Category Archives: Law

May 19, 2024 · 1:00 am

Celebrity Predation

File:Spacey Star.jpg

Kevin Spacey’s star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, Author Mike Crawley of Southampton, UK (CC Attribution 2.0 Generic)

Actor Kevin Spacey — the star of such acclaimed films as LA Confidential, The Usual Suspects, Glengary Glenn Ross, Seven, and Pay It Forward — is not the first celebrity to be accused of sexual assault.

Combs Lawsuits

Five separate lawsuits covering a period of 30 years have been brought by male and female victims (some of them teens) against the rapper and record producer, Sean “Diddy” Combs, for alleged sexual assault, rape, and sex trafficking [1].

Like Spacey, Combs denies the allegations against him.  However, a disturbing 2016 video on YouTube shows him physically assaulting the R&B singer, Cassie Ventura, whose case was settled in 2023 [2].

Spacey Acquittals

Spacey, it should be noted, was the same year acquitted in Britain of sexual assault relative to his interaction with four different men between 2001 and 2013 [3].  A New York jury earlier acquitted Spacey of molesting then 14 y.o. Anthony Rapp in 1986 [4].

More Spacey Accusers

“I take full responsibility for my past behavior and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologize to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me…I never told someone that if they give me sexual favors, then I will help them out with their career, never.”

–Kevin Spacey [5]

A 2-part documentary on YouTube now features ten more men who claim to have been sexually assaulted by Spacey between 1976 and 2013 [6][7].  The stories by these men are nauseatingly familiar, reflecting an abuse of power as much as sexual predation.  Continue reading →

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April 14, 2024 · 1:00 am

Kidnapped Ukrainian Children

File:Victims of War in Ukraine - Kyiv Hospital - Exhibition by Still Miracle Photography 03.jpg

Ukrainian child’s drawing of a tank from “Faces of War:  The Human Factor” (2015 London photography exhibit), Author Still Miracle Photography (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

The war in Ukraine is disproportionately impacting Ukraine’s children.  At least 30,000 have been kidnapped and deported to Russia [1][2].  Fears are that the number is far higher.  Russia is refusing to disclose information about these children.

This mass deportation is being called cultural genocide, a deliberate effort to destroy the Ukrainian people [3].

Russia’s goal is to brainwash and weaponize these children, who are apparently assembled in camps before deportation and pressured to submit [4].

Children are told by Russian teachers and psychologists that their families will not come for them.  They are threatened that their medication will be withheld, if they do not obey.  Some have even been placed for weeks in solitary confinement.

The children’s identities are erased, and false papers issued.  Russian adoptions are then arranged. Continue reading →

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April 7, 2024 · 1:00 am

Male Sexual Victimization at Madigan Army Medical Center

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Madigan Army Medical Center (2007), Author Public Affairs Office Madigan Army Medical Center (PD as work product of federal govt.)

Madigan Army Medical Center at  Joint-Base Lewis McChord in Washington State has been the site of more than one scandal.

In 2012 the hospital was accused of reversing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnoses, in order to cut costs [1].  A nationwide inquiry was prompted [2].  In 2015, an operating room fire severely disfigured a toddler undergoing routine surgery [3].  A $12.3 million verdict resulted.

Now Major Michael Stockin, a 37 y.o. pain management anesthesiologist at Madigan, is charged with having sexually abused 42 male patients including combat veterans [4][6]. Continue reading →

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March 31, 2024 · 1:00 am

The Mousetrap

File:London-The Mousetrap celebrating 70 years.jpg

“The Mousetrap” at St. Martin’s Theater, London, Author Ji-Elle
(CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

WARNING:  Graphic Images

Thousands have enjoyed Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”, the longest running play in the world.  Few realize that the play was inspired by a real life tragedy [1][2].

Fictional Plot

Set in a snowbound manor house, the mystery centers on the strangling death of a woman who mistreated the foster children in her care.  The principal suspect is one of those children, now grown and motivated by revenge.

Factual Basis

Because their parents were deemed unfit, England’s Newport Juvenile Court in May 1944 placed the three O’Neill brothers on whom the play is based under the jurisdiction of the Newport County Council [3].

In July 1944 the Council assigned custody of the two older boys — 12 y.o. Dennis and 9 y.o. Terence — to Reginald Gough and his wife Esther at Bank Farm in Hope Valley, Shropshire.  The youngest boy — 7 y.o. Freddie — was placed nearby.

When a short time later Terence was asked to write a school essay about his homelife, he said his foster mother was good and kind to him.  He said she bought him new clothes and gave him “lots to eat”.

But the name Hope Valley would prove haunting.  Terence later revealed that his essay was written under duress.  He knew instinctively that he would be in “huge trouble” if he told the truth.

Fatal Abuse

On January 9, 1945 Esther Gough phoned a local doctor to say that Dennis was having a seizure.  The doctor arrived to find the boy dead, a victim of severe abuse.  An inquest revealed that he had suffered cardiac arrest, as the result of a brutal beating.  The child was, also, badly undernourished, with painful septic ulcers on his feet. Continue reading →

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March 17, 2024 · 1:00 am

Abuse at Elite British Boarding Schools

Charles Spencer departs for his first day at Maidwell Hall.

Charles Spencer leaves for Maidwell Hall, Photo courtesy of Charles Spencer by way NBC News

Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, has written an expose about the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse he endured at Maidwell Hall in the 1970s [1].  Titled A Very Private School, the book exposes the grim realities at one elite boarding school.

Clearly though this is not an isolated problem.

A Widespread Problem

“How I hated schools, and what a life of anxiety I lived there.  I counted the hours to the end of every term, when I should return home.”

–Winston Churchill [2]

A 2018 documentary “Boarding Schools: The Secret Shame” disclosed 31 separate investigations into alleged sexual assault at British boarding schools [3].  The suspicion is that there are many more such instances under investigation.

While it is a legal requirement for schools to report abuse, there is no assurance of compliance.  Because records are decentralized, even Britain’s Dept. for Education may not be aware how many schools are failing to meet standards [7]. Continue reading →

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March 10, 2024 · 1:00 am

Alleged Trafficking by Planned Parenthood

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Anti-abortion_graffiti_in_Stanford_University_-_1.jpg

Pro-life graffiti, Stanford University, Author Suiren2022 (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

Missouri Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, recently filed suit against Planned Parenthood for alleged trafficking in transporting children out of state for abortions without parental consent [1][2].

Investigation Results

It is against the law in Missouri to aid a minor in obtaining an abortion in another state without such consent.  An investigation revealed that Planned Parenthood regularly circumvented this law.

Staff would remove minors from school by using altered doctors’ notes.  These minors were then transported to neighboring Kansas for abortions, and returned without their parents’ knowledge. Continue reading →

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March 3, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Blind Eye

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Marko_I._Rupnik.jpg

Former Jesuit Marko Rupnik, Author Centroaletti (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

Gloria Branciani first accused the Catholic priest, Marko Rupnik, of adult  clergy abuse as long ago as 1993 [1].  Some 20 women (most of them nuns, members of the Loyola Community, a now defunct religious group Rupnik co-founded) have made the same accusation against him.

Clergy abuse is the misuse of religious authority to harass, exploit, or engage in sexual activity with victims [2].

Branciani described Rupnik’s emotional, psychological, and spiritual manipulation at a recent news conference.  Evidently, Rupnik’s sexual proclivities included a partiality for threesomes which he likened to the Trinity — a comparison simultaneously blasphemous and narcissistic.

Though complaints have now been ongoing for decades, the Catholic Church has yet to remove Rupnik from the priesthood.

Background

Rupnik is a famous artist in Catholic Church circles [3A].  His mosaics decorate sanctuaries and shrines worldwide.  That may be why the church turned a blind eye to his abuse. Continue reading →

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February 25, 2024 · 1:00 am

Sisterhood and Sexual Violence by Hamas

File:MeToo 7.10.2023 (cropped).jpg

Graffiti by Grafitiyul and Guy Morad critical of women’s organizations which ignored testimony by Israeli women regarding rape and sexual violence during Hamas terrorist attacks 10/7/23, Author Nizzan Cohen (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International).

WARNING:  Graphic Images

The BBC in December 2023 confirmed that it had seen and heard credible evidence of the rape and mutilation of women by Hamas during the October 7 attack on Israel [1].

The overwhelming evidence of savagery included cuts, bruises, broken pelvises, and vaginal tears.  Victims ranged in age from children and teens to retirees.  The majority did not survive.

“[Many victims’ bodies were] found mutilated and bound, with sexual organs brutally attacked, and in some cases, weapons were inserted into them [2A]”.

The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel has now gathered evidence that there were identical patterns of sexual violence at multiple locations [2B].  Some rapes were committed in front of family and friends, to increase the pain and humiliation of victims and their loved ones.  Gang rape followed by murder was not uncommon. Continue reading →

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February 11, 2024 · 1:00 am

Vulnerable

Backbone Mountain Youth Center

Backbone Mountain Youth Center, Garrett County, MD, Source https://djs.maryland.gov/Pages/facilities/Backbone-Mountain-Youth-Center.aspx

According to the Children’s Defense Fund, nearly 2000 children and teens are arrested everyday in the United States.  In 2018 alone, there were over 700,000 minors under the age of 18 arrested [1].

Tragically, young people are extremely vulnerable to mental, physical, and sexual abuse and neglect during incarceration [2][3][4].  The Dept. of Justice indicates over 36% of the youth in custody at one Maryland juvenile detention center (Backbone Mountain Youth Center) reported having been sexually abused there — fully three times the national average [5].

A total of two hundred victims of physical and sexual abuse have now sued Maryland’s Dept. of Juvenile Services [6A][7A].  Allegations are that abuse was systemic between 1969 and 2017 [8].  Fifteen facilities (three of which have since been closed) are involved in these suits. Continue reading →

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January 7, 2024 · 1:00 am

Rape and Sexual Assault at the US Coast Guard Academy

File:Seal of the United States Coast Guard.svg

US Coast Guard Seal with motto Semper Paratus (“Always Ready”), Source Navy Reservist (March 2008), (PD)

It is a shame that we must begin the New Year with a focus on misogyny in the military. 

Four courageous women have testified before Congress to the rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment they were forced to endure at the US Coast Guard Academy with no consequences to the perpetrators [1A]. 

Legally, rape is non-consensual sexual intercourse by physical force, threats, or drugs [2A].  Sexual assault involves any non-consensual sexual contact [2B].  Sexual harassment involves unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, verbal or physical intimidation either in the workplace or in an educational setting [3].

  • One woman had to continue living and studying beside the student who had sexually assaulted her [1B].
  • Another attempted suicide after being raped and sexually assaulted by two different classmates [1C].
  • A third woman was groped in front of dozens of laughing onlookers [1D].
  • The fourth woman was actually penalized for the damage which resulted when two students broke down her dorm room door to attack her and her roommate in their beds [1E].

The demeanor of these women was professional, their testimony compelling.  As CNN reports, their stories are not unique. Continue reading →

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