The Rape Accusation Against Meg Whitman's Son That Got Hushed Up

[RandySF]

http://gawker.com/5669754/the-rape-accusation-against-meg-whitmans-son-that-got-hushed-up?skyline=true&s=i

As a student at Princeton University, the son of California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman—one of the school's most celebrated donors—was accused of sexually assaulting a classmate. This is the story of the explosive accusation and its quiet aftermath.

Griffith Rutherford Harsh V was never arrested or charged with a crime in connection with the incident. Princeton dealt with it quietly and internally, ultimately allowing Harsh to continue his education. He graduated with the class of 2009, three years after his rape accusation—and two years after the inauguration of Whitman College, the residential living complex his billionaire mother donated $30 million to help build. The donation was announced in 2002, the year before Griff matriculated.

The Accusation

On a spring night in 2006, Griff—then a sophomore—went partying on the Street, a boozy row of private undergraduate dining clubs. As he would later tell a panel of university disciplinarians, he ran into a classmate and went home with her. They had sex. She awoke the next morning with a black eye, bruised face and, she told friends, no memories from the previous night. According to multiple sources—one of whom was a dormitory adviser at the time—the girl told her friends Griff Harsh had raped her.

A friend who spent time with her the following morning spoke to us under the condition of anonymity: "She woke up with him on top of her, and he was like, 'You need the morning-after pill.' And she was like, 'Why, what happened?' She didn't remember having sex, she didn't remember consenting, she didn't remember any of it.

"She had clearly hurt herself badly. Or been hurt badly."

[Jackpine Radical]

1. A small sacrifice for a co-ed to make

in order to elicit a magnificent payoff for her university.

:sarcasm:

[TheWraith]

8. Re-read the article. The donation was 4 years before the incident.

In any event, I'm not at all surprised that this didn't get pursued. If the evidence was as described, there would be absolutely no way to bring it to trial. All a competent defense attorney would have to do is suggest that at some point while she was drunk she tripped and hit her face on something. If she doesn't actually remember what happened, she'd be taken apart on cross examination. People here may not like it, but it's the realities of evidence in criminal investigation.

[DiverDave]

10. You need to re-read it

it was a year AFTER the fact...

[TheWraith]

11. 2006 is after 2002.

"The donation was announced in 2002, the year before Griff matriculated."

"On a spring night in 2006, Griff—then a sophomore—went partying on the Street"

[Jackpine Radical]

14. OK, you're right. I revise my comment.

It was perhaps in gratitude for the magnanimous gift that the case wasn't pursued. A little thing like that in your family background can also subtly influence your GPA.

[TheWraith]

17. I'm sure it couldn't have been pursued no matter what the circumstances.

Assuming that the situation was as the article described, any decent defense lawyer would have had that thrown out of court within minutes.

[Jackpine Radical]

18. You'd be surprised at the things I've seen successfully prosecuted.

And in several sex offense cases, previous dropped charges and Not Guilty verdicts were considered as offenses for purposes of risk assessment and sentencing.

[lunatica]

2. And while he was on top of her she punched herself in the eye and face?

I find Meg Whitman and her son to be disgusting. Her snippy and blunt utterances rub me totally the wrong way. She has the vocal mannerisms of someone who is a verbal bully when she says she approves the ad in her ads.

[dark forest]

3. Unfortunately,

this type of thing happens way too often.

Society won't protect you.

[Odin2005]

4. The law is only for us "little people".

:puke:

[tularetom]

5. Makes you almost sorry Whitman's gonna get stomped in this election

I have a feeling there's a lot more skeletons in her closet and having her in office would be a gold mine of revelations of bad behavior, sleazy payoffs, and borderline criminality.

While I would love to see this skank humiliated we've been through seven years of this "running Kuhleefornia like a business" crap and we can't afford even another year of it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. news is calling this story an 'october surprise', Her 2nd one - the nanny story being the first

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Somebody Up There doesn't like Meg.

Instructions have been issued.

[Taitertots]

6. Ahhh, arrest him despite there being no evidence

On the word of an unnamed source with no evidence.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. K & R

This needs to be common knowledge.

[arikara]

9. Interesting that she needed pave the way with

$30,000,000 before "Griffith Rutherford Harsh V" was enrolled. Perhaps he has a history of bad behaviour?

Hmmm

[mkultra]

12. seems like she should have gone directly to the cops.

[ezmerelda39]

16. It is Rare....

That someone who is qualified to do the job will run for office. Being qualified has nothing to do with being a Senator or Representative. All it really takes these days is big, very, very big Bags of Money. The bigger the bags, the better your chance of winning. You can buy your way into anything as well as buy your way out of anything. (What's Meg's son up to these days?) You don't even need a platform to run on, just enough money to keep the secrets locked up and enough money to discredit anyone running against you. Lying is acceptable and is the norm rather than the exception. We like the lying and we LIKE big money, we admire big money and we wish we had it so we vote for those who do have it thinking that maybe we, too, will also someday have it. Otherwise why would we allow this topsy-turn system to continue?