American Justice: so much is wrong with this...

[Miakoda]

17-year-old sexual assault victim could face charges for tweeting names of attackers

A Kentucky girl who was sexually assaulted could face contempt of court charges after she tweeted the names of her juvenile attackers.

Savannah Dietrich, the 17-year-old victim, was frustrated by a plea deal reached late last month by the two boys who assaulted her, and took to Twitter to expose them--violating a court order to keep their names confidential.

"There you go, lock me up," Dietrich tweeted after naming the perpetrators. "I'm not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell." Her Twitter account has since been closed.

Attorneys for the attackers asked a Jefferson District Court judge to hold Dietrich in contempt for lashing out on Twitter. She could face up to 180 days in jail and a $500 fine if convicted. The boys have yet to be sentenced for the August 2011 attack.

"So many of my rights have been taken away by these boys," Dietrich told Louisville's Courier-Journal. "I'm at the point, that if I have to go to jail for my rights, I will do it. If they really feel it's necessary to throw me in jail for talking about what happened to me as opposed to throwing these boys in jail for what they did to me, then I don't understand justice."

Dietrich was assaulted by the pair after passing out at a party. They later shared photos of the assault with friends.

"For months, I cried myself to sleep," Dietrich said. "I couldn't go out in public places."

On June 26, the boys pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse and misdemeanor voyeurism. Terms of their plea agreement were not released.

"They got off very easy," Dietrich, who says she was unaware of the plea agreement before it was announced in court, said in her interview with the newspaper.

"They said I can't talk about it or I'll be locked up," Dietrich tweeted after hearing, according to the paper. "So I'm waiting for them to read this and lock me up."

"[Protecting rapists] is more important than getting justice for the victim in Louisville," she added.

A hearing for the contempt of court charge is scheduled for July 30. Attorneys for Dietrich want it open to the media, while the boys lawyers want it closed.

Both the Gannett-owned Courier-Journal and Dietrich's attorneys "have filed motions to open the proceedings, arguing she has a First Amendment right to speak about what happened in her case," the newspaper said.

An online petition asking the judge to throw out the charges against Dietrich, launched Saturday, has already accumulated hundreds of signatures.

"[She] should not be legally barred from talking about what happened to her," Gregg Leslie, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Associated Press. "That's a wide-ranging restraint on speech."

[Miakoda]

So let's get this straight:

If you are a "juevenile", you can rape, sexually assault, and sodomize others, particularly those who are of age, and then you can make plea deals and have your names kept out of the public media, as well as have a court order barring the person you assaulted from ever being able to mention the incident or your names to anyone else.

So to sum it up: If you are a person who gets raped, sexually assaulted, or sodomized, beware that you can and will go to jail if you talk about it. After all, the person who did the crime should be protected for their own safety after making such a harmless mistake.

My opinion? Good for this girl! She ought to hire a plane to write the names in the sky. She ought to blast their names all over the internet. She ought to make signs and put them up all over town. I'd support her all the way.

[Doberluv]

I agree 100% Mia. That is just so screwed up! Yup...our "justice" system is totally backward. Those criminals ought to be hung. Why shouldn't it be known who did such a monstrous thing? The public ought to know for everyone's safety. First, the law and justice system doesn't protect citizens from dangerous monsters. Next they want to prevent citizens from protecting themselves and others. And they are denying free speech.

[LauraLeigh]

And they wonder why so many women are afraid to come forward....

Sad, just sad....

[Renee750il]

Oh, I would NOT want to be the judge who sent her to jail for that . . .

Talk about a perversion of justice.

[Sayuri]

This pisses me off to no end.

Who gives a royal eff if those boys want privacy or anonymity? They certainly didn't give the victim that choice.

Glad she's standing up for herself and wish I'd had the same amount of guts. It is unreal what people will blame the victim for, how they will hold that person accountable, when their rights to their own body and choices were denied them by someone else.

I think that when a "child" commits a violent crime they've given up their right to anonymity. A teen who rapes or kills should be tried as an adult. Maybe some would consider that harsh, but even at 12 or 13 they definitely have a clear reasoning of right and wrong.

[CrystalGSD]

That's sad.

What has this world come to?

[Shai]

Contempt motion against juvenile Savannah Dietrich, who posted the names of her juvenile attackers online after they pled guilty of raping her and texting pictures of the rape to their little friends then plea bargained, has been dropped.

"Chris Klein, an attorney for one of the boys, said publicizing their names may create problems for them in the future. 'There's always that possibility and in any type of scenario like this you run that risk,' he said. 'Now whether both these boys can overcome those hurdles, it's too early to determine that.'"

Gee...maybe they should have thought about that before raping someone? Just a thought...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/c...2#.UA6GjvWqYd5

A Kentucky teenager frustrated by light punishment for two boys who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting her was spared Monday from having to face a contempt charge for naming them on Twitter in violation of a court order.

The case of Savannah Dietrich, 17, quickly gathered supporters nationwide who were upset that the victim of an assault could be punished for speaking out against her attackers.

The girl turned to Twitter after she said she was frustrated with what she felt was a lenient plea deal. The judge had ordered no one to speak about the case, which was in juvenile court.

On Monday, attorneys for the boys dropped their motion to charge her with contempt. David Mejia, an attorney for one of the boys, said the decision to withdraw the motion had nothing to do with public sentiment and online attention to the case.

He said the purpose of the motion had been to enforce the law that protects juveniles and their actions from disclosure.

"The horse is out of the barn," he said. "Nothing is bringing it back."

The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual assault, but Dietrich and her parents wanted her story to be made public. She gave her account to The Courier-Journal newspaper in a story published Saturday. She has not responded to the AP for comment and her lawyer, Emily Farrar-Crockett of the public defender's juvenile division, did not immediately return telephone calls.

Jeff Dion, deputy executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, said victims who feel cheated by the justice system sometimes file civil lawsuits in an effort to get information in the public, but social media has turned that on its head.

"It's all about giving victims a voice," Dion said.

In one day, an online petition on Change.org had garnered 62,000 signatures in support of Dietrich's action.

"When I read it, I was appalled and outraged and thought, 'Somebody has to do something about this. Who is going to do something about this?'" said Elizabeth Beier, 22, of Cockeysville, Md., who started the petition even though she doesn't know Deitrich. "Everyone wants this girl to have peace and time to recover and not another trauma like jail time."

Beier said the two women have not spoken, but she congratulated her.

"I think what she did was very brave by coming forward ... and I think a lot of people who may have been victims or survivors of assault and didn't get the justice they deserve probably see themselves in her," she said.

Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, said the motion to withdraw the contempt of court charge was "a huge victory not only for Ms. Dietrich, but for women all over the country."

Deitrich told The Courier-Journal that after the sexual assault, the boys posted photos of the attack on the Internet.

"These boys shared the picture of her being raped with their friends and she can't share their names with her Twitter community? That's just crazy," O'Neill said.

The Courier-Journal reported that the boys were charged with first-degree sexual abuse, a felony, and misdemeanor voyeurism, according to information in a court motion the newspaper filed asking Judge Dee McDonald to allow the paper to see motions filed by attorneys for Dietrich.

The teens pleaded guilty to those charges in late June, though Dietrich and her family told the newspaper they were unaware of the plea bargain and recommended sentence until just before it was announced in court. The attack occurred in August 2011.

Dion said the Kentucky law on gag orders in juvenile cases presupposes that information revealed came from reading the court record. In Dietrich's case, he noted, she was the victim, and she had independent knowledge of the crime.

"And I think a restriction or gag order on a victim creates some First Amendment issues," Dion said.

He added that prosecuting a victim "sends a terrible message."

"We created victims' rights out of a recognition that we need victims to come forward in order for our justice system to work," he said. "Really, what do they get for that?"

Chris Klein, an attorney for one of the boys, said publicizing their names may create problems for them in the future.

"There's always that possibility and in any type of scenario like this you run that risk," he said. "Now whether both these boys can overcome those hurdles, it's too early to determine that."

Klein said it's possible, but unlikely, that prosecutors would make the same contempt charge against Dietrich. Both sides will still be bound by the confidentiality of the juvenile court proceedings.

"I think her behavior will dictate whether it's the end of it or not," Klein said. "If all the parties abide by the confidentiality of juvenile court, then I think that's the end of it."

Bill Patteson, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Attorney's office, said he could not comment because of the confidentiality on juvenile cases.

[Bahamutt99]

I have no words. Well, that's not entirely true. I do have words, but they would mostly come out like ****ing little rapist asshole **** ****s.