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In reply to the discussion: Just ripped a co-worker. Now I feel terrible. [View all]Control-Z
(15,681 posts)on a rape case.
Both victim and rapist spoke only Spanish so an interpreter was used throughout the trial. I mention this because it removed the emotion from the trial and left us pretty much with only cold hard facts.
The woman was married. Her husband was living in Mexico. She started up a friendship with a mechanic after bringing her car in for numerous problems. She began flirting with the mechanic, cultivating a relationship, until he offered to do some of the work at a discount. She continued to lead him on over the following months - going out to dinner with him, to the point of hugging and kissing. He ended up working on her car for free.
She was using him for free car repairs. He was letting her, thinking the relationship was more.
When the rape occurred, the mechanic thought they were boyfriend and girlfriend. He invited her over to the house where he rented a room. When she accepted the invitation he thought they were finally going to have sex. In the meantime the woman's husband had arrived from Mexico and she claims she went to the mechanic's house/room to break up with him.
Once they were alone in the mechanic's room he made the move on her. When she denied him he got angry and tried to force himself on her. He blocked the door when she tried to escape. He shoved her onto his bed and held her down. She was afraid he would kill her so she stopped fighting and let him rape her.
It was strange because both their stories were pretty much the same. She didn't deny the way she used him. He didn't deny having sex with her. But he claimed that because she stopped fighting he thought it was ok.
There was no one on the jury who liked this woman by the time all the testimony was heard. Several people thought she deserved what she got. It took three days to convince these people that no matter how despicable the woman behaved she didn't deserve to get raped. One old white dude held out the longest with all kinds of excuses. He didn't hold a gun to her head or a knife to her throat so it couldn't be rape. But what it really boiled down to, he thought she deserved it.
We found him guilty of all charges except premeditated rape. None of us believed he had planned to rape her that day.