TX: Rape victim put in jail after breakdown on witness stand

[kaen]

Thanks for the link. I am happy that the prosecutor was more conciliatory in this article. But my mind continues to wander about the lengths that were gone through to get this young woman help. The email descriptions tell a lot about the kind of bullying that was present in the interactions

 

[Woodland]

Harris County DA Devon Anderson gave an interview to Lisa Falkenberg of the Houston Chronicle.

Well worth a full read.

If you run up against the Chronicle paywall, try accessing the piece via @loebvernon on Twitter. (Vernon Loeb -- Managing Editor of the Chronicle)



http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...hp?t=5463653a67438d9cbb&cmpid=twitter-premium

Imo, Anderson is unlikely to be telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Early in the interview -

After a week of declining media interviews, citing the lawsuit, Anderson agreed to sit down and give me her office's side of a nationally reported story that seems to defy explanation.
...
"I don't want people to think that this is what we do to victims. It's just not," she said. "This is an extraordinary set of circumstances, a perfect storm."

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...hp?t=5463653a67438d9cbb&cmpid=twitter-premium

As soon as I read 'extraordinary set of circumstances', I was sure that Anderson would advise anyone reading that there was no culpability on the part of her or anyone in her office. Sure enough - no responsibility falls on her or anyone in her office because no matter what they tried - it just didn't work. For a month.

Unspeakable treatment of a victim - not a fan of Anderson's. Or anyone in her office.

 

[Doghairrules]

Thanks for the link. I am happy that the prosecutor was more conciliatory in this article. But my mind continues to wander about the lengths that were gone through to get this young woman help. The email descriptions tell a lot about the kind of bullying that was present in the interactions

I agree. And I don't believe they tried to get her help. I think the mothers assessment that this trial and conviction were all about the prosecutor's career is probably correct. He seemed to only be thinking about her testifying and not about her well being.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[abr]

Rape Survivor Sues After Texas Authorities Jailed Her For A Month

A rape survivor is suing Texas' Harris County after she was jailed for more than a month and subjected to beatings and "psychological torture."

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.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...fter-texas-authorities-jailed-her-for-a-month

I hope she gets billions.

 

[OldSteve]

This is the most mind boggling, doesn't make any sense at all and cruel miscarriages of justice I've ever read!

 

[U2forever]

OMG!! As a survivor who is also bipolar, I cannot believe what I am reading. I pray she sues the pants off Harris county and when she wins I pray these people are dealt with harshly and they lose their jobs. I am so mad after reading this I am about speechless. I wish I could give her a hug.

 

[Everyday Grace]

DA Anderson and Sheriff Hickman are both on the November ballot.

Latest from the Chronicle:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...om-mental-health-group-to-prevent-8414459.php

From Longview (Jenny is a resident of Gregg County as she was when she testified):

https://www.news-journal.com/news/2016/jul/24/longview-rape-victim-jailed-after-breakdown-sues-h/

Related and relevant from an established and credible local legal blog:

http://harriscountycriminaljustice.blogspot.com/2016/07/rocks-hard-places-and-writs-of_20.html?m=1

 

[ozazure]

OMG!! As a survivor who is also bipolar, I cannot believe what I am reading. I pray she sues the pants off Harris county and when she wins I pray these people are dealt with harshly and they lose their jobs. I am so mad after reading this I am about speechless. I wish I could give her a hug.

I think she will end up a rich woman, unfortunately that does not undo what has been done to her

 

[Elley Mae]

In a video statement that has been uploaded to YouTube, Devon Anderson, the county district attorney, said the rape victim had suffered through a life-threatening mental health crisis and had expressed her intention during the trial not to testify again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/u...-she-would-not-testify-lawsuit-says.html?_r=0

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the woman was taken to jail after a district judge issued a bench warrant, ordering the sheriff’s office to detain her as a material witness.

.............................................................

“How were we to assume that a homeless, mentally ill victim of an aggravated sex assault would return to testify at the trial of her rapist when that victim was going through a life-threatening mental health crisis and had expressed her intention not to testify?” Anderson asked.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/i...ays-district-attorney-lied-in-video-statement

...............................................................................

(modsnip)


bbm

 

[OldSteve]

If this doesn't upset you, nothing will!

The woman, identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, was held in the general population at the county jail — the same place where the rape suspect, Keith Hendricks, was housed. There, the suit says, she was misclassified as the perpetrator of a sexual assault — not as a victim — attacked by an inmate, denied medication and punched in the face by a guard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/u...-she-would-not-testify-lawsuit-says.html?_r=1

 

[Woodland]

]DA Anderson and Sheriff Hickman are both on the November ballot.[/U]

Latest from the Chronicle:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...om-mental-health-group-to-prevent-8414459.php

From Longview (Jenny is a resident of Gregg County as she was when she testified):

https://www.news-journal.com/news/2016/jul/24/longview-rape-victim-jailed-after-breakdown-sues-h/

Related and relevant from an established and credible local legal blog:

http://harriscountycriminaljustice.blogspot.com/2016/07/rocks-hard-places-and-writs-of_20.html?m=1

UBM

Good luck with that Anderson.

 

[blue22]

If this doesn't upset you, nothing will!


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/u...-she-would-not-testify-lawsuit-says.html?_r=1

Why on earth does general population house male and females together? Am I reading this wrong?

The whole story is heartbreaking for the poor victim.

 

[Everyday Grace]

Why on earth does general population house male and females together? Am I reading this wrong?

The whole story is heartbreaking for the poor victim.

Are you referring to this:

The woman, identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, was held in the general population at the county jail — the same place where the rape suspect, Keith Hendricks, was housed.

Male and female general populations are kept separate. Both genders are held in the same facility.

That sentence could have been written better to avoid confusion.

The first point of that sentence is that Jenny Jane Doe was not held where she could be protected from the female gen pop.

The second point is that inside the Harris County jail, she was subjected to treatment as bad as, if not worse, than Hendricks.

Harris County jail has a long history as a facility that consistently fails to provide much in the way of protecting inmates from one another.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/harris-county-jails/422202/

http://m.chron.com/news/houston-tex...stice-investigating-Harris-County-1788335.php

So much about this is galling.

"Extraordinary" circumstances, or not, I cannot fathom what the DA's office was thinking when they came up with the Harris County jail as a "solution."

And then to apparently not follow-up to the extent to see that she would be provided, at the least, the minimum that Harris County jail could offer as to protection.

I don't live in Harris County, but I have followed criminal justice news coming out of Houston for a long time.

When I first read this story and got to the part that read "Harris County jail," my immediate reaction was "uh-oh...they didn't...seriously bad decision."

I don't even know what to think about a DA's office that couldn't see the obviousness in that.

Up until now, I have judged Anderson's tenure as Harris County DA along the "Rosenthal scale."

This situation sets a new low for incompetence and self-serving disregard for a crime victim.

 

[Everyday Grace]

Houston Chronicle editorial:

Unfortunately, what happened to this innocent woman is just the latest in a string of horror stories coming out of Harris County's criminal justice system. As a six-part series of articles in the Chronicle detailed, guards in county jails often brutalize inmates and try to cover up their wrongdoing but rarely lose their jobs. Dozens of jail workers have had sex with inmates, smuggled in contraband or hid relationships with prisoners and gang members. And in this latest case, a rape victim who needed mental health assistance was somehow booked into the jail's general population as a suspected sexual assailant, a blunder that may have prevented her from receiving the psychiatric care she needed.

Voters will pass final judgment on Anderson's handling of this matter. With the district attorney up for re-election in November, the incident already has become a political issue.

Meanwhile, we call upon our elected leadership to ask the U.S. Justice Department for a federal investigation of this case. The DA and the sheriff have offered their own explanations, but an independent inquiry is absolutely essential.

We also urge Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and county commissioners Jack Cagle, Gene Locke, Jack Morman and Steve Radack to take the time to read the lawsuit the victim's lawyer filed. It's a frightening document outlining an unimaginable perversion of justice. We hope they lose sleep thinking over what they need to do about it.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Improper-restraint-8476605.php

 

[Woodland]

Fwiw, I don't believe that booking this victim into jail as a perpetrator was a blunder. Imo it was intentional in order to keep her there until needed. A form of slavery to further the interest of a particular person - jmo. Because they can. Because they were abusing the power bestowed upon them to further an agenda.