Get ready for your blood to boil on this already hot-as-hell Saturday afternoon.
The New York Times reports on a Texas rape victim who was jailed for almost a month because prosecutors believed she might not return to testify after she had a mental breakdown on the stand. The woman is now suing the Harris County district attorney's office, county officials, and jail employees.
Oh, and it gets even more upsetting. The woman alleges in a suit filed Monday in United States District Court in Houston that she was held in the general population — which is the same place her rape suspect, Keith Hendricks, was housed — as a perpetuator of sexual assault (not as a victim), was attacked by a guard and an inmate, and was denied medication.
Her lawyer, Sean Buckley, argues that her treatment was "an absolute deprivation of her personal integrity."
"As a rape victim, the psychological trauma she experienced was an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and helplessness. And if you take out the sexual violation itself and you look at the underlying psychological trauma, this is exactly what these defendants did to her again while she was still in recovery for her rape."
The Harris County district attorney's office has not commented as of Thursday, but prosecutors have defended their decisions. In a video statement released on YouTube, Devon Anderson, the county district attorney, saying that the situation was "difficult and unusual" and there were "no apparent alternatives that would ensure both the victim's safety and her appearance at trial."
Buckley argued that the woman did say she would not testify again, but said so "while she was having a mental breakdown," and that officials should have gotten her mental health help, instead of jailing her.
"Had they done that, she would have testified, she would have testified well, and she would not have been abused in the jail," he said.
Women's rights advocates worry this might deter other survivors of rape and sexual assault to report.
"We appreciate the importance of doing all we can to hold perpetrators accountable, but also believe that respecting the dignity of survivors and providing full support are paramount," said Rebecca White, the chief executive of the Houston-area Women's Center.
"[We're] concerned that sexual assault is already underreported and that this may further deter survivors from coming forward."
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