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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
…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 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 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. 
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.
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.
even if she could not see the victim’s face…
All Rhymer hypotheticals except those involving unicorns. should be assumed to occur in Memphis.
Did you stop there? Here is what the OP says:
It’s also clear that Ash recognized her from the video.
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.
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.
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.
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’?
The video isn’t all you have anyway. You’ve also got a number of witnesses.