# Impoverished rape victim offered payoff not to prosecute un-remembered assault. Should she? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 13, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521 "2011-01-13T21:39:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/41 "2011-01-14T15:52:30Z")
It would be better for the drama if she went for the offer, another girl was raped but with no evidence, and Zoe got a stern talking to from Benson and Stabler, causing her to rip up the document and testify, so the viewing audience can watch the smirk disappear from Carl’s face as the judge sentences him to 25 to life. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/42 "2011-01-14T15:59:41Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > What? > > Why would the school pay? > Why would the crowd pay? > What makes you think that the rapist has $5 million of his own money? > $250,000 for a nude video?! Someone rips out your eye and you will probably get less than €100,000 > > Also, what the firm did is criminal, but I fail to see how she herself would have a civil suit against them. The school–_respondeat superior_–their employee (graduate teaching assistant) committed rape either on school property or at an arguably school related function. Also possibly for negligent hiring, supervision, training, and/or security. The crowd–co-conspirators in a rape, intentional infliction of emotional distress The kid comes from money. Probably has umbrella insurance coverage. OR, in the alternative, will one day inherit stuff–record the judgment as a lien against all assets in state, renew as allowed by statute. The videographer likely also comes from money–it’s a ritzy school. Insurance, or recorded judgment as above. In response to **Bricker** , I acknowledge the possibility of a defense along those lines. I was taking **Skald** ’s hypo at face value, assuming the video does show a rape. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/43 "2011-01-14T16:03:27Z")
**Oakminster** is right. You have a slam dunk case with the video. You can get both the criminal conviction and a huge civil settlement. **Whynot** , a lot of civil attorneys will take a case like this on contingency. Basically, they only get paid if they win. Pretty much any firm would be willing to take a case that had videotape evidence and multiple fat defendants like this case would. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/44 "2011-01-14T16:47:42Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Disclose the attempted bribery/witness tampering, prosecute everything fully, AND file civil actions against the rapist, the school, Daddy Warbucks, the lawyer, her law firm, the other co-conspirators in the video, the videographer, and anyone else potentially liable. This, +1, QFT, etc. This one is a no-brainer. I like money as much as anybody, and I’m no self-righteous goody two shoes, but I can’t imagine any way I could accept this payoff and be able to live with myself afterward. The lawyer gets a hearty “Go fuck yourself.” I don’t know all the legalities involved, but you can bet I’d find out, and do everything I could to expose her slimy offer and try to get her fined, arrested, disbarred, whatever. Then I’d press charges against everybody involved and fight for a vigorous prosecution. If Ash was holding the camera, this includes him too, regardless of their prior relationship. She owes this to herself, society, _and_ potential future victims alike. Zoe’s mother’s health is an entirely separate matter, and I’d look for any means possible to get her operation, not the least of which would entail suing the pants off Carl and his Daddy. Publicity over the case might elicit some help from the public, as well. And, I have to say it kind of scares me that there are women in this thread who say they’d take the money. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/45 "2011-01-14T18:18:32Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > In response to **Bricker** , I acknowledge the possibility of a defense along those lines. I was taking **Skald** ’s hypo at face value, assuming the video does show a rape. My point is that we only know the video shows what Zoe knows to be a rape. Since the description of the video is, “Zöe watches. Immediately she regrets it, as this video would have made her ill even if she could not see the victim’s face. But she can, and it’s the same face that stares at her the mirror, with one man using her while half a dozen more cheer him on,” I don’t know if we can conclude that this means that Zoe’s non-consent may be unambiguously determined by a viewer. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/46 "2011-01-14T18:20:28Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > This one is a no-brainer. Does your answer change if the video is ambiguous? Perhaps Zoe is conscious and appears to be a willing participant in the video - not an impossible result of roofies. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/47 "2011-01-14T18:35:51Z")
**…as this video would have made her ill even if she could not see the victim’s face…** Not clear cut, but doesn’t sound much like a willing participant. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/48 "2011-01-14T20:53:03Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > It’s a diaeresis, not an umlaut; it informs the reader that the _o_ is to pronounced in a separate syllable from the _e_. Since the exact same effect is achieved by by the diaeresis over either letter, I have a hard time seeing either spelling as superior to the other. I always get mixed up between trema and umlaut in English, in French it’s always trema. Wikipedia in English tells me that the typographical symbol is called a trema, which can be used either for the umlaut purpose or the diaresis purpose. So now I’m clear! Anyway, in the [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaresis#English) all the examples they have of using a trema for diaresis shows the trema being over the second (or last) vowel (zoölogy, reënact, seeër, coöperate as used in the New Yorker, reënter, Chloë, Zoë). I believe that’s the correct, accepted usage. Of course, people can do whatever they want with their names, but I will reserve the right to object. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/49 "2011-01-14T22:04:09Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > **…as this video would have made her ill even if she could not see the victim’s face…** > > Not clear cut, but doesn’t sound much like a willing participant. I didn’t read it that way. I think you’re saying that to you, she feels ill watching it because she’s clearly watching a rape; to me, however, she feels ill because she’s realizing what happened to her. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/50 "2011-01-14T22:37:01Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > My point is that we only know the video shows what Zoe knows to be a rape. Since the description of the video is, “Zöe watches. Immediately she regrets it, as this video would have made her ill even if she could not see the victim’s face. But she can, and it’s the same face that stares at her the mirror, with one man using her while half a dozen more cheer him on,” I don’t know if we can conclude that this means that Zoe’s non-consent may be unambiguously determined by a viewer. Thanks, **Bricker** , I was wondering how we would pad this episode out to 44 minutes. We’ll re-write those lines for Ms. Bellows, and have a scene with a tearful Zoe wondering if her whole ordeal has been for nothing. Then Stabler can find a frat boy with a conscience–introduced briefly in the beginning–to save the case at the last minute. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/51 "2011-01-14T22:43:12Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I didn’t read it that way. I think you’re saying that to you, she feels ill watching it because she’s clearly watching a rape; to me, however, she feels ill because she’s realizing what happened to her. **even if she could not see the victim’s face…** ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/52 "2011-01-15T22:33:34Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > It would be better for the drama if she went for the offer, another girl was raped but with no evidence, and Zoe got a stern talking to from Benson and Stabler, causing her to rip up the document and testify, so the viewing audience can watch the smirk disappear from Carl’s face as the judge sentences him to 25 to life. All Rhymer hypotheticals except those involving unicorns. should be assumed to occur in Memphis. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/53 "2011-01-15T22:35:39Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > **even if she could not see the victim’s face…** 😕 Did you stop there? Here is what the OP says: > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Zöe watches. Immediately she regrets it, as this video would have made her ill even if she could not see the victim’s face. B **ut she can, and it’s the same face that stares at her the mirror** , with one man using her while half a dozen more cheer him on. It’s also clear that Ash recognized her from the video. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/54 "2011-01-15T23:08:50Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > Refraining from complimenting the detail of your imagination, and bearing in mind that coming from another country where laws against rape were historically ferocious \* I have no knowledge of American law: wouldn’t accepting money be a legal offence of **[Compounding a Felony](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compounding_a_felony)**? > Obviously she should prosecute; still better, Ash should hire a hitman and destroy Carl. I thought **I** was the bloodthirsty one. Anyway, while my gut says that all rapists\* should be executed, my brain says that that just results in more rape-murders. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/55 "2011-01-15T23:53:30Z")
Really? Most rape is acquaintance rape. You really think frat boys would start stranging their victims? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/56 "2011-01-15T23:57:01Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Really? Most rape is acquaintance rape. You really think frat boys would start stranging their victims? I did write that _most_ rapes would escalate to rape-murders if the death penalty were allowed for rape. I wrote that the incidence of rape-murders would increase. And my point was that my feeling that rape should be be punishable by death comes from my gut, not my brain. As Carl Sagan wrote, I try not to think with my gut. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/57 "2011-01-16T01:42:10Z")
In the short run, perhaps more rapes would become rape-murders. In the long run, I think that the total number of rapes would decline dramatically. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/58 "2011-01-16T01:54:58Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > In the short run, perhaps more rapes would become rape-murders. In the long run, I think that the total number of rapes would decline dramatically. **Lynn** , my gut says to kill every damn forcible rapist in the world. Maybe even those only guilty of attempted rape. (I wrote _forcible_ becuase I’m excepting cases like a 19-year-old sleeping with his or her 17-year-old girlfriend or boyfriend.) But I don’t trust my gut in this instance. Also I can’t get past causing more deaths in the short term, because Thanatos and I are blood enemies. (He will of course will the feud.) It is possible to recover from a rape; it is not possibleto recover from death. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/59 "2011-01-16T02:29:58Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Does your answer change if the video is ambiguous? Perhaps Zoe is conscious and appears to be a willing participant in the video - not an impossible result of roofies. > [@TriPolar](#): > > **…as this video would have made her ill even if she could not see the victim’s face…** > > Not clear cut, but doesn’t sound much like a willing participant. > [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I didn’t read it that way. I think you’re saying that to you, she feels ill watching it because she’s clearly watching a rape; to me, however, she feels ill because she’s realizing what happened to her. > [@TriPolar](#): > > **even if she could not see the victim’s face…** > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > 😕 > > Did you stop there? Here is what the OP says: > > It’s also clear that Ash recognized her from the video. See the sequence. I think the OP leans toward saying the video doesn’t look like the victim is a willing participant, because Zoe would have felt ill watching it **even if she could not see the victim’s face…**. Maybe Zoe would feel ill watching herself or anyone being a willing participant, but I just didn’t read it that way. And if Zoe felt ill because she what was happening to her, then why the ‘even if’? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521/60 "2011-01-16T02:44:11Z")
The video isn’t all you have anyway. You’ve also got a number of witnesses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impoverished-rape-victim-offered-payoff-not-to-prosecute-un-remembered-assault-should-she/567521.md?page=4)