So, Rolling Stone...

[baffled]

Even Jezebel thinks they're fuck ups.

[Turdacious]

They must have hired Roger Goodell as senior editor.

[Grandpa's Spells]

Even Jezebel thinks they're fuck ups.

That shit could get someone killed. And critical editors smelled it immediately.

I don't understand how, after Tawana, Duke, that anyone would take such an insane story without tough fact-checking. And RS has been killing it the last few years.

[baffled]

Over/under on ruined careers, lawsuits settled and SJW meltdowns in public forums?

[Grandpa's Spells]

Over/under on ruined careers, lawsuits settled and SJW meltdowns in public forums?

Depends on the actual facts, whether the reporter fabricated or was badly duped.

[Protobuilder]

I've read a lot of comments in social media from people who say they don't care if the story is fake, they:

a). are standing behind the victim or they don't care
b). know that it's true

[baffled]

I've read a lot of comments in social media from people who say they don't care if the story is fake, they:

a). are standing behind the victim or they don't care
b). know that it's true

Yeah, I've heard a lot of point a.

Something like the narrative is really all that matter because omg the patriarchy.

[Fat Cat]

They let Cahill write for them.

[Holland Oates]

GAWDDMAN THAT SIG!

[syaigh]

You know, it wasn't the rape itself that was so disturbing (although it was), but how the admin dealt with it. And I haven't heard anyone from UVA dispute the university's policies on that.

When I was in college, a girl on my hall was brutally raped. Not a chance it was "date rape" at all. The college chose to try and sweep it under the rug and unfortunately, the local police weren't much help either. The victim ended up having to take the perp to civil court, meanwhile he was allowed to stay on campus and she got so badly harassed by the guy's friends and people who just didn't know any of the details (and assumed she was lying) she ended up leaving. I was out of town the weekend it happened. But, she was brutally beaten and she had a rug burn across her entire forehead. She was a sweet girl.

Anyway, I'm not sure if RS is caving because the fraternity denied it or what. But, I don't really believe the fraternity either. Are they saying that because it wasn't pledge week they didn't have a party?

Here's the kicker, I KNOW that there are many women out there who claim rape when it wasn't. I'm not blind to that at all. BUT, I also know that stuff like what happened in that article DO happen. And the aftermath, ie, social pressure, ineffective administrative action, lack of police involvement are very real. So, while I will be disappointed to find out if it was actually a big lie, there are a lot of points in that story that ring very true. And I would still like to hear UVA's official policy on reporting rape to the police.

The audio is pretty rough but there is a transcript of Dean Eramo's interview with a student reporter a few weeks before RS article came out. Basically, if a male student is willing to admit that he was in the wrong, then that should be taken into consideration when looking at expulsion. (Number of students expelled for rape and/or assault: zero.)

So, look at this in the context of having your daughter go to UVA: http://vimeo.com/user20932862/review/11 ... b57f3948c3

[TerryB]

Here's the kicker, I KNOW that there are many women out there who claim rape when it wasn't. I'm not blind to that at all. BUT, I also know that stuff like what happened in that article DO happen. And the aftermath, ie, social pressure, ineffective administrative action, lack of police involvement are very real.

You ain't seen nuthin yet:

An impressively reported and very upsetting story ran over the weekend in the Kansas City Star by reporter Dugan Arnett. It starts with a house in ashes in the small town of Maryville, Mo. The family who owned that house and lived in it from 2010 to August 2012—Melinda Coleman and her four children—left town after a social and legal disaster involving allegations of sexual assault by Coleman’s 14-year-old daughter, Daisy, against a 17-year-old high school senior and football player.

EMILY BAZELON
Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and the author of Sticks and Stones.

The outline is grimly familiar from Steubenville, Ohio, and the Rehtaeh Parsons case near Halifax, Nova Scotia. This time, the football player, Matthew Barnett, was quickly arrested and charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. And then, after a vicious spate of victim blaming, the charges were dropped without explanation. Even though Sheriff Darren White “felt confident the office had put together a case that would ‘absolutely’ result in prosecutions”:

“Within four hours, we had obtained a search warrant for the house and executed that,” White told The Star. “We had all of the suspects in custody and had audio/video confessions.”
Arnett also writes that White:

maintains “no doubt” a crime was committed that night. The doctor who treated Daisy the following morning called the prosecutor’s decision to drop the charges “surprising.” And one longtime Missouri attorney believes the Colemans’ status as relative outsiders played a part in the cases’ dismissals. “The fact that the family wasn’t from Maryville made it a lot easier for the prosecutor to drop those charges,” he said.
Barnett, meanwhile, was part of a family of longtime Maryville residents and the grandson of a four-term Missouri state representative. His grandfather says he stayed out of the case. But the town lined up behind Matthew and against Daisy (whose name we are using because her mother has released it to the press).

Here’s what Arnett reports happened the night of the alleged crime: Daisy was at her house drinking with a 13-year-old friend in January 2012. She texted with Barnett, whose attention she’d attracted. She was a freshman cheerleader, and her older brother was on the football team, too. Her brother had told her to stay away from Barnett. But at 1 a.m., Daisy and her friend slipped out a window and went to Barnett’s house. Daisy drank a big glass of something. She doesn’t remember what happened next. Her 13-year-old friend went into a bedroom with a 15-year-old boy, who later told the police that “although the girl said ‘no’ multiple times, he undressed her, put a condom on and had sex with her.”
Daisy was carried out of a bedroom where she’d been with Barnett “unable to speak coherently.” The boys drove the girls home. The 13-year-old and three of the boys told the police Daisy was crying when she was carried to the car.

Her mother found her scratching at the front door in the early morning. The boys had told the 13-year-old to go inside, saying they’d wait with Daisy until she sobered up. They left her outside in a T-shirt and sweatpants. She’d been out for about three hours, in 22-degree weather.

Melinda Coleman, a veterinarian whose husband, a doctor, had died in a car accident six years earlier, sounds like she did everything right. She gave her daughter a warm bath, noticed signs of rape or sex, called 911, and took Daisy to the hospital. That’s why the police found it easy to investigate. There was also, allegedly, a video of Daisy and Barnett taken by another boy on his iPhone. Daisy’s brother said students passed it around at school. The prosecutors say it was never found.

Read Arnett’s story for yourself: He talked to people on all sides and reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents. (Most are sealed, he says, but the Coleman family gave them to him.) He is even-handed and careful. At the end of the day, what’s so frustrating and dismaying—about this story, as well as the others I mentioned earlier—is this pattern. Girls put themselves in situations of risk, by drinking with older boys they have no reason to trust. The boys take awful advantage—and then claim the sex was consensual even though the girls were blotto. There are photos or a video, which compound the humiliation, and also should make it easier for police to investigate, yet don’t always lead to resolution.

And on social media, there is a vomiting up of victim blaming that has its own sick power. When police or prosecutors don’t back up the girls in some way, it is taken as proof in the community that they were sluts who deserved everything they got. The girls become pariahs. They wear the scarlet letters of our time.

Coleman took her family out of Maryville in August 2012, after the charges were dismissed. Her house burned down six months ago. The cause is undetermined. Daisy has been in therapy but has made two suicide attempts. Barnett is going to the University of Central Missouri, the school his grandfather went to. Before he changed the privacy settings on his Twitter account, Arnett found this retweet:

If her name begins with A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z, she wants the D.

Update, October 14: Anonymous is on the scene. As members of the loose hacker collective did in Steubenville and in the Rehtaeh Parsons case, they're demanding an "immediate investigation into the handling by local authorities" of Daisy's case. This kind of vigilante justice can be for good or for ill. It depends how responsible the vigilantes are. One thing is sure: This will get interesting.

[TerryB]

Here's a follow-up:

The teenager at the center of a controversial rape case that shook a small Missouri town and drew national headlines pleaded guilty to a single count of misdemeanor child endangerment Thursday.

The charge against Matthew Barnett, 19, came two years after then-14-year-old Daisy Coleman accused the high-profile high school football player in Maryville, Mo., of raping her. Coleman and her family faced intense backlash from people in the community, and a local prosecutor initially dropped felony sexual assault charges, before national outrage over whether a high school athlete was getting special treatment prompted the local prosecutor to ask an outside prosecutor to reexamine the case.

That led to the misdemeanor charge Thursday, the Kansas City Star reports. Prosecutors say Barnett, who was then 17, endangered a semi-conscious Coleman when he allegedly left her barefoot in the frozen yard of her home hours before the sun rose.

Barnett pled guilty to the charge Thursday afternoon as part of a deal with prosecutors, according to the Kansas City Star. He was sentenced to two years of probation and a four-month suspended jail term.

Coleman, now 16, attempted suicide earlier this week.

[The Ginger Beard Man]

Well I can't say much about the RS story, but Syaigh's story sounds familiar.
When I was in school, a freshman on the women's volleyball team was raped. Like a guy knocked on her door, pushed it in and raped her. The Dean, a woman, was going to "handle" it, or rather make sure nobody found about it, so the school wouldn't look bad to the public and all its potential future tuition payers. Until the volleyball coach showed up, sat on the deans desk, literally right on her desk, and said she wasn't getting up until the cops came. Local PD showed up and actually took it seriously.
There are some seriously fucked up attitudes about this shit out there.

[dead man walking]

"But it's the truth even if it didn't happen."

Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[Grandpa's Spells]

You know, it wasn't the rape itself that was so disturbing (although it was), but how the admin dealt with it. And I haven't heard anyone from UVA dispute the university's policies on that.

"Jackie's" rape story was the lede, and it was pretty horrifying. It's the primary thing anybody who read the article talked about.

UVA is apparently pretty rapey and is under federal investigation for it. So nothing takes away from the fact that they have a problem, though this goofball just made it harder for other women to come forward.

Anyway, I'm not sure if RS is caving because the fraternity denied it or what. But, I don't really believe the fraternity either. Are they saying that because it wasn't pledge week they didn't have a party?

No, she claimed this happened during a party on a very specific date that she's sure of. They can apparently prove there was no party then. She says one of the men was taunted into raping her because this was the price of initiation, but there was no pledging going on that semester (so no initiation). She says she was on a date with a member who worked at the campus pool as a lifeguard. They say no-one on the employee roster at that time was a member. The member she named to reporters has been tracked down by the Washington Post, and claims to have known her name but never met her, let alone dated her, and says he was also not a member of that fraternity. The reporter never spoke to any of the accused, which is a gigantic journalistic no-no.

Her friends the reporter talked to, some of whom are rape victim advocates, don't believe her any more.

Barring a pretty broad conspiracy, or serious disconnection from reality of the 'victim,' this shit did not happen.

BUT, I also know that stuff like what happened in that article DO happen.

That particular example is not something that happens. I'm assuming you haven't read the article, correct me if I'm wrong. Premeditated violent gang rape by a fraternity as an initiation just does not happen. It's way, way beyond the pale, but plays into people's biases, so RS wasn't careful enough.

These guys also had their house vandalized and were threatened, crazy protesters running around, and that shit will follow them around.

The fact that she's been completely discredited but you still aren't sure if you don't believe her is exactly why false accusations, while making up a very small percentage of claims, are a huge deal. I bet guys who played lacrosse for Duke leave that off their c.v.

[syaigh]

You know, it wasn't the rape itself that was so disturbing (although it was), but how the admin dealt with it. And I haven't heard anyone from UVA dispute the university's policies on that.

"Jackie's" rape story was the lede, and it was pretty horrifying. It's the primary thing anybody who read the article talked about.

UVA is apparently pretty rapey and is under federal investigation for it. So nothing takes away from the fact that they have a problem, though this goofball just made it harder for other women to come forward.

Anyway, I'm not sure if RS is caving because the fraternity denied it or what. But, I don't really believe the fraternity either. Are they saying that because it wasn't pledge week they didn't have a party?

No, she claimed this happened during a party on a very specific date that she's sure of. They can apparently prove there was no party then. She says one of the men was taunted into raping her because this was the price of initiation, but there was no pledging going on that semester (so no initiation). She says she was on a date with a member who worked at the campus pool as a lifeguard. They say no-one on the employee roster at that time was a member. The member she named to reporters has been tracked down by the Washington Post, and claims to have known her name but never met her, let alone dated her, and says he was also not a member of that fraternity. The reporter never spoke to any of the accused, which is a gigantic journalistic no-no.

Her friends the reporter talked to, some of whom are rape victim advocates, don't believe her any more.



Barring a pretty broad conspiracy, or serious disconnection from reality of the 'victim,' this shit did not happen.

BUT, I also know that stuff like what happened in that article DO happen.

That particular example is not something that happens. I'm assuming you haven't read the article, correct me if I'm wrong. Premeditated violent gang rape by a fraternity as an initiation just does not happen. It's way, way beyond the pale, but plays into people's biases, so RS wasn't careful enough.

These guys also had their house vandalized and were threatened, crazy protesters running around, and that shit will follow them around.

The fact that she's been completely discredited but you still aren't sure if you don't believe her is exactly why false accusations, while making up a very small percentage of claims, are a huge deal. I bet guys who played lacrosse for Duke leave that off their c.v.

I did read the whole article. She gave specific dates. I think its entirely possible that the fraternity could be lying. Did they have a drinking party where a girl was gang-raped? Didn't have to be an official recorded party. I don't know what fraternity code is for recording parties, but I'm not apt to believe them entirely either. I'd like to hear from her friends. Seems to me like there's probably a lot more to this story and more from both sides. I don't think she's been completely discredited. Simply contradicted. Everyone is playing "cover your ass" and as usual, everyone is burning their membership cards instead of demanding a more clarified version of the whole article.

But, regarding what I was referring to as things that DO happen and are disturbing are the administrations actions. Funny enough, I did read the article as a woman who attended college in the US. I've heard a lot of stories of rape on a broad scale of brutatlity,etc., and so the rape story was not shocking to me. The administration's attitude and lack of actions was shocking to me. I guess I thought things had changed in 20 years. Apparently they haven't. Makes me not want to send my daughter to college. For real.

As for your last statement, you're being a cunt. The Duke lacrosse players. Whole lot of bad behavior going on there. No one believes they raped that woman, but no one thinks they are stand up guys either.

[Batboy2/75]

If rape is a problem on college campuses, the legal system w/ all of the legal protections for the accused and the victim should handle the matter, not colleges. Colleges (or any institution) should immediately report any rape accusations to the police and then take no further action until the matter has been handled by the legal system.

Today you have colleges basically setting up and running kangaroo courts were the accused is guilty until proven innocent. If it's rape, hand it over to the proper authorities. If the authorities are not taking it seriously, then the answer is to fix the LEGAL system, not create an extralegal system with in a college.

The issue at hand with the RS story is they believed the story out of hand. They believed it, because it fit their desired world view. They had very little interest in actually pursuing truth or justice.

[Batboy2/75]

You know, it wasn't the rape itself that was so disturbing (although it was), but how the admin dealt with it. And I haven't heard anyone from UVA dispute the university's policies on that.

"Jackie's" rape story was the lede, and it was pretty horrifying. It's the primary thing anybody who read the article talked about.

UVA is apparently pretty rapey and is under federal investigation for it. So nothing takes away from the fact that they have a problem, though this goofball just made it harder for other women to come forward.

Anyway, I'm not sure if RS is caving because the fraternity denied it or what. But, I don't really believe the fraternity either. Are they saying that because it wasn't pledge week they didn't have a party?

No, she claimed this happened during a party on a very specific date that she's sure of. They can apparently prove there was no party then. She says one of the men was taunted into raping her because this was the price of initiation, but there was no pledging going on that semester (so no initiation). She says she was on a date with a member who worked at the campus pool as a lifeguard. They say no-one on the employee roster at that time was a member. The member she named to reporters has been tracked down by the Washington Post, and claims to have known her name but never met her, let alone dated her, and says he was also not a member of that fraternity. The reporter never spoke to any of the accused, which is a gigantic journalistic no-no.

Her friends the reporter talked to, some of whom are rape victim advocates, don't believe her any more.



Barring a pretty broad conspiracy, or serious disconnection from reality of the 'victim,' this shit did not happen.

BUT, I also know that stuff like what happened in that article DO happen.

That particular example is not something that happens. I'm assuming you haven't read the article, correct me if I'm wrong. Premeditated violent gang rape by a fraternity as an initiation just does not happen. It's way, way beyond the pale, but plays into people's biases, so RS wasn't careful enough.

These guys also had their house vandalized and were threatened, crazy protesters running around, and that shit will follow them around.

The fact that she's been completely discredited but you still aren't sure if you don't believe her is exactly why false accusations, while making up a very small percentage of claims, are a huge deal. I bet guys who played lacrosse for Duke leave that off their c.v.

I did read the whole article. She gave specific dates. I think its entirely possible that the fraternity could be lying. Did they have a drinking party where a girl was gang-raped? Didn't have to be an official recorded party. I don't know what fraternity code is for recording parties, but I'm not apt to believe them entirely either. I'd like to hear from her friends. Seems to me like there's probably a lot more to this story and more from both sides. I don't think she's been completely discredited. Simply contradicted. Everyone is playing "cover your ass" and as usual, everyone is burning their membership cards instead of demanding a more clarified version of the whole article.

But, regarding what I was referring to as things that DO happen and are disturbing are the administrations actions. Funny enough, I did read the article as a woman who attended college in the US. I've heard a lot of stories of rape on a broad scale of brutatlity,etc., and so the rape story was not shocking to me. The administration's attitude and lack of actions was shocking to me. I guess I thought things had changed in 20 years. Apparently they haven't. Makes me not want to send my daughter to college. For real.

As for your last statement, you're being a cunt. The Duke lacrosse players. Whole lot of bad behavior going on there. No one believes they raped that woman, but no one thinks they are stand up guys either.

So the Duke lacrosse players, not guilty of the fake serious charges leveled against them, but because they are evil male sports players they must be guilty of something?

You're the worst kind of fucking despicable cunt imaginable.

[syaigh]

I can sense you are filled with the Christmas spirit. The circumstances surrounding the duke rape case were pretty ridiculous. If you care about human dignity, you'd have to wonder why a bunch of rich white boys would hire those particular strippers (prostitutes). I'd say it was more about making fun of someone's misfortune. Rape or not, I don't know anyone in that town who thought they should get any sympathy. Including duke university. It was bad behavior plain and simple. And sometimes, when you do stupid cruel things bad things happen to you.

And you are a most disgusting maggot infested cunt yourself. Hope you never have to deal with this kind of bullshit in your own family.

[DrDonkeyLove]

Universities are the hothouses of Progressive thinking and policies. They are almost universally run by very Progressive people and very heavily attended by Progressive minded students (see political contributions and college student/graduate voting patterns for confirmation).

Yet, the institutions hide many crimes from the public such as assault, robbery, burglaries and rape (see syaigh's dormmate story). They bury crimes and allow vicious criminals to remain a menace. The reason, per usual, is money. If word gets out that an institution is unsafe, they fear lower enrollment and endowment money.

On top of that, they don't put the hammer down on post rape victim abuse. And, where does that post rape abuse come from? It comes from an overwhelmingly Progressive student body. At best it comes from non-Progressive members of the student body and is tolerated by the Progressive majority.

A legitimately huge story has been the Roman Catholic church's cover up of sexual abuse yet we see an almost zero search for institutional and individual accountability at institutions of higher education. In fact, they often handle it just like the RC church did by keeping it in house and managed by their elite.

In the rare instances when a large cry for justice has occurred, the accused perpetrators were exclusively members of groups unpopular with Progressives, namely rich frat boys and jocks. So far in 2 out of 3 of the major cases (UVA, Duke & Penn State), it looks like the charges were hoaxes. Only Penn State has real proven victims and are administrators being held accountable to one degree or another.

When college administrators are fired, perp walked,and sued for their malfeasance, we'll see real change. Until then, it'll be mostly a few show trials that set a legitimate cause back.

[dead man walking]

fair points donkey.

with title ix investigations nationwide and bad press for places like columbia, amherst, and uva, i expect colleges will handle alleged assaults more aggressively. that is, the calculation of what is in the college's interest is shifting. (why colleges don't have the justice system handle these criminal charges is curious, perhaps an implicit admission that their students are kids and need quasi-parental treatment.) some law professors (at both harvard and yale, for ex, i believe) have expressed concern that new sex assault policies being negotiated fail to afford accused perps adequate protection. there's a turnaround for you.

as for your daughter, syaigh, if she understands alcohol and can be smart around it, she should be ok. that means staying largely sober. college and sobriety are an unnatural pairing, and the burden to remain safe shouldn't rest entirely with girls, but you know--and she should--that more often than not, a girl can neither handle the booze nor trust the boys.

[dead man walking]

as of may, the following were under investigation


State Institution
AZ Arizona State University
CA Butte-Glen Community College District
CA Occidental College
CA University of California-Berkeley
CA University of Southern California
CO Regis University
CO University of Colorado at Boulder
CO University of Colorado at Denver
CO University of Denver
CT University of Connecticut
DC Catholic University of America
FL Florida State University
GA Emory University
HI University of Hawaii at Manoa
ID University of Idaho
IL Knox College
IL University of Chicago
IN Indiana University-Bloomington
IN Vincennes University
MA Amherst College
MA Boston University
MA Emerson College
MA Harvard College
MA Harvard University—Law School
MA University of Massachusetts-Amherst
MD Frostburg State University
MI Michigan State University
MI University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
NC Guilford College
NC University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
ND Minot State University
NH Dartmouth College
NJ Princeton University
NY Cuny Hunter College
NY Hobart and William Smith Colleges
NY Sarah Lawrence College
NY Suny at Binghamton
OH Denison University
OH Ohio State University
OH Wittenberg University
OK Oklahoma State University
PA Carnegie Mellon University
PA Franklin and Marshall College
PA Pennsylvania State University
PA Swarthmore College
PA Temple University
TN Vanderbilt University
TX Southern Methodist University
TX The University of Texas-Pan American
VA College of William and Mary
VA University of Virginia
WA Washington State University
WI University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
WV Bethany College
WV West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine

[Batboy2/75]

I can sense you are filled with the Christmas spirit. The circumstances surrounding the duke rape case were pretty ridiculous. If you care about human dignity, you'd have to wonder why a bunch of rich white boys would hire those particular strippers (prostitutes). I'd say it was more about making fun of someone's misfortune. Rape or not, I don't know anyone in that town who thought they should get any sympathy. Including duke university. It was bad behavior plain and simple. And sometimes, when you do stupid cruel things bad things happen to you.

And you are a most disgusting maggot infested cunt yourself. Hope you never have to deal with this kind of bullshit in your own family.

LOL! let me get this straight. Your argument is that the Duke lacrosse guys made a bunch of bad (cruel stupid things) decisions; so they deserved to have what happened to them. Why does that line of reasoning sound so fucking familiar? OHH, that's right, it's the same reasoning some people use to blame rape victims! She deserved it because she was hanging out in the wrong bar, or was out with out a family member or was dressed like a slut. Nice!

Maybe you shouldn't post until your hormones are in balance?? We'll give you the benefit of the doubt, and blame it on the hormones, anti-depressant drugs, or whatever. Because if your line of reasoning in this thread was based you being cold sane; maybe you and your family should just come to terms with the fact that you're just a bitter angry vapid dumb cunt.

I may or not be maggot infested, but at least I believe in the equal application of justice. Even for those I disagree with and or just don't like.

[Protobuilder]

If rape is a problem on college campuses, the legal system w/ all of the legal protections for the accused and the victim should handle the matter, not colleges. Colleges (or any institution) should immediately report any rape accusations to the police and then take no further action until the matter has been handled by the legal system.

The second sentence could be debated by I agree with the general sentiment. If charges are proven to be false, I would support charges going in the opposite direction as well.

[Protobuilder]

Here's the kicker, I KNOW that there are many women out there who claim rape when it wasn't. I'm not blind to that at all. BUT, I also know that stuff like what happened in that article DO happen. And the aftermath, ie, social pressure, ineffective administrative action, lack of police involvement are very real.

You ain't seen nuthin yet:

An impressively reported and very upsetting story ran over the weekend in the Kansas City Star by reporter Dugan Arnett. It starts with a house in ashes in the small town of Maryville, Mo. The family who owned that house and lived in it from 2010 to August 2012—Melinda Coleman and her four children—left town after a social and legal disaster involving allegations of sexual assault by Coleman’s 14-year-old daughter, Daisy, against a 17-year-old high school senior and football player.

EMILY BAZELON
Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and the author of Sticks and Stones.

The outline is grimly familiar from Steubenville, Ohio, and the Rehtaeh Parsons case near Halifax, Nova Scotia. This time, the football player, Matthew Barnett, was quickly arrested and charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. And then, after a vicious spate of victim blaming, the charges were dropped without explanation. Even though Sheriff Darren White “felt confident the office had put together a case that would ‘absolutely’ result in prosecutions”:

“Within four hours, we had obtained a search warrant for the house and executed that,” White told The Star. “We had all of the suspects in custody and had audio/video confessions.”
Arnett also writes that White:

maintains “no doubt” a crime was committed that night. The doctor who treated Daisy the following morning called the prosecutor’s decision to drop the charges “surprising.” And one longtime Missouri attorney believes the Colemans’ status as relative outsiders played a part in the cases’ dismissals. “The fact that the family wasn’t from Maryville made it a lot easier for the prosecutor to drop those charges,” he said.
Barnett, meanwhile, was part of a family of longtime Maryville residents and the grandson of a four-term Missouri state representative. His grandfather says he stayed out of the case. But the town lined up behind Matthew and against Daisy (whose name we are using because her mother has released it to the press).

Here’s what Arnett reports happened the night of the alleged crime: Daisy was at her house drinking with a 13-year-old friend in January 2012. She texted with Barnett, whose attention she’d attracted. She was a freshman cheerleader, and her older brother was on the football team, too. Her brother had told her to stay away from Barnett. But at 1 a.m., Daisy and her friend slipped out a window and went to Barnett’s house. Daisy drank a big glass of something. She doesn’t remember what happened next. Her 13-year-old friend went into a bedroom with a 15-year-old boy, who later told the police that “although the girl said ‘no’ multiple times, he undressed her, put a condom on and had sex with her.”
Daisy was carried out of a bedroom where she’d been with Barnett “unable to speak coherently.” The boys drove the girls home. The 13-year-old and three of the boys told the police Daisy was crying when she was carried to the car.

Her mother found her scratching at the front door in the early morning. The boys had told the 13-year-old to go inside, saying they’d wait with Daisy until she sobered up. They left her outside in a T-shirt and sweatpants. She’d been out for about three hours, in 22-degree weather.

Melinda Coleman, a veterinarian whose husband, a doctor, had died in a car accident six years earlier, sounds like she did everything right. She gave her daughter a warm bath, noticed signs of rape or sex, called 911, and took Daisy to the hospital. That’s why the police found it easy to investigate. There was also, allegedly, a video of Daisy and Barnett taken by another boy on his iPhone. Daisy’s brother said students passed it around at school. The prosecutors say it was never found.

Read Arnett’s story for yourself: He talked to people on all sides and reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents. (Most are sealed, he says, but the Coleman family gave them to him.) He is even-handed and careful. At the end of the day, what’s so frustrating and dismaying—about this story, as well as the others I mentioned earlier—is this pattern. Girls put themselves in situations of risk, by drinking with older boys they have no reason to trust. The boys take awful advantage—and then claim the sex was consensual even though the girls were blotto. There are photos or a video, which compound the humiliation, and also should make it easier for police to investigate, yet don’t always lead to resolution.

And on social media, there is a vomiting up of victim blaming that has its own sick power. When police or prosecutors don’t back up the girls in some way, it is taken as proof in the community that they were sluts who deserved everything they got. The girls become pariahs. They wear the scarlet letters of our time.

Coleman took her family out of Maryville in August 2012, after the charges were dismissed. Her house burned down six months ago. The cause is undetermined. Daisy has been in therapy but has made two suicide attempts. Barnett is going to the University of Central Missouri, the school his grandfather went to. Before he changed the privacy settings on his Twitter account, Arnett found this retweet:

If her name begins with A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z, she wants the D.

Update, October 14: Anonymous is on the scene. As members of the loose hacker collective did in Steubenville and in the Rehtaeh Parsons case, they're demanding an "immediate investigation into the handling by local authorities" of Daisy's case. This kind of vigilante justice can be for good or for ill. It depends how responsible the vigilantes are. One thing is sure: This will get interesting.

Same thing but over in Oklahoma.

http://jezebel.com/why-were-three-teena ... 1659721302

Essentially, one kid raped three girls. All three girls made stupid decisions (i.e. climbing in a truck and going home with the rapist after smoking pot despite knowing previous accusations) but the case was pretty clear. Another kid recorded the rapist bragging about it in details that matched the girls' stories.

Of course, the administration did very little to the accused rapist and I am not sure why but local police didn't do anything either. The girls were essentially bullied (I hate that word but it applies here) out of school by other students and what appears to be an incompetent administration and faculty.

Eventually they rioted and looted local pawn shops...actually, they held a peaceful protest in which students walked out of school, leading to the arrest of the accused. The girls are no longer in school and the accused bond was lowered so he could get out in time for the holidays though.