A Tulsa man who police suspect of being a serial rapist was charged with six felonies related to allegations that he drugged and raped a woman repeatedly while he kept her against her will in his bedroom for at least two months.
Victor Willard Hursh, 60, is accused of first-degree rape by force and fear, two counts of second-degree rape, forcible sodomy, kidnapping and possession of a firearm while committing a felony. The incidents, according to a probable cause affidavit, took place between June 15 and Monday.
Hursh was arrested Thursday and was booked into the Tulsa Jail on bonds totaling more than $425,000. He is due in court Sept. 7 for arraignment.
The affidavit from Tulsa Police Sex Crimes Unit Detective Liz Eagan says Hursh has been identified as a suspect in three other incidents of rape and kidnapping of women, which were reported to authorities in June 2015, June 2016 and last January.
Eagan alleged Hursh’s modus operandi in each attack was similar because each victim reported being forced to smoke or inject methamphetamine and being held in Hursh’s home while he raped and sodomized them using various sexual devices.
In the pending case, a 22-year-old woman told police Tuesday that she met Hursh at a store at 15th Street and Lewis Avenue in June, and Hursh told her she could stay at his home because she was homeless. She reported that Hursh became angry when she declined his offer to smoke methamphetamine and began punching her, which started a two-month period in which he held her hostage in his bedroom.
A sexual assault exam documented bruising on the woman’s face and arm and multiple lesions on her body, according to the affidavit.
Eagan wrote in the document that the woman said Hursh would inject her with methamphetamine every two to three days and would force her to engage in a variety of sexual activities. The woman additionally said Hursh forced her to remain naked and would regularly threaten her by pointing a gun and telling her he would kill her father and her son, whom he learned about when he saw her Facebook profile.
The affidavit goes on to say the woman noticed a camera in Hursh’s bedroom but she did not know if he recorded any of the assaults because she was semi-conscious at times.
She contends Hursh told her that if she tried to escape, she would “end up like some of the other girls” who tried to do so previously, and claimed Hursh showed her bottles of bleach and ammonia to prove his point.
The woman said she managed to escape Monday night when Hursh forced her to go with him to a convenience store at Fifth Street and Sheridan Road. She reported that she crawled over the driver’s seat to exit Hursh’s van and approached a customer who was “unwilling to help,” so she hid in the store’s restroom until Hursh exited the building.
The woman said she told a security officer at the store that she needed help, prompting him to call police.
Eagan said surveillance images from the store show the woman exiting the van, approaching a customer and entering the store to hide in the restroom. She also said the red van could be seen moving around the parking lot of the store at least twice in the driver’s apparent search for the woman before leaving.
A rapist who molested a mum and her underage daughter while on bail for other sex offences was jailed.
Edward Hunter, 42, who denied all charges against him, forcing his victims to relieve their ordeals in court, was sentenced to eight years and three months.
The High Court in Edinburgh was told the offences against the woman and the 15-year-old girl came as he stayed at their home overnight.
The Record revealed this month how Hunter, from Carronshore, Falkirk , had earlier been freed on bail by a sheriff in Stirling.
He was found guilty of 10 offences of rape, sexual assault, indecency and assault, committed against four victims between 2003 and this year. His sentence covered all of the sex attacks.
Judge Lord Boyd of Duncansby told him: “These offences include ones against two young girls, one of whom you raped repeatedly.
“It appears to me you have no appreciation of the harm you have caused.”
The judge ordered Hunter should be kept under supervision for a further three-year period and remain on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
MUSKEGON, MI -- A procession of young women told a jury that drugs had been slipped in their drinks before they were raped by the co-defendant of a man already convicted of raping two of them.
Larry Stiff, 32, is accused of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in the alleged drugging and rapes of two of the victims who testified in Muskegon County Circuit Court Aug. 30. Another man, Joshua Humphrey, 35, has already been convicted of the two rapes and is serving 28 to 51 years in prison.
Both women said Humphrey brought them shots at a bar, and within minutes began to feel dizzy, foggy and nauseous and began blacking out. They said they remember only seconds-long snippets of the night: being driven with Humphrey and Stiff to a home, walking into a "gross" basement, coming to while someone was sexually penetrating them, knowing the other woman was lying beside her, and not being able to move or cry out.
Though Stiff is being tried for two rapes, two other women testified they too had been drugged and raped, and another said she was drugged but her friends prevented Humphrey and Stiff from carrying her off.
The prosecutor's office has said more than two dozen women came forward to accuse Humphrey and Stiff of drug-assisted rapes.
Muskegon County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Brandon Davis said in his opening statement Stiff and Humphrey operated a three-year "scheme," from 2013 to 2016, to lure women through Internet social media and dating sites to bars. There, Humphrey would slip date rape drugs into their drinks and the men would transport them to a home where they would rape the women.
Though neither Humphrey nor Stiff were charged with any larcenies, Davis suggested that the men also stole phones, money and clothing from the women.
Defense Attorney Frederick Johnson did not dispute that the women had been drugged and raped. He said Humphrey was the "sexual predator and sociopathic monster" who drugged and raped the women. Stiff was "oblivious" to the fact the women were drugged and joined "the party not knowing what's going on," Johnson said.
"These women were talking to him. They were giving him permission," Johnson said. "The women don't remember any of that."
To convict Stiff of first-degree CSC, he had to have known the women were incapacitated and unable to give consent, Johnson said.
He also needed only to be assisting Humphrey commit the rapes, Davis said.
A forensic scientist testified DNA testing indicated "strong support" that both Humphrey's and Stiff's semen was recovered from one of the victims. That victim's urine sample also contained two drugs: amitriptyline, an antidepressant, and gabapentin, an anti-convulsant drug used to stop muscles from contracting and has side effects of dizziness and sleepiness, another scientist testified.
That victim, who will be referred to here as woman 1, said she met Humphrey on the dating site www.meetme.com and agreed to have dinner with him on Oct. 30, 2013. Instead, he suggested they go to a bar, the former Cancun Connection that was on Hall Road. There she struck up a conversation with a woman she didn't know, referred to here as woman 2, and also met Stiff.
Humphrey bought the women shots and about 20 minutes after drinking hers, woman 1 said she started to feel dizzy and nauseous and began losing consciousness. She said she remembered snippets of the evening, including going to a "gross" basement of a home, sitting on a couch next to woman 2 and then realizing she was on a bare mattress on the floor.
She said she believed she was at at home where Stiff was staying because she was told to be quiet because his aunt was sleeping upstairs.
Woman 1 described waking up briefly and not being able to see but realizing someone was penetrating her sexually. Woman 1 said she also realized at one point that woman 2 was naked and next to her on the mattress.
Woman 2 gave a similar account of snippets of memory from the evening: of going to a basement, sitting next to woman 1 on the couch, then lying next to her on the mattress and coming to periodically including at one point when someone was sexually penetrating her.
"I remember being on the bed but I couldn't move.," she said. "I attempted to move my body and I just could not move my body. I was trying to get up."
The following morning, the women realized their cell phones were missing and still were in a groggy state. Both women said they felt pain from vaginal and anal penetration.
After asking two gas station clerks for directions and still feeling groggy, woman 1 made her way to her mother in the Grand Rapids area, she testified.
"Her arms never felt so safe," woman 1 said through tears.
Woman 1 ended up calling police and undergoing a rape examination.
Woman 2 said she didn't call police because "I just wanted to keep it to myself."
"I felt embarrassed that I had put myself into a situation when I was just trying to make new friends and I let my guard down," she said softly. "I ended up having to pay a price for it. I was just trying to make new friends."
Woman 2, who is visibly pregnant, began to weep when she said "I'm just trying to keep it together because I have a baby... I'm trying to be strong."
It is the alleged rapes of woman 1 and woman 2 for which Stiff is being tried.
Several other women testified about their encounters with Stiff and Humphrey.
Four women testify to drugged date rapes; 'I couldn't move,' one says August 30, 2017 Lynn Moore mlive.com
SERIAL RAPISTS 35 5 luglio 2017
BARNSTABLE — David Matterson, an accused serial rapist from Nantucket, made a second attempt to plead guilty to dozens of charges, but a Barnstable Superior Court judge will decide whether to accept his pleas when his four victims are given the chance to speak.
Matterson, 37, spoke in a near whisper and held his head in his hands as Judge Gary Nickerson judge addressed him.
“It appears to me that you’re dealing with a great bit of shame,” Nickerson said. “Why are you doing this, hanging your head and speaking so softly?”
“I’m ashamed, sir,” Matterson responded.
Matterson previously had appeared in court Aug. 15 for a change-of-plea hearing but collapsed in the courtroom and was dragged out on his knees.
The Jamaica native, who has lived on the island off and on for about a decade, pleaded not guilty in Nantucket Superior Court in January 2016 to six counts of aggravated rape during the commission of a felony; four counts each of kidnapping, assault and battery, and indecent assault and battery on a person over 14; three counts each of home invasion, breaking and entering at nighttime to commit a felony, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; and one count each of assault with a dangerous weapon and assault to rape. The rapes occurred between 2008 and 2015. The case was moved to Barnstable because of pretrial publicity on the island.
In each attack, Matterson entered the homes of women he did not know at around 4 a.m. armed with a knife, tied the women up and sexually assaulted them. Each woman awoke to find him on top of her, according to Cape and Islands Assistant District Attorney Tara Miltimore. The first three incidents resulted in rape charges, but in the fourth attack the woman fought with him and he struck her with a piece of wood, according to Miltimore’s statement of facts. The woman’s neighbor, who heard her screams, eventually yelled down to her, which caused Matterson to flee.
Investigators pegged Matterson as a suspect by tracking sexual enhancement pills left behind at the scene of one attack to an adult toy shop in Hyannis and obtaining a surveillance video from the shop that showed him making a purchase.
After a seven-year investigation, police linked DNA found at some of the crime scenes to a soup container Matterson threw away at an island restaurant.
He was arrested Oct. 20, 2015, at the job site on Cliff Road where he worked as a carpenter.
Matterson pleaded guilty in a soft voice to three counts each of kidnapping, aggravated rape in the commission of a felony and home invasion; two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; and one count each of assault with the intent to rape and breaking and entering in the nighttime to commit a felony. The remaining charges were dropped by the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office.
Matterson, who appeared weak and remained seated throughout the proceedings, responded to most of the judge’s questions with a simple “yes.”
But when Nickerson asked if he was aware of the state’s sexually dangerous persons law, in which convicted sex offenders could be held at Bridgewater State Hospital indefinitely if found guilty in a separate trial, Matterson stopped responding.
Matterson is scheduled for a sentencing hearing Sept. 8. At that time, Nickerson will give the victims an opportunity to speak and decide whether to accept the pleas.
If the guilty pleas are accepted, Miltimore and Hrones have agreed to a prison sentence of 20 years to 20 years and one day, to be followed by 10 years of probation.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – His rape cases went nowhere in court for years, but Friday, an accused “serial rapist” finally faced a judge.
Eli Kronenanker’s cases were the subject of a KRQE News 13 Special Assignment earlier this year.
Now, more than two years after a young woman came forward saying Kronenanker, a man she met online, raped her in 2015, he finally faced a judge for charges in that case.
Bernalillo County District Court Judge Stan Whitaker asked the state’s Deputy District Attorney, Leila “Lee” Hood, why the state is just now prosecuting the case.
“It’s complicated,” Hood, replied. “As you know there is a backlog of sexual assault cases in the District Attorney’s Office.”
She said since District Attorney Raúl Torrez took office in January, he’s been combing through that backlog, attempting to move forward with cases that should have been prosecuted.
Also discussed Friday in court was a 2013 rape case against Kronanker, which he’s once again facing charges for.
In 2013, Kronenanker was accused of raping a teen he lured through texting, Amanda Bryand, who shared her story with KRQE News 13 earlier this year.
“I’m more than wililng to fight for justice, but if that can’t happen on my case, I would really like for it to happen in this other victim’s case,” Amanda told KRQE News 13 back in May.
At the time, Torrez learned crucial evidence in Amanda’s case was destroyed under the previous District Attorney’s administration.
Torrez said because of that, he couldn’t prosecute Amanda’s case.
A second felony rape charge against Kronenanker from 2015 was also at a standstill. The DA’s Office is now moving forward with that case.
“We are dedicated to digging through our backlog,” Torrez told News 13 on Friday. “Our focus now is on preparing for trial, getting ready for that, making the best and strongest presentation that we can to the jury,” Torrez added.
Another development took place on Friday.
To Amanda’s surprise, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas’ Office filed felony rape charges in Amanda’s 2013 case, and issued a warrant for Kronenanker’s arrest.
Kronenanker was arrested Thursday night.
“We’ve been investigating since 2017, and even though evidence was destroyed, we believe there was enough evidence to move forward,” Balderas said Friday.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, a Special Agent with the Attorney General’s Office took another look at Amanda’s case, and found “there is still enough DNA extract for another test.”
“There will always be obstacles in bringing these type of cases, but for us and our unit it’s so important to stand behind survivors and their powerful voice,” Balderas told KRQE News 13.
Torrez said he’s thrilled the AG took on Amanda’s case.
“It’s our hope that the involvement of the Attorney General’s Office which wasn’t involved in the original handling and prosecution of that case, that they will have some luck in preserving as much evidence as they can,” Torrez explained.
Kronenanker appeared before Judge Whitaker Friday morning for a preventative detention motion hearing in the 2015 case.
For the first time in years, Amanda saw her accused attacker in the courtroom.
“Excited, scared, nervous. I have a lot of emotions running through me,” Amanda told KRQE News 13.
Attorney Hood argued on behalf of the state that Kronenanker should stay behind bars pending trial.
“We should preventatively detain people that are violent and quite frankly criminally sexually assaulting women in our community,” Hood told the Judge.
Kronanker’s attorney pointed out he’s been out of custody since the 2015 allegations, and hasn’t racked up any new charges.
“The state has had this DNA testing since 2016 but did not bother to indict this case until last month,” said Kronenanker’s attorney Molly Schmidt-Nowara, referring to DNA test results in the 2015 case.
“The very basic premise of the state’s argument is undercut by its own actions,” Schmidt-Nowara added.
When Judge Whitaker asked the state if any other allegations have come forward since 2015, Hood responded, “I am not aware of any but I can tell you judge that only about 16 percent of all rapes are actually reported to police.”
Ultimately, Judge Whitaker said the state did not meet its burden of proof under the rule that there are no conditions the court can set in place to reasonably protect the community.
Judge Whitaker denied the motion for preventative detention, and placed Kronenanker on strict house arrest with GPS monitoring.
Kronenanker was released to pretrial services on intensive supervision. If conditions of release are violated, Judge Whitaker said the defendant will be remanded into custody.
The court also ruled Kronenanker will not be able to go farther than a mile from his home without authorization from the court.
Although it’s been years since both victims came forward, Torrez and Balderas hope to seek justice for each case.
“Fom our perspective the most important thing is trying to get justice for both victims,” said Torrez.
Amanda explained she’s cautiously optimistic at this point.
“‘I’ve been let down by a lot of people,” Amanda said after Friday’s hearing. “I can have faith that something’s going to happen but I’m not going to expect anything.”
For now, the 34-year-old will have to stay in jail for a little while longer though. On Friday, the Attorney General’s Office also filed a motion to try and keep Kronenanker behind bars until trial in Amanda’s case.
A judge is expected to decide on that next week.
A Dallas man was sentenced to 40 years in prison for raping a woman who described herself as old enough to be his mother.
Leonard Scott, 31, was convicted of aggravated sexual assault for attacking a woman after she accepted a ride in April 2006. A Dallas County jury sentenced him Friday.
His conviction hinged on DNA testing of backlogged rape kits.
Scott has been accused or convicted in at least four other rapes, including the gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl, to which he pleaded guilty in 2006.
DNA evidence has matched him to two 2006 assaults — one in Richardson and one in Dallas. Scott was convicted this week in the Richardson attack.
He pulled up to a woman walking on Abrams Road and asked her if she wanted a ride. After she got in the car, he pointed a gun at her, an arrest warrant affidavit says.
Scott drove the woman to a house where he and three other men assaulted her.
After Scott was sentenced, the woman sat at the witness stand and told Scott she forgave him.
"Ten years ago, I was 49 years old. I was old enough to be your mother," the woman said. "I know you prey on women, but I just couldn't believe you'd prey on someone as old as I was."
Scott was also charged with aggravated sexual assault in another rape in Dallas that occurred less than a month after the Richardson assault. He is accused of approaching a woman who was walking and asking if she wanted a ride. She ran, but Scott parked the car and chased her, an arrest warrant affidavit says.
Scott dragged the woman back to his car and took her to a vacant house, where he raped her, the warrant says.
After the incident, the woman fled. She underwent a rape exam at Parkland Memorial Hospital. That kit was tested in 2015 and was matched to Scott. That match linked Scott to the Richardson case, which had DNA evidence from a produce bag Scott used as a condom.
Dallas police have sent about 3,160 old rape kits for testing since 2014. Roughly 2,260 of those have been tested, and investigators have used those results to identify 16 serial rapists, solving 72 cases.
The Dallas County District Attorney's Office expanded its sexual assault unit in 2015 after receiving a $1.5 million federal grant. It also received grant funding to test rape kits.
Prosecutors have said testing old rape kits can identify serial rapists like Scott.
"The best predictor for future behavior is past behavior," said prosecutor Leighton D'Antoni.
He said Scott exhibited "predatory behavior against vulnerable women" and asked the jury to give Scott the maximum sentence of life.
A former girlfriend testified that Scott raped her in the back seat of a car in January. She didn't report the assault to police.
In an August call from jail, Scott sang a new song he had written detailing sexual acts he would perform on a woman while she was sleeping.
"Your body's in trouble. I'm gonna save you," he sang.
A rapist described as posing an indefinite danger to women is battling cancer in prison.
Paul Moore (51) has been jailed six times for sexual offences over the last 25 years. He is currently serving 18 months for an assault on a woman on the DART.
In recent years, he sexually assaulted two women in separate incidents in Dublin city centre after stopping them in the street and asking them for a cigarette.
In 2015, he was jailed for 15 months for these attacks. He was released in April 2016 and was subject to probation supervision.
His other offences include raping a musician in 2001, for which he received ten years and raping another woman in 1995, for which he received seven years.
Moore is now battling cancer in Midlands Prison in Portlaoise.
It is understood he visited a priest in Dublin yesterday and family members are visiting him in prison over the weekend.
There are no plans to move the convicted sex offender from Portlaoise at the moment.
In 2015, when he was jailed for 15 months, Judge Martin Nolan stated that he “has a predisposition to violence towards women, which manifests as rape and sexual assault”.
Durban - A rapist who terrorised women in Bergville, Ematsheni, Roosboom and Ladysmith was handed ten life sentences and 202 years in prison at the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
Thokozani Joseph Kubheka (34) was accused of 34 counts which included 16 counts of rape, nine counts of housebreaking, seven counts of robbery with aggravated circumstances as well as two of kidnapping.
Captain Nqobile Gwala said Kubheka would do his research on places in the above mentioned areas which only had women in the houses. He would then break in during the night and early hours of the morning. Once he had gained entry, he would threaten the women with a firearm, rape them and the rob them.
In most instances, Kubheka could not be identified by the women. From 2009 until his capture early this year, Kubheka terrorised communities.
“A link investigator from the Ladysmith Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) arrested the accused after his DNA profile linked him to the crimes. He was sentenced to ten life imprisonment for rape, 105 years for robbery, 72 years’ for housebreaking and theft and ten years for kidnapping,” said Gwala.
10 life sentences for serial rapist from Ladysmith area Saish Motheram September 02 2017
Johannesburg - Nhlanhla Xaki may have been charged with sexually assaulting 11 women but the suspected serial rapist claims he has an excuse.
Each of the women were supposedly in a relationship with him at the time of their respective rapes and the sex was consensual.
Despite DNA evidence, and each of the victims set to testify against him - some of whom already took the stand at the high court in Joburg this week - and a common modus operandi between most of the cases, Xaki insists he is innocent.
Set out in state advocate Gertrude Market’s indictment, Xaki’s four-year-long rape spree across Tembisa only concluded with his second arrest in 2015.
The state has alleged that in August 2011, Xaki knocked on the door of his first victim’s home in Tembisa, identifying himself as Prince.
When she opened the door to answer his questions, he produced a knife, threatening her and demanding money.
After taking the small amount of money, he pushed her on to her bed and raped her. After telling her he “loved her”, he insisted on taking her cellphone number so he could stay in contact.
After the young woman reported him to the police, he was arrested, although he was subsequently released on bail in September.
It was almost a year later that he once again forced his way into another woman’s shack in Phomolong.
This time, armed with a firearm, Xaki robbed her of R500, raping her twice before fleeing the scene.
A month later in Mayibuye, Tembisa, another complainant was on her way home when Xaki approached her with a knife and forced her into an empty yard, where she too was raped.
Just over a week later, on August 18, 2012, he apparently once again knocked on the door of one of his victims in the same neighbourhood.
As he had knocked in a similar fashion to her husband, the young woman opened the door slightly and Xaki forced his way inside.
This time, apparently armed with a knife and screwdriver, he raped and robbed his victim, telling her not to reveal to her husband what had happened.
On May 18, Xaki broke into the home of three cousins in Mayibuye. Armed with his gun, he demanded money from them.
After ransacking their home, he took one of the young women with him at gunpoint to a home in the area, where he raped her.
Less than a month later, the next complainant was walking in a Phomolong street when she too was apparently approached by the accused. He was armed with a knife, and indicated he was also carrying a firearm on him.
He forced her to accompany him to an open field, where he raped her multiple times before stealing her cellphone.
In July that year, he once again grabbed a young woman on her way home in Phomolong at knifepoint, taking her to an abandoned yard, where he demanded money before sexually assaulting her.
The next month, Xaki and an unidentified accomplice attacked another woman walking through Mayibuye and threatened her with a knife and firearm. Dragging her to another yard, the pair took turns raping her.
On April 24, 2015, Xaki broke into another Phomolong home, where he was discovered by the female home owner.
He told her that his name was Prince and that he had been looking for her boyfriend, who owed him money.
Using a screwdriver as a weapon, he once again held the young woman hostage while ransacking her house before raping her. Afterwards, he forced her to take a bath before fleeing the scene.
A month later, he broke into yet another home in Phomolong. When the young woman inside told him she did not have any money to give him, he told her he now had to rape her. In this incident he again told his victim to take a bath after the rape before fleeing.
In June that year, he targeted yet another home in Phomolong, raping his final victim at knifepoint after waking her up by touching her shoulder. It was only in September 2015 that Xaki was rearrested.
This week at the high court in Joburg, while one of Xaki’s victims testified in camera, a witness to two of the suspected serial rapist's attacks, was called.
The young man, who cannot be identified to avoid identifying the two victims he knew, was in a relationship with one of the complainants from Phomolong.
He told the court how, in 2013, the mother of his then two-month-old child had been forced into an empty yard and raped, by a man with a scar on his lip - the same as the accused.
When she arrived at his home to tell him, she was inconsolable. However, after he calmed her down, the pair told her parents what had happened and a police case was opened.
When cross-examined by Xaki’s lawyer, the young man insisted that it was impossible for Xaki to have been in a relationship with his victim at the time.
Between her recent childbirth, spending most of her time with her actual boyfriend, her sisters and parents, it was unlikely she would have the time to be in a relationship with the accused, he said.
However, the young man once again was witness to the aftermath of one of Xaki’s rapes when his landlord’s girlfriend was also raped in June 2015. As he was the only one on the property at the time, he heard the young woman’s screams for help shortly after the rape.
Xaki had told the young woman that her boyfriend had slept with Xaki’s girlfriend, which was why he was forced to rape her. The young man also revealed to the court the young woman was pregnant at the time of rape.
The state looks set to conclude its case in the coming few weeks, although it’s unclear how many witnesses the defence will call or if Xaki himself will take the stand.
He has not, however, provided a plea explanation, with only his lawyer revealing to the court Xaki’s claims that he had been in relationships with the women. The trial continues.
Unlike your Sunday marathon of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, this heinous crime was real. Two Virginia students both abducted and murdered, and both body remains were found five miles apart on a rural farm. Coincidence? Definitely not.
During the fall of 2009, Morgan Harrington, a Virginia Tech University student, disappeared after she left a concert. Fast-forward five years later, on September 13, 2014, Hannah Graham, a sophomore at the University of Virginia, went missing from the downtown area of Charlottesville, Virginia. Thirty-five days later, DNA evidence connected Morgan Harrington, Hannah Graham, and an anonymous 2005 rape victim to one perpetrator: Jesse L. Matthew.
Officials soon discovered that Matthew's crimes dated back even earlier. In 2002, Matthew played football for Liberty University in Virginia, where he was kicked off the team after an alleged sexual assault. No criminal charges were filed but he was suspended before leaving the university. After transferring to Christopher Newport University, Matthew was again accused of sexual assault. As allegations were pending there, Matthew left before any charges were filed and an investigation could commence.
The Jesse Matthew story epitomizes the campus serial rapist who moves from campus to campus raping and sexually assaulting women without ever getting caught under the flawed Title IX system. As horrific as his record is, Matthew's commission of numerous rapes on or about college campuses is not at all exceptional. Unfortunately, serial sexual perpetrators are all too common in our colleges and universities.
In a 2002 study [PDF] conducted by David Lasiak and Paul M. Miller, two clinical psychologists known for their research on campus sexual violence, 1,882 male students from a mid-sized university participated in a questionnaire about "childhood experiences and adult functioning." To be classified as a "rapist," the participant had to respond in the affirmative to particular behavioral questions that described sexual acts, without using words such as "rape" or "assault." A series of questions followed regarding the participant's age, number of victims and number of times the conduct happened. The results revealed that 6.4% of participants admitted to campus rape or attempted rape. Of admitted rapists, 63.3% confessed that they had committed multiple offenses against multiple victims or the same victim, totaling to approximately six rapes each. Thus, out of the entire sample of men in the study, a mere 76 men were responsible for an estimated 439 rapes and attempted rapes.
This continued ignorance of serial rape on educational campuses is dangerous and harmful. Under Title IX, two particular flaws significantly contribute to the continuous serial rape problem. The first is non-existent information sharing between post-secondary campuses. Currently, if a student transfers at the end or during their Title IX proceedings for sexual violence charges, there is no systematic mechanism by which a new prospective college can learn about those alleged charges, proceedings or outcomes. At best, the student may self-report the pending allegations to an open-ended question on an application, but that is highly unlikely due to the student's self-interest. Thus, the victimization continues elsewhere as the student becomes a potential danger to an entirely new student body and campus.
Another flaw is the lenient punishment implemented by the schools for Title IX violations. Title IX gives post-secondary institutions the discretion to impose their own disciplinary procedures on responsible students. The Campus Sexual Assault Study [PDF] surveyed 5,446 undergraduate women and found that of the reported rape and sexual assault claims on college and university campuses, less than 1% of responsible perpetrators received disciplinary punishment or sanctions from the university. Implemented lenient punishments such as sensitivity training, book report assignments or probation from extracurricular activities are merely "slaps on the wrist" and have no significant deterring measure. The most severe punishment is expulsion, which is uncommon and at some schools, nonexistent. For example, since its foundation in 1819, the University of Virginia has never expelled a single student for rape or sexual assault, even in the case where the accused admitted to the crime.
This failure to impose severe punishment and disciplinary actions amounts to tacit approval and contributes to the serial sexual violence epidemic on campus.
Recently in 2015, Virginia and New York passed legislation in efforts to strictly hold sexually violent perpetrators accountable on college and university campuses. Both state laws dictate that colleges and universities are required to mark a student's transcript if a student has been suspended or dismissed for sexual violence, or withdrawn from the school with pending allegations of sexual violence. The problem is that even though all schools within the states of Virginia and New York are bound to follow these procedures, the educational institutions in the rest of the country are not.
Title IX entitles students to an education absent of discrimination; campuses rife with sexual violence deprive students of this. Transcript notations can provide a strong and effective message to perpetrators as well as victims only if all states choose to adopt this policy. Transcript notations must therefore be implemented as a federal action, as an extended component of Title IX, binding all colleges and universities across America. Colleges and universities need an efficient way to track students who have been found responsible for rape or sexual assault under Title IX. Thus, compelling schools to mark transcripts will solve information sharing because prospective schools will be put on notice about student's disciplinary history, accept more liability, and in response, take more preventative measures. Moreover, the transcript notation itself will serve as a form of punishment that will impact the students' academic future and act as a powerful deterrent on serial perpetrators.
Transcript notions alone will not completely resolve the issue of campus sexual violence, however, it will make large strides in eliminating serial rapists and slapping a red flag on student perpetrators who are found responsible on college and university campuses.
Nothing can be done for Hannah Graham or Morgan Harrington, but there are thousands of other women in need of saving on educational campuses.
Sarah Siverman is a student at St. John's University.
Suggested citation: Sarah Silverhardt, Giving Serial Rapists a Permanent Mark on Educational Campuses , JURIST - Student Commentary, Aug. 26, 2017, http://jurist.org/dateline/2017/08/Sarah-Silverhardt-college-campuses-serial-rapists.php
14 year old girl raped by 40 men 4 settembre 2017
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