If you're registered to vote in Philadelphia, please do this year. You'll see on the ballot that Judge Teresa Carr Deni has been recommended for retention to the Municipal Court by the Philadelphia Bar Association. I'd like to recommend the opposite. And here's why:
She recently presided over a case in which a 20 year old single mother, desperate to make ends meet, was working as a prostitute. This woman, while negotiating for services with a Mr. Gindraw, a potential client, had a gun pulled on her. She was subsequently forced at gunpoint to have unprotected sex with the gun holder and three of his friends.
Judge Deni decided that this was not rape (or even sexual assault or assault) because of her profession, that being a sex worker essentially meant all sex was consensual. The fact that she wasn't paid for this reduced the offense to "theft of services." (Incidentally, after being released by Judge Deni, Mr. Gindraw organized another gang rape 4 days later.)
While others who wrote about this expressed moral outrage, I went straight to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's definition of rape. And according to Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, Crimes and Offenses (Title 18), Part II (Definition of Specific Offenses), Chapter 31 (Sexual Offenses), Subchapter B, Section 3121, rape, a felony in the first degree, has occurred when a person engages in sexual intercourse with someone:
"1. By forcible compulsion.
2. By threat of forcible compulsion that would prevent resistance by a person of
reasonable resolution.
3. [there are four more definitions not applicable here]"
If this wasn't by forcible compulsion or threat of forcible compulsion that would prevent resistance by a person of reasonable resolution, I don't know what would. The Judge's personal opinions aside, it's her job to interpret and apply the law. And there is NO argument to be made that what happened wasn't, BY LEGAL DEFINITION, rape.
Regardless of the specifics of this case, a person has no business being a judge in our society when she puts her own feelings and opinions above her job, above her responsibilities and sworn duties, and above the law. In this case, her personal contempt for prostitutes got in the way of the law, and incidentally resulted in another gang rape. Judge Deni was quoted saying that calling this rape “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.”
So please, if you're registered to vote in Philadelphia, let's fire this person for not doing her job.
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3 comments:
Reeeeeeeeeeeally? Well it's awfully funny to hear a Philly judge say that, since according to West's PA Practice (Evidence): "Commonwealth v. Guy and Commonwealth v. Dear illustrate the strict application of the Rape Shield Law. In each case, the defendant charged with rape claimed that the victim was a prostitute with whom he had had consensual intercourse and sought to introduce evidence that the victim had previously solicited sex from others. The court held that the Rape Shield Law prevented defendant from introducing evidence of the victim's prior sexual conduct with third persons to prove her consent to sexual intercourse with him."
And according to PA statute (sec. 3104 Evidence of victim's sexual conduct): "(a) General rule.--Evidence of specific instances of the alleged victim's past sexual conduct, opinion evidence of the alleged victim's past sexual conduct, and reputation evidence of the alleged victim's past sexual conduct shall not be admissible in prosecutions under this chapter except evidence of the alleged victim's past sexual conduct with the defendant where consent of the alleged victim is at issue and such evidence is otherwise admissible pursuant to the rules of evidence."
I'm not digging any deeper than that...but this judge sounds screwy...
~ Chase
Okay, I re-read what you wrote. Problem here is that she was negotiating for sex...so the judge isn't completely off her rocker legally...just an idiot :/
She was negotiating for protected sex with the first person, and possibly for one of his friends. Unprotected sex at gunpoint with 4 people is a gang rape.
You don't need to do all that digging. It's in the definition of rape. Even if the negotiation mattered, once the gun was brought up to force her to have sex with those not part of the negotiation or even mentioned in it, you can easily apply the definition. Just because it might make what she was doing admissible in court doesn't make it not rape.
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