This Is Why Rape Is Underreported

According to The Smoking Gun:

The lawyer for one of the Duke University lacrosse players accused of raping an exotic dancer wants prosecutors to provide him with the alleged victim’s medical records since “the complaining witness has suffered from mental and emotional problems for a portion of her life.” Additionally, J. Kirk Osborn, who represents 20-year-old Reade Seligmann, surmises that there is a “good chance” that the accuser “may have been committed, at least once, to a hospital or drug treatment program.” As such, Osborn wants material documenting the woman’s supposed “drug abuse history,” according to a discovery motion filed this afternoon in Durham’s Superior Court. The motion, a copy of which you’ll find below, also seeks the 27-year-old dancer’s criminal history, probation, and education records. The material sought, Osborn argues, provides “rich sources of information for impeaching the complaining witness.”

Here’s a copy of the motion Osborn filed. Everyone who followed the Haidl rape case watched a group of men almost get away with a sexual assault that had actually been videotaped. The victim got savaged. Here we go again.

–Ann Bartow