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False Rape Claim Hurts Real Victims
On April 8th, the President of the Brevard Chapter
of the National Organization for Women (NOW) was
www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050409/NEWS01/504090321/1006
charged by the Florida state attorney's office with
filing a false rape report and making a false
official statement. She could be imprisoned for one
year on each count and forced to pay for the police
investigation she incurred. The case has
far-reaching implications for gender politics and
for women who report sexual assault in the
future.
The facts are as follows. On November 17th,
2004, part-time Rollins College student Desiree
Nall (pictured www.news4jax.com/news/4359657/detail.html
here) reported being raped in a campus bathroom by
two men. The Winter Park Police Department put
Rollins on ‘high alert’, advising
students to remain indoors when possible. The Dean
immediately dispatched a campus-wide email to
assure students that extra security measures were
being taken.
In a Sandspur article entitled “A Rape Hoax
is No Way to Get Attention”, Jean Bernard
Chery www.thesandspur.org/news/2005/04/15/Opinions/A.Rape.Hoax.Is.No.Way.To.Get.Attention-926983.shtml
relates how the incident impacted campus life,
“It was a nightmare for every female student
and faculty/staff at Rollins. They were afraid to
go to the bathroom or walk on campus alone after
dusk….The incident prompted a candlelight
vigil on campus in support of the alleged victim
[then unnamed].”
The police had reason for skepticism. Nall is a
vocal feminist and the allege raped occurred during
Sexual Assault Awareness Week, which was intended
to highlight the issue of sexual violence against
women. Moreover, Nall could not assist with
composite sketches, offered inconsistent details
and did not wish to press charges. An examination
at a Sexual Assault Treatment Center after the
alleged attack produced no evidence of foreign
DNA.
Due to publicity and campus panic, however, a
police investigation continued at a final estimated
cost of more than $50,000. The report of rape was
judged a hoax.
According to police, on November 19th Nall
phoned and asked to have the case dropped. When
Detective Jon Askins questioned her original
report, Nall www.thesandspur.org/news/2005/04/15/News/Was-It.All.A.Hoax-926917.shtml
reportedly confessed that she was "not a victim of
a sexual batter.” The police speculate that
Nall may have been trying to “make a
statement” about violence against women.
Jeff Nall Desiree’s husband www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-locmcfbriefs08040805apr08,1,175927.story?coll=orl-news-headlines&ctrack=2&cset=true
has been speaking publicly on her behalf. He claims
the charges will be appealed on the grounds that an
attempted assault did occur. He denies that she
confessed to lying. He claims she has been targeted
by police because “she is a women's-rights
activist.”
He also distances NOW from the unfolding fiasco
by pointing out that his wife became a chapter
President only recently. Moreover, according to
www.thesandspur.org/news/2005/04/15/News/Was-It.All.A.Hoax-926917.shtml
one article in the Sandspur, he argues “that
sexual assault cases such as this are not one of
the platforms of NOW.”
NOW apparently wishes to maintain the distance.
As of Monday, searching www.now.org
it’s website for the term “Nall”
returns no results. After all, NOW has argued that
women do not lie about rape. Catharine MacKinnon a
Founding Mother of gender feminism that NOW
expresses -- stated in her book Feminism
Unmodified, “The reason feminism uncovered
this reality [of male oppression], its
methodological secret, is that feminism is built on
believing women's accounts of sexual use and abuse
by men.”
If this methodology is debunked, if women are
viewed as no more or less likely to lie than men,
then the foundation of gender politics
collapses.
It is premature and grandiose, however, to see
the collapse of gender feminism within the Nall
news story. A false account of rape in a bathroom
is a much smaller and more tawdry tale: a tempest
in a toilet.
Assuming that Nall lied, she has achieved the
opposite of what I believe she intended. By
“crying rape” she has made every woman
who is a victim less credible and less likely to
receive justice from the police or the public. She
has made women less safe.
Rollins student Elizabeth Humphrey states the
point simply, "Lying about that story is absolutely
horrible because women are victimized every day.
And if we get the reputation of lying, then people
won't start to believe us if it does happen."
Instead of publicizing sexual violence against
women, Nall has spotlighted the problem of false
accusations against men. Her case also raises the
question of whether NOW-style feminists encourage
false accusations when they flatly insist that
women must be believed.
In the ‘60s, feminists fought to have rape
taken seriously. But taking an accusation seriously
is not the same as granting it automatic validity.
Rather, it means investigating the facts and
weighing them in an unbiased manner that favors no
one and nothing but the truth.
A lot of ugly truth may surface in the coming
months. The State of Florida seems determined to
pursue its case against Nall, who seems determined
to fight back.
Winter Park Sgt. Pam Marcum explained to the
Orlando Sentinel that bringing charges
against Nall had taken so long because the police
department sought a second opinion from the State
Attorney’s office. It is rare for those who
report sexual abuse to be prosecuted even when a
report is proven false.
In short, the prosecution is carefully
constructing a case; the defense is loudly crying
‘political persecution!’ In the process,
the definition and legal status of rape within our
society continues to evolve. Where it comes to rest
depends largely upon the honesty not the NOW-like
silence -- with which women confront the problem of
www.salon.com/news/1999/03/cov_10news.html
false accusations.
©2010, Wendy
McElroy
* * *
Wendy
McElroy is the editor of ifeminists.com
and a research fellow for The Independent Institute
in Oakland, Calif. She is the author and editor of
many books and articles, including her latest book,
Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the
21st Century. She lives with her husband in
Canada. E-Mail.
Also, see her daily blog at www.zetetics.com/mac
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