker Woody Allen have become the newest gender-war battlefield. Renewed claims by Allen’s 28-year-old adopted daughter, the former Dylan Farrow, that he sexually assaulted her more than two decades ago have generated an intense debate about the facts and the issues. Yet some voices, all from the feminist camp, are saying that there shouldn’t be a debate at all: We must “believe the survivor” and condemn the perpetrator. While allegations of child abuse certainly should be taken seriously, the assumption that such an accusation equals guilt is repugnant and dangerous — not only to innocent men but to women too.
Writing for The Nation, Jessica Valenti argues that if we believe Dylan Farrow’s account leaves any room for doubt, it’s because “patriarchy pushes us to put aside our good judgment.” After all, says Valenti, we know that sexual violence against women and girls is pervasive and vastly underreported, and victims come forward at great personal cost.
Dylan Farrow Gives First Interiew After New York Times Letter
Posted: February 6, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Breaking News, U.S. News | Tags: Allen, Dylan Farrow, Farrow, Mia Farrow, New York Times, Sexual abuse, Woody Allen 1 Comment
“…My intention in writing that piece was to put the truth on paper from a voice that was not able to speak before…”
Francesca Bacardi reports: For the first time since she penned her letter to the New York Times about the alleged sexual abuse she has accused her adoptive father Woody Allen of, Dylan Farrow has spoken to People about both the charges she has made and the backlash.
[The full interview can be read here]
Farrow’s critics have accused her of writing the letter as a means of sabotaging her father and his career, but she insists this isn’t the case. “I’ve been hearing that a lot,” Farrow told People. “I’m happy to answer that. My intention in writing that piece was to put the truth on paper from a voice that was not able to speak before.”
In Her Own Words: NYTimes Publishes Open Letter from Dylan Farrow Re: Woody Allen
Posted: February 1, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Annie Hall, Connecticut, Dylan Farrow, Hollywood, Manhattan, Mia Farrow, New York Times, Ronan Farrow, Sexual abuse, State of Connecticut, Television, Woody Allen 2 Comments
“…what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.”
Dylan Farrow writes:
For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like. I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.
When I asked my mother if her dad did to her what Woody Allen did to me, I honestly did not know the answer. I also didn’t know the firestorm it would trigger. I didn’t know that my father would use his sexual relationship with my sister to cover up the abuse he inflicted on me. I didn’t know that he would accuse my mother of planting the abuse in my head and call her a liar for defending me. I didn’t know that I would be made to recount my story over and over again, to doctor after doctor, pushed to see if I’d admit I was lying as part of a legal battle I couldn’t possibly understand. At one point, my mother sat me down and told me that I wouldn’t be in trouble if I was lying – that I could take it all back. I couldn’t. It was all true. But sexual abuse claims against the powerful stall more easily. There were experts willing attack my credibility. There were doctors willing to gaslight an abused child.
“..I could only hide my panic until I found a place to be alone and fall apart…”
After a custody hearing denied my father visitation rights, my mother declined to pursue criminal charges, despite findings of probable cause by the State of Connecticut – due to, in the words of the prosecutor, the fragility of the “child victim.” Woody Allen was never convicted of any crime.
pundit from another planet 