Wednesday, January 31, 2007

retraumatizing the victim


Woman Jailed After Reporting Rape
By PHIL DAVIS
Associated Press Writer
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A woman who told police she had been raped was jailed for two days after officers found an old warrant accusing her of failing to pay restitution for a 2003 theft arrest.

While she was behind bars, according to the college student's attorney, a jail worker refused to give her a second dose of the morning-after contraceptive pill because of the worker's religious convictions........[cut]

The 21-year-old woman was released Monday only after attorney Vic Moore reported her plight to the local media. "Shocked. Stunned. Outraged. I don't have words to describe it," Moore said. "She is not a victim of any one person. She is a victim of the system. There's just got to be some humanity involved when it's a victim of rape.".....She reported the rape Saturday afternoon, and officers took her to a rape crisis center where she was given the first of two doses of the morning-after pill, McElroy said. The second dose is supposed to be taken within 24 hours.

Later, as she was riding in a patrol car trying to locate the crime scene in the dark, police found the warrant stemming from a 2003 juvenile arrest for grand theft and burglary. It said she owed $4,585.....[cut]

Hess sent this to me....his issue was the worker who alledgedly refused to distribute the morning after pill while the victim was in jail...i do have an issue with that, but i have a bigger issue with police throwing a rape victim at the time of reporting in jail for a $5000.00 fine...talk about a great way to discourage women from reporting things like this...and apparently the tampa police agreed with me

local resources:
cleveland rape crisis center

cleveland mobile crisis unit

2 comments:

HitThaFloor said...

Fitting with my mood this morning, I can't even begin to describe how disturbing that entire scenario is - morning after pill, throwing a rape victim in jail, etc. All of it. Damn the system. Right now this is how I feel: The world sucks!

molly said...

did you read the rest of the article? they were out looking for the crime scene with the woman when the apb came ujp and they stopped the investigation and took her to jail immediatly! some money was worth more then doing their best to find the guy who did this to her!

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