La Salle Disgrace

Last Friday was a sad day for women. Two former La Salle University basketball players were acquitted of raping a 19-year-old University of New Haven student after a trial that was filled with as much hate and disgust for the alleged victim as for the two defendants.

The woman, now 20, accused the two ex-players of simultaneously raping her as she was bent over, throwing up into their kitchen sink.

After she drank eight shots of 99 Apples, a liquor stronger than vodka.

After she bragged about how she had performed oral sex on a mutual friend.

And after sitting on one of the player’s laps, refusing to leave with her friends.

So apparently she deserved it.

At least that’s what defense attorneys Michael McDermott and Wendy Goldstein persuaded the jury to believe.

Both men admit to having sex with the accuser, but said it was consensual.

Rape is a crime where not only the attacker, but also the victim is often blamed for the situation.

Few people would ask someone who has been mugged why they chose to walk along a certain street at a certain time.

Few people would ask a shooting victim what they could have done differently.

But society judges sexual assault victims just as strongly as they judge their attackers. Victims are asked what they were wearing at the time of the attack, or if their attacker could have thought she was just playing hard to get.

Goldstein summed up the defense’s opinion of the accuser with one statement.

“Everyone knows, and she has every reason to turn herself into a victim rather than face what everyone is thinking about her: silly girl got drunk and had sex with these two young men,” she said during the trial’s opening statements.

Even the media had their part in blaming the victim.

In a Daily News article after the accuser testified, writer Theresa Conroy said the victim seemed combative, evasive and screamed, “Get away from me” to a prosecutor after he tried to calm her down before going on the stand.

Oh, and she was wearing a tight skirt.

So apparently she deserved it.

The two ex-basketball players have been completely cleared of the crime. A jury has decided they did not take part in a rape, and there will be no ramifications for any of their actions.

After the verdict was read, the judge told the two men that she hoped the trial would teach them to consider the consequences of their actions in the future.

Sadly, in sexual assault cases, emphasis on the victims’ actions sometimes supersedes those of the attackers.

But, we must remember, both the victim and the accused are innocent until proven guilty.