| Blog and Media Roundup - Thursday, January 11, 2018; News Roundup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 11 2018, 05:38 AM (112 Views) | |
| abb | Jan 11 2018, 05:38 AM Post #1 |
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https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/01/11/eoaa-process-now-that-lynch-has-appealed-at-u-of-m Lynch has appealed sexual misconduct cases at U of M, now what? Peter Cox · Jan 11, 2018 Minnesota Gopher basketball player Reggie Lynch has appealed two cases in which internal University of Minnesota investigations found he violated student codes of conduct. One of the reports said Lynch should be expelled, the other that he should be suspended. Here's are some questions, and answers, about the process so far, and what comes next: How are campus sexual assaults and sexual misconduct allegations investigated? Federal guidelines require college campuses to investigate sexual assaults that involve students. At the University of Minnesota, those investigations are handled by investigators with the office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA). When their investigation is complete, the EOAA makes a conclusion whether the code of conduct was violated and makes a recommendation on discipline. The accused and accuser are then given the opportunity to accept that decision, or appeal. If they appeal, a formal hearing will be scheduled in front of the Student Sexual Misconduct Committee. If they disagree with that committee's decision, they can appeal to an appellate officer, who will deliver a decision within 30 days. Punishment can include anything from a warning to expulsion. How do campus investigations differ from criminal investigations? The burden of proof to come to a conclusion is different for on-campus investigations than it is for criminal investigations. Criminal courts use the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. That means that the defendant is guilty if there is no reasonable doubt that they could be innocent. In on-campus investigations most schools, including the University of Minnesota, use the preponderance of evidence standard, which is also used in civil courts. It means that if it is more likely than not that the crime or allegation occurred, then the defendant is guilty. In the last year, U.S Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has given schools more flexibility in what standard of evidence is used in Title IX investigations. The campus investigations use the student code of conduct for definitions of sexual misconduct and consent. The University's code of student conduct defines sexual assault as "(1) actual or attempted sexual contact without affirmative consent; or (2) a threat to engage in contact that would be, if the threat were carried out, sexual contact without affirmative consent." Affirmative consent is defined as "freely and affirmatively communicated words or actions given by an informed individual that a sober, reasonable person under the circumstances would believe communicate a willingness to participate in the sexual contact. This definition of consent does not vary based upon an individual's sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression." Where does Lynch's case stand right now? In both cases, campus investigators with the EOAA have completed investigations and the office has made recommendations for discipline. In each case, Lynch is accused of sexual assault. The first incident happened in early April 2016. In that case a woman says Lynch sexually assaulted her at an off-campus location. The second incident happened in late April 2016 when a woman says Lynch sexually assaulted her at a U of M dorm. In that first case which we learned about Tuesday, the EOAA recommended Lynch be expelled. In the second which came out last week, the school recommended Lynch be suspended until August 2020. Lynch, according to his attorney, has appealed both recommendations. Hearings for each case have not yet been scheduled. Lynch is still a member of the basketball team and is practicing with the team, but not playing in games and is not allowed to travel with the team. |
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| abb | Jan 11 2018, 05:41 AM Post #2 |
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https://www.twincities.com/2018/01/10/reggie-lynch-vehemently-denies-sexual-misconduct-findings-lawyer-says/ Lawyer for Gophers’ Reggie Lynch’s digs in over UMN sex-misconduct findings By Chad Graff | cgraff@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press PUBLISHED: January 10, 2018 at 5:22 pm | UPDATED: January 11, 2018 at 12:01 am The newly hired lawyer for suspended Gophers basketball player Reggie Lynch claimed Wednesday that sexual intercourse never happened between Lynch and two accusers, despite separate university investigations that found Lynch “responsible” for both incidents of sexual misconduct, which resulted in one recommendation for a 31-month ban from campus and another for expulsion. During a 57-minute news conference at his office in downtown Minneapolis, attorney Ryan Pacyga: Said Lynch “vehemently” denies all allegations against him. Alleged without evidence possible collusion between the accusers. Criticized leakers of the investigation’s documents, which the Pioneer Press and other outlets obtained. Compared the current atmosphere surrounding men accused of sexual assault in the #metoo movement to what Japanese-Americans went through while interned in U.S. camps during World War II. Criticized Title IX protocols. Bemoaned that the names of sexual assault accusers are kept secret. Questioned why Lynch’s accusers sent the athlete text messages after the alleged incidents. Advocated for a shorter statute of limitations on reporting sexual assault. Hinted that Lynch is the victim in these cases. Wondered when a #WhatAboutMe movement will exist for men wrongly accused of sexual misconduct. “Reggie Lynch categorically denies all of these allegations in both instances,” Pacyga said. Pacyga became Lynch’s attorney on Tuesday afternoon, about 24 hours before the news conference, replacing Lynch’s previous attorney, Lee Hutton. Lynch was not present at the news conference. Pacyga said he has filed requests for Lynch to have hearings in front of the university’s three-person Student Sexual Misconduct Subcommittee, the next step in Lynch’s appeals process, which could take months. Had he not appealed, the university’s Office for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action recommendation of suspension and expulsion would have been enforced. But Pacyga cast doubt on whether Lynch will be able to have a fair hearing because of a #metoo climate in which women are sharing stories of sexual assault and misconduct against them. He compared the current atmosphere of accusations to Japanese-Americans being interned in camps in the U.S. in the 1940s. “This is not the perfect analogy, but it seems to me (this is) like where we had all of this hysteria when World War II started and we had the Japanese internment camps, and everybody rushed out of fear to do something like that,” Pacyga said. “But we look back now and think, ‘Oh my god, what were we doing?’ How wrong was that to assume all of them guilty and lock them up? It’s a little bit like that right now. Is it as alarming? No. So it’s not a perfect analogy. But is the concern there where we’re in this hysteria right now of shoot first and ask questions later, and we’ll just deal with it?” Pacyga’s news conference was held one day after it was reported that a second EOAA investigation found Lynch responsible for sexual misconduct. It was the third time Lynch has been accused of sexual assault since transferring to the University of Minnesota in 2015; the first allegation did not result in charges. While the appeals process continues, Lynch has been suspended from competition by the athletics department but still allowed to practice with the team. While he was under two simultaneous but separate EOAA investigations this fall, the department allowed Lynch to play in all 16 basketball games that occurred before the first findings were reported last Thursday. After expressing disappointment that the EOAA’s findings were leaked to the media, Pacyga provided previously undisclosed information regarding what was alleged in the cases. In the case that the Pioneer Press first reported last week, EOAA documents found misconduct following an April 28 incident in a University of Minnesota dorm room. Pacyga revealed that “digital penetration” allegedly occurred that night, according to the EOAA’s investigation. Via rape survivor and activist Abby Honold, a former University of Minnesota student, the victim in that alleged incident released a statement blasting Pacyga for a violation of privacy. “The specifics of my case being discussed is a violation of the privacy I’ve tried to maintain during this process,” wrote the woman, who identified herself as Alex. “I’m appalled and traumatized by how casually Ryan Pacyga discussed the details of one of the worst nights of my life, with no respect for me as a victim, or any regard for how this would impact me. The apparent lack of respect for victims of sexual assault in general made me fearful to report. I will continue to tell the truth about what happened to me and I appreciate all the support I’ve been receiving.” In the case that the Pioneer Press first reported on Tuesday, EOAA documents found misconduct following an April 7 incident in an off-campus location. Pacyga revealed that that investigation “alleges full-on intercourse and oral sex.” “… In that one that says there was absolute forced sex and oral sex, Mr. Lynch is indicating that there was no sexual contact whatsoever,” Pacyga said Wednesday. “What’s particularly troubling about that one is this alleged rape, if you will, happened on April 6 of 2016 and this accuser was texting with Mr. Lynch on April 7 and April 15, telling him which bar she would be at. And when he asked her to hang out, she said, ‘I wish it were that easy; I’ve got exams and things like that.’ “I wonder — if you’ve just been through a violent rape where you’ve been raped, ejaculated on, forced to give oral sex — (are you) going to be exchanging text messages about hanging out with your rapist the next day and a week after that? That’s what happened here. This is why Reggie wants to clear his name.” Pacyga also questioned why it took months for the accusers to report the incidents. The EOAA investigations began in October 2017, around 18 months after the alleged incidents occurred. “What’s particularly troubling for Reggie Lynch is that these allegations came approximately 18 months after the alleged conduct,” Pacyga said. “… Had these incidents been reported in a timely manner, Reggie Lynch could have been vindicated. Law enforcement could have come in and collected the bedding, could have had the accuser do a sexual assault exam where she would have DNA swabs done and they would test for DNA and semen. They would take photographs and look for bruising. They would look for all of these scientific methods that we have the technology to do that can either incriminate someone or clear their name. Reggie Lynch has been robbed of that opportunity.” |
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| abb | Jan 11 2018, 05:42 AM Post #3 |
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https://www.city-journal.org/html/then-they-came-frats-15641.html Then They Came for the Frats . . . Harvard’s suppression of freedom of association represents a new extension of elite academic intolerance. Dennis Saffran January 10, 2018 Harvard University’s planned crackdown on “unrecognized single-gender social organizations” (i.e., fraternities and sororities, or “final clubs”) was finalized last month, 33 years after the clubs agreed to sever all ties with the university. The final clubs have been entirely independent of the college since then, receiving no funding or access to facilities, communications systems, or student or alumni lists. The new policy, first announced in May 2016 and to be implemented next semester, goes beyond disestablishing the clubs; it will actively punish their members. Students who join these unaffiliated groups will be banned from holding leadership positions on athletic teams or other recognized college organizations—and they will be denied required endorsement letters for Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships and other prestigious post-graduate fellowships, even if they meet all the criteria for these honors. And if these measures don’t bring the single-sex organizations to heel, Harvard president Drew Faust warned, the next step could be an outright ban on membership, under threat of expulsion. The policy was originally touted as a response to sexual assault, but then, when statistical studies found that such assault was no more common at final clubs than in dormitories, the rationale shifted to both “gender inclusivity” and an even more ambiguous goal to “uphold the institution’s core values of inclusion and non-discrimination . . . along a broad range of axes, ranging from issues of gender identity to socioeconomic background to race and ethnicity.” In other words, what Harvard is planning, in a stunning bit of authoritarianism, is to punish students for their membership in independent, off-campus groups that Harvard considers to be “at odds with our values.” But, as Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) co-founder and civil liberties attorney Harvey Silverglate notes, under Harvard’s reasoning, the university could take the same action against members of the Young Republican Club or the Catholic Church—or, in an admittedly alternative universe, against Democrats, Unitarians, or members of gay rights groups. How will Harvard enforce this new policy, since, as Charles Lane of the Washington Post points out, the single-sex organizations don’t publish their membership lists? The details remain to be worked out, but an implementation committee recommended last spring that students seeking fellowships or on-campus leadership positions sign a McCarthyite affirmation that they are not now and have not been (for at least a year) a member of a prohibited organization. The college Honor Council would investigate students who “falsely affirm compliance.” If the prospect of Harvard (and other colleges, in its wake) extending this restriction on freedom of association to membership in political or even religious organizations seems unlikely, consider: in just the few weeks since Harvard finalized its new policy, at least two schools, including the University of Virginia, have denied recognition to conservative student groups. UVA initially refused to certify a Young Americans for Freedom chapter, purportedly on the grounds that it discriminated based on political affiliation by requiring members to support certain conservative principles. And Wartburg College in Iowa denied official status to a proposed chapter of Turning Point USA, explaining that the group’s values “were not in line with the values of Wartburg College.” If Harvard can punish students for membership in independent social organizations that offend its values, and UVA and other schools can refuse to recognize political organizations that offend their values, it seems a small step to take for Harvard, UVA, and other schools to start punishing students for membership in off-campus political groups deemed offensive. It says a lot about how far the radicalization of campus culture has progressed over the last generation that when the Harvard Left won its victory over the frats in 1984, it apparently didn’t occur to anyone to take the further step of punishing students who joined them. As silly and irrational as the Left often was then, it usually maintained a basic appreciation of constitutional rights. But now, as Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz has said, “the fog of fascism is descending over the universities.” Dennis Saffran is a Queens-based appellate attorney, writer, and former GOP candidate for the New York City Council. He can be reached on Twitter @dennisjsaffran. |
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| abb | Jan 11 2018, 05:47 AM Post #4 |
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http://www.statesboroherald.com/section/1/article/83460/ New chance for Georgia bill on campus sex-assault hearings Proposal would ensure due process for accused ATLANTA — A stalled proposal to impose new rules and limits on how Georgia colleges handle sexual violence cases was given a new chance Tuesday in the legislature, though the measure's author said he no longer sees a pressing need for it. On the second day of the 2018 session, the state Senate voted without debate to move House Bill 51 to a new committee after the Senate Judiciary Committee left it in legislative limbo without a vote last year. The measure's sponsor, Republican Rep. Earl Ehrhart of Powder Springs, said last year that safeguards were needed to prevent campus disciplinary proceedings from tarnishing the reputations of students accused of rapes and assaults while denying them due process. Opponents argued Ehrhart's bill would discourage some victims from seeking help on campus by requiring schools to report felonies, including sexual assaults, to police. It would also prevent schools from disciplining, suspending or expelling a student for actions that are under criminal investigation without a hearing affording undefined "due process protections." Ehrhart said Tuesday that most of what he hoped to accomplish has been adopted in recent months by other federal and state agencies. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos last fall scrapped federal rules created under President Barack Obama and replaced them with interim guidance allowing schools to use a higher standard of evidence for reviewing complaints than the previous rules allowed. And in August the Board of Regents, which governs Georgia's public universities, enacted new policies giving the state University System greater oversight of disciplinary cases that may result in suspension or expulsion. "I don't know that there's a pressing need" for legislation, Ehrhart said, though he stopped short of saying he plans to drop the issue. "It is a live bill until the end of this session. But as of this moment, I'm not going to ask the committee for a hearing." Ehrhart said he was told the Senate moved his bill to the Senate Higher Education Committee because it has a lighter workload than the Judiciary Committee, where it became bogged down after the House passed it last year. Grace Starling, a Georgia State University law student who has organized fellow students bidding to defeat the proposal, said she plans to watch closely. "The biggest concern has always been the mandatory reporting" to police, Starling said. "It would create a less safe campus environment because it would chill reporting. Students would be less willing to come forward." Before the House voted last March, Ehrhart said students facing campus disciplinary proceedings for sex crimes faced having "a scarlet letter branded on your forehead," making it difficult for them to finish degrees and find jobs. |
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| chatham | Jan 11 2018, 07:01 AM Post #5 |
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Don’t know if this has been posted previously.... http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/crime/article192631969.html Duke lacrosse accuser wants cash, new murder trial, but will ally land in court? BY VIRGINIA BRIDGES vbridges@heraldsun.com Read more here: http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/crime/article192631969.html#storylink=cpy January 03, 2018 06:00 AM Updated January 03, 2018 09:50 AM DURHAM Crystal Mangum filed a complaint Tuesday alleging malicious prosecution by the Durham Police Department and the Durham County District Attorney’s Office in her 2013 second-degree murder conviction. Mangum gained national attention after she accused a group of Duke University lacrosse players of raping her at a 2006 off-campus team party. Then N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper ultimately dropped all charges against the players and declared them innocent after an investigation by one of his special prosecutors. District Attorney Mike Nifong was forced to resign and later lost his law license because of his actions in the case. In an unrelated criminal case, a jury convicted Mangum, now 39, in November 2013, of murdering Reginald Daye, who died days after she stabbed him on April 3, 2011. Mangum testified that she stabbed Daye in self-defense. Mangum was sentenced to 13 to 18 years in prison. She is currently in the Southern Correction Institution in Troy. Her projected release date is February 2026. The Tuesday civil filing in Durham County Superior Court resurrects previous arguments outlined by Mangum and her advocates, including Sidney Harr, a retired physician and a co-founding member of the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong. Harr says he is trying to protect Mangum, who continues to contend she was sexually assaulted at the Duke party, from a corrupt judicial system that is punishing her for accusing three Duke lacrosse players of rape. The 39-page filing asks for more than $25,000 in damages and for Mangum to have a new trial, which is typically associated with criminal proceedings not civil. District Attorney Roger Echols, who wasn’t DA at the time of the Mangum trial, and the Police Department declined to comment on the pending litigation. Court order Harr says he visits Mangum every week and that he helped her draft the lawsuit. “I helped with it, and I typed it,” Harr said. “She didn’t dictate it to me word for word. I visit her every week almost since she has been incarcerated. We talk about her case constantly.” That action, however, may violate a 2013 court order preventing Harr from practicing law in the state. In February 2013, a Wake County Superior Court judge issued a permanent injunction against Harr preventing him from engaging or aiding with “acts and activities constituting the practice of law.” The injunction came after the N.C. State Bar filed a complaint about Harr preparing or assisting Mangum with legal motions. Harr said he is helping Mangum because no one else will. He said he reached out to private attorneys and organizations, who have declined to provide assistance. “To me this is more about justice than it is about keeping people from assisting Crystal,” Harr said. David Johnson, with the N.C. State Bar, said officials would have to evaluate whether Harr’s action warrant any enforcement action, which could include a contempt of court charge for violating the court order. The Tuesday filing also attempts to connect Mangum’s situation to high-profile accusations of sexual assault and harassment in 2017, including dozens of women’s claims against movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Previous appeal In 2015, an attorney unsuccessfully filed an appeal to Mangum’s 2013 conviction, arguing that testimony at her trial about a dispute she and another man had in February 2010 should not have been allowed in the case. Harr said he and Mangum filed grievances against the attorney who prepared that filing along with others who represented Mangum in the 2011 stabbing case. The state bar took no action on the grievances, Harr said. Daye told police before he died that Mangum had attacked him. Mangum said she stabbed Daye in self-defense. The Tuesday filing argues that Mangum should have never been charged with two counts of “larceny of chose in action,” a charge that relates to taking a bank note, promissory note or other form of payment issued by a bank or related entity. Mangum had two of Daye’s money orders for rent. Harr says Daye asked Mangum to hold the money orders. Mangum was convicted of second-degree murder, but not the larceny of chose in action crimes. Read more here: http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/crime/article192631969.html#storylink=cpy |
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| abb | Jan 11 2018, 12:23 PM Post #6 |
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http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/11/liam-allen-falsely-accused-rape-accuser-almost-got-away/#.WleGUZCszk0.twitter Liam Allan Was Falsely Accused Of Rape, And His Accuser Almost Got Away With It The woman who accused Liam Allan said he had raped her multiple times over a 14-month period, and that she did not enjoy sex with him. Thousands of her text messages said otherwise. By Ashe Schow January 11, 2018 Three years ago, mutual friends introduced south east London resident Liam Allan to a woman at a party. The two struck up a relationship. Though he knew she had never had a sexual relationship before, he said he worked hard to make her feel comfortable. “I didn’t want her to regret it because nobody ever wants anyone to regret their first time,” he told The Telegraph. Still, Allan says he could not handle the woman’s “issues,” and ended the relationship after he began attending a class at Greenwich University. A few weeks later, he was arrested for allegedly raping the young woman multiple times. There was no movement in the case for a year. When Allan sought information from Detective Constable Mark Azariah about the case, he was told the detective had recommended no charges be filed, since the case was weak. But just two hours later, Allan was told he was being charged with allegedly raping and sexually assaulting the woman a total of 12 times. No Exculpatory Evidence For You? For two years, Allan was under suspicion for raping the woman. He had been released on bail after being arrested, and faced up to 10 years in jail and a life on the sex offender’s registry if found guilty. Since the accusation was made, Allan and his attorneys had tried to get the Croydon Crown Court to turn over more than 40,000 text messages—yes, you read that correctly—from his accuser. His attorneys said they were denied this evidence because the messages weren’t relevant. But just one day before the trial was set to start, Jerry Hayes took over as new prosecutor and saw the messages. The charges were dismissed and Hayes apologized to Allan. “There was a terrible failure in disclosure which was inexcusable,” he said. “There could have been a serious miscarriage of justice, which could have led to a very significant period of imprisonment and life on the sex offenders register. It appears the officer in the case has not reviewed the disk, which is quite appalling.” Looks Like Using the Legal System for Personal Revenge The woman who accused Allan said he had raped her multiple times over a 14-month period, and that she did not enjoy sex with him. (Side note: if simply “not enjoying” sex can be a claim for rape or sexual assault, we’re all in big trouble.) But the text messages show her directly contradicting these claims. In one message, she wrote “It wasn’t against my will or anything.” She also continually asked him for more sexual encounters and discussed rape fantasies. Allan believed she made the accusation out of revenge for him refusing to see her anymore. We don’t know her name, because it’s still being protected. She should be charged with falsely reporting a crime, because she crippled this man’s life for two years with no regard for her actions. So far, I see no reports that such a charge is coming for her, but the court is going to look into Azariah, the cop who withheld the text messages. Allan’s attorneys say he is “considering legal action against the Met Police and CPS.” This happened in the UK, but it is no different than what’s happening on college campuses in America. The way sexual harassment and assault are being discussed these days, I have no doubt the “guilty until proven innocent” standard will be applied to our court systems en masse. Similar Things Are Already Happening On U.S. Campuses What happened to Allan has already been happening on college campuses across America. The most famous example occurred at Amherst College. A male student received oral sex from his girlfriend’s roommate, who turned around two years later and accused him of sexual assault. After he was expelled with little chance to defend himself and the deck stacked against him, his attorney discovered text messages from the accuser the night of alleged incident. The messages made clear the accuser knew she had done something wrong that night and her roommate would be mad about it, and said she was not “an innocent bystander.” She also claimed she had called another friend over because she felt “very alone and confused.” In reality, she had invited another man over whom she had been texting flirtatiously with earlier in the evening. He told the accused student’s attorneys that the accuser showed no signs of distress. When the accused student showed the text messages in an attempt to exonerate himself, the school refused to reopen the case and let him return to school, saying they followed their process properly and the texts didn’t really exonerate him. This sort of reclassifying of clear messages has plagued other students as well. The Columbia University student accused by “Mattress Girl” revealed Facebook messages that showed his accuser to continue to pursue him and flirt with him even after she alleged he had punched and choked her. She was allowed to claim her messages did not reflect her real feelings and she was merely trying to start a dialogue with him. This tactic was used against a Vassar student as well. After losing his virginity to a woman, she messaged him several times apologizing for taking advantage of him that night. She then accused him of sexual assault and claimed the messages “did not correctly reflect her feelings” because she was in a state of “shock and disbelief.” Vassar bought this explanation and expelled the accused student. What’s Making This the New Norm With “victim-centered” or “trauma-informed” training for college investigators and now campus police, incidents like this will be more common. This type of training insists investigators believe accusers and that any shifty behavior or lies they tell are the result of trauma. In other words, no matter what they do, they’re telling the truth. The University of Texas adopted a blueprint that told campus law enforcement to anticipate what the defense would say and actively work to make sure accused students can’t defend themselves. For example, they’re told to “avoid repeating a detailed account of prior interview statements and instead only record in detail the new information.” This is to make sure no inconsistencies in the accuser’s story come to light, so the defense can’t use them to prove innocence. Make no mistake: what happened to Liam Allan is already spreading in America, and we need to make sure we don’t continue to railroad the accused for the sake of political correctness. I’m using Liam Allen’s name in the hopes that search engines will lead with articles like mine, which make it clear he was the victim and should not be sneered at as an “accused rapist.” |
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9:17 AM Jul 11