News
Loss of funding for family courts
Australian family courts are suffering due to lack of financial aid. More people are now representing themselves, leading to uncomfortable court sessions where both parties are questioning each other over the events that occurred. It was decided that if one party was unrepresented, the other would not receive funding for representation. Divorce is a complicated affair for the men and women of Australia.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2014/s3964685.htm
Highschool Senior illegally searched
In other news, a High School Senior at Ashtabula county Technical and Career campus in Jefferson, Ohio is being brought up on felony charges after an illegal search. Jordan Wiser was taking firefighting and EMT courses. and hoped to one day become a police officer or firefighter after he got out of the army; he was scheduled to ship out in August.
Jordan’s dreams were shattered on Dec.12 when administrators from the campus searched his person and vehicle without a warrant while denying him legal representation. The search was done after an alleged tip regarding his YouTube videos including video games, merchandise, home defense tactics, and an interview with a local police officer. The principal stated he had reason to believe Wiser was in possession of a weapon and proceeded to pat down the young man aggressively. Wiser did not give them permission to search his car but they took the keys and did so anyway. He informed them to the contents of his vehicle and told them not to be alarmed.
They found a stun gun he carried for self-defense, two Airsoft rifles for a paintball match after school,and a pocket knife carried in his EMT kit to cut loose seatbelts. Wiser was arrested and jailed for illegal conveyance of a weapon onto school grounds, a class 5 felony.
He was in jail for 13 days and then released on a $50,000 bond with an ankle monitor. Wiser was also court ordered to be 500 feet from his dying grandfather after judges heard he wanted to store his firearms with him.
This was all over a pocket knife. If this young man is convicted of a felony he will never be able to follow his dreams and his life will be ruined. Wiser is scheduled to appear in court on April 1st for a pretrial hearing, A jury trial is scheduled for June 11.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/jordan-wiser_n_4921266.html?utm_hp_ref=crime
Anita Sarkeesian is nominated for yet another award
Anita Sarkeesian is nominated for the Ambassador Award at Microsoft’s Women in gaming awards because she’s a feminist who talks about games and she has a vagina. Her views creating games that appeal equally to men and women by appealing to no one has gained her another place in spotlight. Congratulations Anita! We salute your intrepid having a vagina-ness!
Brigadier General Jeffrey A. Sinclair gets a plea deal
The sexual assault trial of Brigadier General Jeffrey A. Sinclair was halted last monday when it was found that the pentagon was putting pressure on the prosecution to convict him. The court has decided to allow both sides to form a plea deal after an e-mail surfaced from the accuser’s lawyer mentioning that a plea deal would make the army look bad. The charges in question come after the three-year affair between the accuser and Sinclair, was reported to Sinclair’s boss. He was formally accused of assault, adultery, and other military crimes later that september. The alleged assault took place on two occasions December 1, 2011 and February 5, 2012. She says that on those occasions he forced her to perform oral sex. Civilian lawyer Richard Scheff says:
“The government now has a big problem. It took pathetically weak assault charges and put a fancy wrapper around them. We just tore the wrapper off. The prosecution team no longer gets to distract us with salacious details about acts that aren’t even criminal in the civilian world. All they’re left with is a crime that never happened, a witness who committed perjury, and a pile of text messages and journal entries that disprove their claim.”
This Sunday it was revealed that the plea deal will drop all sexual assault changes against him and two others that would have required him to register as a sex offender. He will plead guilty to lesser charges. It is a victory for the defense and those that firmly believe that this case was politically motivated in a time where sexual assault has become a hot button issue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/16/jeffrey-sinclair-plea-deal_n_4975792.html
To set the stage for our discussion tonight, here’s some background on one of the events that set the sexual assault in the military witch hunt ablaze.
The Jamie Leigh Jones rape case
In 2009 Jamie Leigh Jones was the face of sexual assault in the military. She was the perfect victim. A young fresh-faced employee of KBR being deployed overseas for the first time. Jamie reported that she was drugged, gang raped, and severely injured. The media couldn’t find a better headline if they tried. It was a story that would tug on anyone’s heartstrings. Including those of Senator Al Franken, who passed legislation after hearing her story. This bill now forces companies like KBR to allow employees to take internal incidents to court.
Unfortunately for the media, Jamie Leigh Jones lied. What had been a simple tale of a party and a regretful one night stand, became the story of an innocent 20-year-old who was roofied and gang raped by firemen. In 2005, on the night in question Jones was at a party with co-workers in Iraq, and began to flirt with a firefighter by the name of Charles Bortz. Jamie was told that Bortz had a girlfriend, but this kept neither of them from going back to her room and spending the night together. It also did not keep her from going to work the next morning, or laughing and joking with co-workers. It was not until later that day that she decided she felt unwell and needed to leave. The army doctor that examined her found no signs of foul play. Merely some minor bruising. By the time it reached trial, Jamie was claiming that she was severely bruised and bleeding. She reported a torn pectoral muscle, ruptured breast implants, and said that the army doctor had told her that she’d been gang raped and penetrated vaginally and anally.
All of this was in direct conflict with the evidence. Her rape kit found no traces of date rape drugs, or even that she’d had sex with multiple men. What the media also didn’t know, was that Jamie had a history of claiming that she’d been raped and then not filing charges. A total of three times. She had an even longer history of going to the hospital with complaints that doctors felt were imagined. She was on medications for anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. When the trial ended, Charles Bortz was acquitted of all charges and Jamie was forced to pay 145,000 dollars in legal fees. In the end, the story of Jamie Leigh Jones is one of media bias and a trial that never had a leg to stand on.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/kbr-could-win-jamie-leigh-jones-rape-trial
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/jamie-leigh-jones-ordered-pay-145000-contractor-kbr/story?id=14635936
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/10/07/63367/kbr-rape-franken-amendment/
https://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=hot_topic&id=520
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