<p>[The</a> Associated Press: Handling of rape claim at Brown raises questions](<a href=“http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iN9W9Njy5j_nQd_yNHofQiFjWdmAD9G28BM01]The”>http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iN9W9Njy5j_nQd_yNHofQiFjWdmAD9G28BM01)</p>
<p>I know these situations are incredibly difficult, but am I the only one who finds the way Brown handled this disturbing?</p>
<p>No, you’re not the only one. But remember, as with most media stories, there’s a lot more that went on then the story itself portrays. And Brown is anything but the only school that would handle things the way the administration did. From what I heard, the administration grossly mishandled the case, but they’ve also not been forthcoming (probably because there’s a lawsuit in place and they don’t want to disclose confidential information) with their own side of the story.</p>
<p>What bothers me most is that the Administration did not even feel the need to get to the bottom of what really happened. They were only too happy to sweep it under the rug. If this happened in a government environment, the outcry from this kind of coverup would be explosive.</p>
<p>They say there are three sides to every story: her side, his side and the truth. Here the Administration has added a fourth dimension - the Alfred E. Neuman response of “What, Me Worry?”</p>
<p>For the record, what both of you are going off of is simply the accusations in the plaintiffs’ complaint. It is standard and wholly acceptable for the administration not to respond at length in the press about ongoing litigation.</p>
<p>I can speak from something resembling personal experience that this is fairly common of how Brown treats matters like this, regardless of the level of the claim involved, in that they would much rather “sweep it under the rug” than determine what actually happened, as 212DAD mentioned. I don’t know anything about this specific case, though.</p>
<p>“It is standard and wholly acceptable for the administration not to respond at length in the press about ongoing litigation.”</p>
<p>That may be so, but conspiracy to obstruct justice (in this case a criminal rape investigation) is neither standard nor wholly acceptable.</p>
<p>212Dad-- you may be completely correct in your assumption that the school is obstructing justice, but you may also be quite incorrect. There is a great likelihood that what is common knowledge as broadcast by the media and what is the actual truth in the proceedings are two different things. Unless you are an insider, I would be careful about these fairly serious claims, as disturbing as this entire situation most definitely is.</p>
<p>Not calling in law enforcement experts in a claim of rape is irresponsible and showed a serious lack of judgement. What crime does it take for Brown to call in authorities? If nothing else, the University lost the opportunity to have an independent investigation into a most serious matter for which they are probably not the best qualified. That still would not have precluded Brown from conducting its own investigation and handling the academic side of the matter.</p>
<p>212DAD, law enforcement involvement is up to the alleged victim; that’s not within brown’s providence.</p>
<p>Furthermore, NONE of us know if there was evidence to substantiate a criminal investigation or if the allegations even substantiated rape under the rhode island criminal code. NONE of us is in a place to make judgements about what could have or should have been done – legally – in this situation because none of us were there. Period. </p>
<p>What I do believe to be true is that the veracity of the allegations aside, the accused was abused and denied his rights. This is the problem with the way we hande rape and sexual assault. Don’t get me wrong, I take sexual assault and rape very seriously. All victims whole heartedly deserve the right to be heard and supported. But what this attitude, while full of good intentions, leads to is unconditionally believing the alleged victim, resulting in the abuse and vilification of the accused matter what actually happened. </p>
<p>I also believe that this attitude leads to a culture where we, both men and women, abandon personal responsibility and leave any sense of agency with their bodies at the door and act as if they are not accountable for their own sexual decisions and consent. </p>
<p>Brown handled this badly, but I don’t think in the way you mean.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the truth will most likely never see the light of day. I would be shocked if Brown and the female student’s family don’t end up offering the accused offender enough money to make this problem just go away again. Of course, they will correctly say that it would cost less than the legal costs of defending their actions. While truth will ultimately be one of the casualties of this affair, one can only hope the school will handle the next incident in a better manner and for the right reasons. If we don’t learn from our mistakes, then we are doomed to make them again.</p>
<p>i think the whole system needs an overhaul</p>
<p>“The young woman said McCormick was telling people they were dating when they weren’t, calling her up to 20 times a day and once punched a wall in anger and made a threatening remark — “I could have hurt you” — after seeing her hug another guy, Hansen wrote administrators in a Sept. 6 e-mail recapping the allegations.”</p>
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<p>sounds like he did it regardless of what happened</p>
<p>^But where are the phone records to support her claims of him calling up to 20 times a day? Are there any corroborating witnesses to his supposed threatening remarks? Did the campus administrators/police find the people who the young woman allegedly claims McCormick spread these rumors to?</p>
<p>Sounding like and actually committing a crime are two completely separate things. Circumstantial evidence (and assumptions) can cause a whole mess of trouble–for both parties.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, I find it morally repugnant that McCormick was forced to leave on such baseless pieces of evidence. If only he had proper guidance from the start, this whole mess could have been handled fairly. It sounds like there’s more to the story (especially on the girl’s side) and she used her father’s pockets and power to slide the whole thing under the rug. Give any decent attorney 24 hours and he/she can find five other cases similar to this that have all been thrown out due to unfounded and lopsided evidential claims.</p>
<p>For the love of Christ. Please, please stop basing your assumptions off a plaintiff’s complaint.</p>
<p>you mean mccormick’s complaints, mgcsinc?</p>
<p>hahaha you need a reality check. accusations are not facts. the idea of innocent until proven guilty goes out the window in cases of sexual and domestic assault. there’s also a difference between losing control and hurting a wall and losing control and hurting a person. there’s also a thing called hearsay</p>
<p>This is a complicated case. First, as others have said, all you have is the complaint, which is just a series of allegations. </p>
<p>But even reading news accounts, the “deal” here was a negotiated settlement between the accused and accuser.She agreed that she would not bring criminal charges against him if he left the university. He agreed to that and he was represented by counsel when he did. </p>
<p>Do we really want to require a university to have to await the outcome of a criminal trial and then only expel the student if he is convicted? Are you really saying that if a young woman accuses a young man of raping her that no action can be taken against him unless he is convicted of rape by a jury held to the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt? That the young woman should just have to “suck it up” and stay on a small college campus with the man she accused of raping her until the case goes to trial? </p>
<p>I hope all of you remember that a young woman at UVa died recently and that her former boyfriend is alleged to have murdered her and ADMITS to killing her. There have been reports of several incidents in which Huguely attacked Love and another lacrosse player whom Huguely had heard kissed her. Now, I realize that that was a very different situation, but I guess your position is that if Ms. Love filed assault charges against Huguely ,UVa shouldn’t have kicked him off campus until he was convicted.</p>
<p>Seriously, IF the young man is guilty–I don’t pretend to know whether he is–then I think he caught one heck of a break. If he is INNOCENT, he could have refused to sign the agreement. She would have filed rape charges. If there was NO evidence that he had stalked and raped her, the district attorney wouldn’t have prosecuted. While the accused makes a big deal out of the young woman’s father’s influence at Brown, there’s no showing that he had any influence over the DA.</p>
<p>here’s a link to a BDH article which outlines some of the complexities:
<a href=“http://www.browndailyherald.com/brown-faces-dilemma-with-assault-accusations-1.2246302#4[/url]”>http://www.browndailyherald.com/brown-faces-dilemma-with-assault-accusations-1.2246302#4</a> Among these is the fact that many victim’s rights advocates believe that a university should ONLY report an alleged rape to the cops if the victim agrees to this.</p>
<p>^I haven’t read the link you posted yet, jonri, however, my main problem with the situation is that it appears that the school did not attempt to find any evidence to support the young lady’s allegations before jumping the gun. You ask “do we really want to require a university to have to await the outcome of a criminal trial and then only expel the student if he is convicted?”…quite frankly, yes and no. If there is enough proof against the defendant (with all the necessary corrobarating evidence to support said proof), then I don’t think a criminal trial would have to supercede immediate disciplinary actions by the school. On the other hand, a cry of wolf shouldn’t be taken as the end all be all; it isn’t fair to the accused. Whether or not the young lady used her father’s “powers” is irrelevant at this point in time because from what we do know (at least what has been released), the situation appears to have been handled poorly and unfairly for the boy. That is my main qualm with the situation, but I do see where you are coming from.</p>
<p>I don’t know how to make this any clearer. AmbitiousMind, you are giving credence to something that deserves no credence: a plaintiff’s complaint (I’m using the legal term) in a lawsuit. That’s where all of this analysis comes from - from a document produced by McCormick.</p>
<p>People: please, please, please, please don’t embarrass yourselves with any more statements about how things look or how things are. You know absolutely nothing about the reality of the situation, you just know what’s in a complaint. A complaint is a often-exaggerated, completely-unreviewed document created by the plaintiffs in a lawsuit. It is meaningless.</p>
<p>If this is an illustration of anything, it’s an illustration of the incredible value of a well-crafted complaint in swaying public opinion before any presentation of evidence occurs.</p>