The ND rape case details

Submitted by Irish on

http://media.trb.com/media/acrobat/2010-12/272335660-16095122.pdf

Thats the St. Joe county prosecuter's office press release up there^^ 

 

First, there was the allegation of Sexual Batter/, specifically the touching of her breasts. Secondly, there was a complaint about text messages received by Ms. Seeberg. She never made an allegation of rape nor does the evidence even suggest a rape occurred as some media outlets have mistakenly reported. 

Oh there wasn't any allegations of rape at all.  I can't believe ND would have stone walled everyone like this on such a serious matter.  

Mods you can throw this in the locked thread if you want but felt this tidbit needed to be added

Before anyone tries to get all high and mighty after falling for my bait, I do not in any capacity condone this type of conduct towards anyone; that includes the reported allegations and the actual allegations that were made.  The only purpose of this post is to poke fun at the chicago tribune for their great investigative journalism and anyone who came in here expecting anything other than what is posted above.

[ed.- No way this goes well. and from the parts I skimmed people were generally being inappropriate or offended by people being inappropriate. The comments are still here, so if someone had particularly insightful one, it may be lifted out, but the noise outweighed the signal. - PaulVB]

mgopat

December 16th, 2010 at 8:52 PM ^

"The only purpose of this post is to poke fun at the chicago tribune for their great investigative journalism"

 

You realize that the Tribune normally slobs on ND's knob almost as much as NBC does, right?

Seth9

December 16th, 2010 at 8:57 PM ^

Why is everyone assuming that the sexual battery even occurred? No charges have been filed. Nothing has come even close to being proven. The police have not and are not likely to charge the player in question with anything. And as to the text messages, none of them were sent by the football player. So there is no real evidence that he did anything wrong.

We do know that the woman making the accusation committed suicide, most likely because of the stress resulting from the incident. We also know that she alleged that the football player committed sexual battery, whereas the football player claimed the contact was consensual. And we know that the victim suffered from depression and anxiety disorders.

Now, this is undeniably a tragedy. However, we should not presume that Notre Dame is covering up the incident so that a football player can remain on the team. And we definitely shouldn't be assuming that the football player did anything illegal when the family itself isn't even going that far. So yeah, Irish's tone isn't appropriate considering what transpired, but our reaction is way out of line.

EDIT: Every fact I mentioned about the case came from the Chicago Tribune article, which does, in fact, state that rape was not alleged by anyone.

enlightenedbum

December 16th, 2010 at 8:59 PM ^

It's the lack of seriousness with which the Notre Dame administration and law enforcement types took the claim that's causing most of the outrage.  Even if her claim isn't true (though frankly, it's one of the more credible stories of this type I've ever heard) you fully investigate it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Were this a different kind of board I would get off topic and rant about our ridiculous culture and how unseriously we treat sexual assault cases generally.

Urban Warfare

December 16th, 2010 at 9:41 PM ^

This times a thousand.  I would point out that, as bad as our society treats victims of sexual assault generally, they're treated even worse when the alleged perpetrator is an athlete.  Look at the MSU case.  The prosecutors declined to pursue any charges, even after one of the two players basically admitted that while he stopped when the victim said no, the other one kept going.

Seth9

December 16th, 2010 at 9:15 PM ^

I just believe that in this case, there is virtually no evidence to support the accusation of sexual battery and as such we shouldn't make a presumption of guilt. And I count 5 comments thus far that state that the football player committed sexual battery as fact, which is the reason for my original post.

Seth9

December 16th, 2010 at 10:07 PM ^

 

Oh there wasn't any allegations of rape at all.  I can't believe ND would have stone walled everyone like this on such a serious matter.  

I interpreted this to be a shot at the Chicago Tribune for reporting that ND had stonewalled everyone with regards to the investigation by sarcastically stating that ND had stonewalled everyone by failing to make public that there was no allegation of rape. I thought that this comment was in poor taste, but not emblematic of a belief that rape would never be committed at Notre Dame. Of course, my interpretation could be wrong.

Erik_in_Dayton

December 16th, 2010 at 10:18 PM ^

"The only purpose of this post is to poke fun at the chicago tribune for their great investigative journalism and anyone who came in here expecting anything other than what is posted above."

I took that to mean that anyone who thought that a rape could occur and be covered up at ND was an idiot. I could also be wrong.

Distik

December 16th, 2010 at 9:02 PM ^

"We do know that the woman making the accusation committed suicide, most likely because of the stress resulting from the incident."

I'm pretty sure more people care about that girl that killed herself, than covering anything up.

Irish came off as a smug dick who was giddy that it wasnt rape.

Distik

December 16th, 2010 at 9:39 PM ^

I don't give a shit if there was a cover-up, thats not my place to control anything. For some reason some think that a cover-up is MORE important than a girl dying. Some people would rather make light of a girl dying by posting stupid pics, so they can get pos-banged. Its a sick sad world we live in.

justingoblue

December 16th, 2010 at 9:43 PM ^

I'm not one of the torch and pitchfork crowd about locking anyone up, or even suspending someone without a lack of evidence, but it's ridiculous to see the whole thing brushed off by Brian Kelly and then come here and see it being made into a joke.

At the very least a girl was traumatized enough by this situation to commit suicide, it shouldn't be a joke even if there is no proof of a crime.

sarto1g

December 16th, 2010 at 8:58 PM ^

To sit here and read comments that make a joke of rape and that rape situations are usually overblown is absolutely disgusting.  As a friend of a rape victim, I can assure you that it is an event that leads to much mental trauma and something that the victim will replay in their heads over and over again for the rest of their lives.  One of the many sad things about rape is that victims will often not come forth because they don't think anyone will take them seriously because of people like some (but not all, thankfully) on this board.  A girl is dead for Christ's sake.  Is that anything to laugh about?

BornInAA

December 16th, 2010 at 10:17 PM ^

it looks like Brian and the mods have taken a winter vacation.

I am going to the Gator bowl with my 8 year old son.

The boobies and profanity lately on 50% of the threads is out of control.

He actually use to sit with me early in the season and llom at Denard clips.

But now I am afraid if him seeing all of these frat party jokes and comments.

wildbackdunesman

December 16th, 2010 at 9:24 PM ^

Is it true that there was "DNA" taken off of her when she made the complaint?  It seems like DNA and a potentially threatening texts would lead to an instant interview with the suspect.  Why hasn't his DNA been compared to the DNA on her...well months ago.

jv

December 16th, 2010 at 9:30 PM ^

If she gave a DNA test on Sept 1st, then it's not unreasonable to assume that they didn't have results back before talking to the player on Sept 15th.  By that point she had already overdosed, but that doesn't have anything to do with the case against the player.  I'm just not sure why everyone thinks ND was screwing around.  It's not CSI, everything takes time.  If they they sent DNA evidence to the state police they probably didn't have anything back for two weeks.  It takes a a very long time to subpeona phone records and get them back.  I'm guessing the police wanted to gather as much evidence as possible before talking to the player.  Just because they aren't tweeting what they are doing doesn't mean they aren't doing anything. 

Urban Warfare

December 16th, 2010 at 10:03 PM ^

Using a rape kit doesn't mean the person was raped. "Rape kit" is a slang term for a Sexual Abuse Forensic Evidence (SAFE) collection procedure.  Basically, it's a standardized way of collecting physical evidence left on the body of the victim in a way that maximizes the chances of preserving it.  Most of the SAFE collection procedures are external-swabbing under the fingernails in case the victim tried to fight the perpetrator off, putting the victim's clothes in bags to preserve any trace evidence like hairs or fibers, etc.

jv

December 16th, 2010 at 10:28 PM ^

Even though a victim may claim that there was no penetration, they likely still administer the kit because of the victim's possible frame of mind.  They may not remember or may being lying because they are afraid or ashamed.  I think it's probably standard procedure that is done anytime there is an assault or rape allegation.  It's possible that the police were actually being thorough, and it doesn't prove any theories that are out there.