Brooklyn DA Charles "Joe" Hynes has come under fire for his handling of the case. Photograph: NBC Universal/Getty ImagesPosted by Nicholas Stix
Judge dismisses charges against men accused of prostituting Jewish girl
Accuser's father protests resolution of case in which Brooklyn men allegedly brutalised Orthodox woman for nearly a decade
By Karen McVeigh in New York
Tuesday 26 June 2012 23.29 BST
Guardian.co.uk
The father of a young Orthodox Jewish woman at the heart of a high-profile New York child rape and prostitution case has accused prosecuting authorities of sending a "chilling signal" to other victims by dismissing charges against four men who are accused of brutalising and prostituting her for almost a decade from the age of 13.
The convoluted and controversial case, which involved a young woman from the Chabad Lubavitch community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, ended without a trial on Tuesday when a judge granted prosecutors' requests to dismiss the indictments against the four men.
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) and other advocacy groups joined with the victim's father on Tuesday in criticising the decision to drop a case they described as compelling. They said it represented a "stunning failure" of justice by authorities who ignored the totality of the evidence, misconstrued key elements of her evidence as consent and failed to employ expert witness testimony which would have shed light on a misunderstood feature of her case and other similar cases.
Speaking out for the first time since the case began, the victim's father said his daughter, now 22, had presented "voluminous evidence" to the authorities, including police records and family statements to police, but that she had been repeatedly failed by them.
In a statement which he said detailed those failures and chronicled her abuse, read out at a press conference outside the DA's office in Brooklyn, he said: "Our family has the misfortune of living under the jurisdiction of the Brooklyn district attorney, who regards the psychological confusion and fear my daughter experienced during her enslavement as proof that she sought out, enjoyed and deserved her victimization."
The case, announced by Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes a year ago, has been mired in difficulty almost from the start. The accused, four black men who were older than the women, always denied the charges, and one said he had a consensual sexual relationship with her.
Two members of the Brooklyn district attorney's office, including the prosecutor who was head of the sex trafficking unit, resigned amid questions over how it was handled. In April, it was revealed the DA's office had improperly withheld from the defence a police report in which the victim recanted some accusations she had made. There were questions over the woman's credibility, amid reports that prosecutors had withheld other reports saying the woman suffered from mental illness and whether prosecutors had mishandled potentially exculpatory evidence.
Darrell Dula, 25, who had been charged with a single count of rape, and Damine Crooks, 32, charged with four counts of rape and two of sex trafficking, attended the New York state supreme court for the dismissal on Tuesday. They told the New York Times that they were relieved that the charges against them had been dismissed and that they were looking forward to getting on with their lives.
Charges against the other two men, Jamali Brockett and his brother Jawara, were also dismissed, but they remain in prison on unrelated matters.
Norma Ramos, executive director of CATW, said the dismissal of charges against the four men was a "stunning failure" to pursue justice. "This is a classic case of sex trafficking as the victim was gang-raped at the age of 13," she said.
"Police records and neighbourhood witnesses support her and her families [sic] account that they made complaints to the local police about her victimisation but the police did nothing to protect her. She experienced repeated failure of government entities."
Victims' advocates say the young woman at the centre of the case suffers from a psychological condition similar to Stockholm syndrome known as "traumatic bonding".
Clinical psychologists say the condition – in which victims bond psychologically with their attackers after experiencing a cycle of affection punctuated by brutality, blame themselves for the abuse and at times wish to protect their tormentors – is widespread among victims of prolonged sexual and physical violence. In such cases, recanting evidence is typical, they say.
Ramos said the DA failed to understand this key element of the case. "It is unfortunate that statements made by the victim what should be viewed as evidence of traumatic bonding have been wrongly interpreted by key legal players in this case as evidence of consent and have become the basis for the Brooklyn district attorney's office to dismiss the charges against the defendants."
She criticised the failure by the DA to not employ witness testimony to "educate the jury and the general public about the meaning and significance of theses statements".
Echoing the views of the family, Ramos said the dismissal also sent a dangerous message to traffickers, which was: "You will not be held accountable for sex trafficking."
Taina Bien-Aime, from New York State Anti-trafficking Coalition, said that while much progress had been made in the last decade in understanding sex trafficking case, the Brooklyn DA's decision to dismiss the case was a step in the "wrong direction". She said: "New York cannot afford to trail the country with efforts to stop sex trafficking."
Jane Manning, a former prosecutor and legislative vice-president of NY National Organisation for Women, said the case presented an "illuminating window" into how sex traffickers operate. She said it was similar to the dynamic of domestic violence in which the relationship was not a defence of the crime.
"As prosecutors learn how to prosecute these cases successfully they are going to have to expect recanting of evidence" she said.
In a statement, the DA said that after discovering that exculpatory information was not turned over to the defence, he reviewed all the documents.
"We have concluded as a result that we can no longer proceed with this case". Hynes said: "We understand the frustration of the family of the victim. If it is any consolation our office has made the prosecution of sex traffickers a high priority even though many cases are difficult because the sole witness is usually the victim."
The accuser's father released this statement on Tuesday. [N.S.: I couldn't reproduce the statement in readable form. Please hit the link in the article title, in order to read the statement.
I thank the reader who sent me this story.
P.P.S.: That reader wrote,
Dear Mr Stix,
Attached below is a link to a report (in a UK newspaper) of a situation so scandalous that I am amazed that it is not front page news in the US.
N.S.: It isn't scandalous in America, because of the race of the perps.]
I think you need bigger gifs of the statements. They are illegible, even when magnified.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Glaivester, but I was unable to do that, and so I have placed a note in the post, directing readers to hit the link in the article's title.
ReplyDeleteSince when is it legal to have consensual sex with a thirteen-year-old?
ReplyDeleteDutch Boy you have brought up one of my pet peeves. Anyone who reads and pays attention to the media will notice that black men in these situations are always referred to as "traffickers", if they are sexually abusing underage girls they are still referred to as "traffickers". It is a coded way of saying pimp which means these "men" are admired and respected by the black community and given instant cred if sent to prison. White males sexually involved with udnerage girls are instantly considered pedophiles and portrayed in the media as such. Why are black "traffickers" not labeled the same way? Anybody have any thoughts as to why?
ReplyDelete