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posted by martyb on Monday July 25 2016, @03:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the adding-injury-and-insult-to-insult-and-injury dept.

The anonymous woman was raped in Houston in 2013, according to court documents, and was cooperating with prosecutors when she suffered a breakdown while testifying in December 2015.

She has bipolar disorder and was admitted to a local hospital for mental health treatment when the judge ordered a recess for the holiday break until January 2016.

According to the documents, authorities were scheduled to be on vacation and "did not want the responsibility of having to monitor Jane Doe's well being or provide victim services to her during the holiday recess."

The complaint alleges that the district attorney's office obtained an order from the Harris County sheriff to take the woman into custody so she would not flee before completing her testimony.

The employee booking her into Harris County Jail identified her as a "defendant in a sexual assault case, rather than the victim." That impacted her treatment from jail staff, as the complaint reads:

The Harris County Jail psychiatric staff tormented Jane Doe and caused her extreme emotional distress and mental anguish by further defaming her, falsely insisting to her that she was being charged with sexual assault, and refusing to acknowledge her status as an innocent rape victim."

Doe also suffered beatings from other inmates and from a guard, who then requested assault charges to be filed against her "in an attempt to cover up the brutal abuse," according to the complaint.

[...] The complaint notes that her "rapist was also an inmate in the same facility" and treated more humanely. "Her rapist was not denied medical care, psychologically tortured, brutalized by other inmates, or beaten by jail guards," it reads.

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/22/487073132/rape-survivor-sues-after-texas-authorities-jailed-her-for-a-month


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  • (Score: 2) by fritsd on Monday July 25 2016, @08:54PM

    by fritsd (4586) on Monday July 25 2016, @08:54PM (#380036) Journal

    The way I see it, her case (and MichaelDavidCrawford's clerks case) sound like there was an error made in the system, but for some reason this error was not acknowledged or corrected.

    Like it is acceptable for "commoners" to make errors, but when somebody in authority makes an error, there is a possible "flee forward" behaviour: doubling down on the idea that the authority cannot acknowledge the flaw, and therefore cannot correct it, because that would be admission that an error was made.

    I've never been in the army, but I guess that errors made in the army also "percolate downwards", because it is a hierarchical, authoritarian structure. That means admission of errors could lead to a weakening of that individual's position and status in the hierarchy.

    But everybody makes errors, even if they really really shouldn't.

    In the case of MicahelDavidCrawford's clerk, she should have percolated her error "up", writing a letter to whatever judiciary organization oversight exists in the US: "some commoner pointed out an error in form XYZ-3 having to do with confusion between pro se and pro per, can you let someone review that form please?" It's not MDC's fault that he made a "user-level" bug report, but she the courthouse clerk should escalate it to "second-line" bug report, if you know what I mean.

    In the case of TFS (I haven't read TFA. sorry. don't sue me.) the person who put her in jail should have afterwards invoked the procedure "sorry I really really screwed up; that person is in jail for other reasons, she's not the defendant but victim of the alledged rape, modify her status on paper and inform the relevant guards and psychologists. and I gotta apologise."

    Also: Guildford Four [wikipedia.org] ... they even made a film about it later..

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