Hooker raped and robbed - by justice system?
by Jill Porter
A DEFENDANT accused of forcing a prostitute at gunpoint to have sex with him and three other men got lucky, so to speak, last week.
A Philadelphia judge dropped all sex and assault charges at his preliminary hearing.
Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni instead held the defendant on the bizarre charge of armed robbery for - get this - “theft of services.”
Unbelievable.
Deni told me she based her decision on the fact that the prostitute consented to have sex with the defendant.
“She consented and she didn’t get paid . . . I thought it was a robbery.”
The prostitute, a 20-year-old single mother, agreed to $150 for an hour of oral and vaginal sex on Sept. 20, according to assistant district attorney Rich DeSipio. The arrangements were made through her posting on Craigslist.
She met the defendant, Dominique Gindrw, 19, at what she thought was his house, but which turned out to be an abandoned property in North Philadelphia.
He asked if she’d have sex with his friend, too, and she agreed for another $100.
The friend showed up without money, the gun was pulled and more men arrived.
When a fifth man arrived and was invited to join, DeSipio said, he asked why the girl was crying - and declined. He helped her get dressed so she could leave.
It’s true the prostitute negotiated sex with the defendant - but not unprotected gang sex at gunpoint.
“The Legislature has defined sex by force as rape,” said DeSipio, accusing the judge of “rewriting her own laws.”
DeSipio said Judge Deni’s ruling was based, not on the law, but on moral contempt.
“Certainly if a jury wants to make that judgment, they’re entitled to. But for a judge to make a judgment on a human being - I’ve never seen that before.”
Deni did seem contemptuous of the victim:
“Did she tell you she had another client before she went to report it?” Deni asked me yesterday when we met at a coffee shop.
“I thought rape was a terrible trauma.”
A case like this, she said - to my astonishment - “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.”
The defendant was charged in an identical incident involving a 23-year-old woman four days later, DeSipio said.
Neither woman knew the other and both told identical stories. The other men involved in the attack couldn’t be identified.
DeSipio was so stunned by Deni’s ruling in the first case that he refused to present the second one.
“I wouldn’t demean her that way,” he said of the second victim, calling the proceedings “a farce.”
Judge Deni then threw out the second case for failure to prosecute.
Police Detective Jack Ryan, who investigated the incidents, said the victims in the two cases “were in fear for their lives. Since they saw one of the doers really well, it crossed both of their minds that they’d be killed.”
Deni’s decision to drop the sex charges is ” frankly, appalling,” he said.
Deni acknowledged that her ruling and remarks would be controversial.
“I know I’m going to get killed on this.”
But she said she has to “sleep at night with what I decide.”
And on the night of Oct. 4, when she ruled in the preliminary hearing of this case?
“I slept well.”
Certainly the victims don’t inspire much sympathy.
Why waste taxpayers’ money for what some people consider an occupational hazard?
There are enough sympathetic victims without wasting time on prostitutes who ask for trouble, right?
But crimes are prosecuted not out of sympathy for victims, but to maintain the rule of law in a civilized society, to punish a criminal and prevent further crime.
I like Deni, but reducing rape to theft of services?
It’s an insult. And it’s more evidence of the skepticism and contempt most rape victims - prostitutes or not - confront when they seek justice in court.
DeSipio said he’ll file to reinstate the charges in both cases right away - before a different judge, of course.
Hopefully, the next judge will be better able to differentiate between a violated business agreement and a violent attack. *
E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns:
Filed under: Arrests, Clients, Feminism, Human Rights, Injustice, Labor, Law Enforcement, Legal, Politics, Prohibition, Sex Worker Rights, Violence
okay, that is just vile.
[...] story in Philly Daily News site, hat tips to Feministe, Bound, Not Gagged and Ren: Hooker raped and robbed — by justice [...]
Oh god… that poor woman.
Vile is a perfect word for this.
I’m still in a bit of disbelief that a judge would treat a rape case this way. The more I tihnk about it, the more unsafe I feel.
We need to write to NOW about this. Vile is, indeed, a perfect word.
[...] Hat tip to Renegade Evolution and the ladies of Bound, not Gagged. [...]
When the need for sex worker rights is questioned. This woman’s suffering is an answer.
Wow. Just wow.
way OT but thought y’all might find it interesting:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/oukoe_uk_bolivia_prostitutes
Prostitutes sew lips together in Bolivia protest
2 hours, 36 minutes ago
LA PAZ (Reuters) - Prostitutes in the Bolivian city of El Alto sewed their lips together on Wednesday as part of a hunger strike to demand that the mayor reopen brothels and bars ordered closed after violent protests by residents last week.
I blogged about it, thought y’all would have something interesting to say about it.
To: porterj@phillynews.com, DA.WEBMAIL@phila.gov
10/21/07
Re: Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni changes charges from rape to theft because the victim was assaulted while working as a prostitute.
Attention Jill Porter and Lynn Abraham,
This ruling is extremely unfortunate for us, the actual worker. Those in authority, like this judge, who takes such license to decide what injustice has occurred verses the voice of the worker, being championed by the same person who in a different set of circumstance would have charged the worker with the crime of her occupation, adds to the indignity.
Take a heart from the an Alameda County Prosecutor in California who successfully litigated against a son of a local politician for similar acts of brutality perpetrated against streetbased workers whom he sexually assaulted on their jobs.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/03/BAGCCPKLC223.DTL
What if the woman assaulted had been working as a carpenter or postal worker? Would this judge say those occupations held the same on the job hazards thereby enabling these robbers of sense and sexuality from being held fully responsible? If prostitution were not a crime would such heinous acts still be couched as theft? I think not. Under the criminalization of prostitution, prostitutes don’t have the right to say yes or the right to say no. That is the right to negotiate for our labor and work conditions. Having gun held to your head while you performed any job would constitute a violent act. Rapist and thieves target our class because they count on us being too afraid to report the crimes and law enforcement not taking us seriously when we do.
We stand by the fellow sister worker who made brave and stood up for herself and reported the crimes these odds.
This judge ought to be removed from the bench for her poor judgment which is really an excuse to mitt out her brand of punishment against the worker for her occupation’s criminalized status. This act of discrimination by the judge demonstrates her incompetents to serve in such capacity and the women in law enforcement and organized labor ought to make sure this injustice is corrected on all accounts. An injury to one is an injury to all.
Decriminalization of prostitution now and bring protection to all who labor erotically.
Maxine Doogan
Erotic Service Providers Union
C/O San Francisco Labor Council
1188 Franklin # 203
San Francisco, Ca 94109
http://www.espu-ca.org
Coalition of Labor Union Women
San Francisco Chapter
cc
council@philaflcio.org
[...] together in protest of losing their livelihoods. (Please see story with links below.) Antiprincess posted a note about this on the thread on the rape/robery case. [...]
Here is another blog with a lengthy discussion about this case. Within the comments NOW’s letter to the PA Bar Association was posted, I’m pasting it below.
http://youngphillypolitics.com/topics/teresa_carr_deni
Ken Shear
Executive Director
Philadelphia Bar Association
Dear Mr. Shear:
The Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization for Women calls on you to rescind your recommendation that Teresa Carr Deni be retained as Municipal Court judge.
According to thus far uncontested reports, Judge Deni dismissed charges of rape and assault against a male defendant who lured a prostitute to an abandoned property and forced her at gunpoint to have sexual relations with him and three other men. The victim had agreed to a few hours of paid sex with the defendant and one other man. She had not consented, however, to sex with the other two, nor had she consented to unprotected sex in an abandoned building. There can be little question as to her lack of consent—those who engage in consensual sex do not have to be held at gunpoint.
Whether the defendant in this case is in fact guilty of rape may well depend upon specific facts as yet unknown. Finding such facts is the function of juries. Judge Deni’s premature dismissal of the case, if allowed to stand, will forever prevent relevant facts from being discovered, and may well result in a criminal’s remaining unpunished.
Judging from her comments as published, Judge Deni’s decision to dismiss the charges of rape and assault seems to be based on her abhorrence of prostitution and her contempt, even disgust, for those who practice it. A judge is not free, however, to ignore a crime because she disapproves of the victim. Judge Deni’s willingness to ignore the law and sound judicial practice renders her unfit for retention. We hope that you rescind your recommendation to retain her.
Yours respectfully,
Karen Bojar
President
Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization for Women
Feministe has a thorough convo going as well as links for contacting the PA Bar Assoc. and for filing a complaint with the PA Judicial Conduct Board:
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/10/16/when-is-rape-at-gunpoint-not-rape-when-its-theft-of-services/
(PLEASE NOTE: If you live in PA, you can help! Click here: http://www.pacleansweep.com/cgi-bin/judges.cgi )
I think it’s great how so many people and groups have come together on this issue, especially women’s groups. They’re supporting a sex worker.
Is there a way we can tap into this? Obviously they identify with her as a woman, not a sex worker.
XX
Sex workers have been calling the PA Bar Association and here is the treatment they get from Kenneth Shear, President of the Board:
I called him AND HE ANSWERED! When I told him I was a sex worker who advocates the health and safety of sex workers and was looking for his contact information to circulate among groups of sex workers and sex worker advocates, he said: “Your a what?” and I said “sex worker”
HE HUNG UP ON ME!!!!
Call him, would you ?
Kenneth Shear: 215-238-6338
[...] 5th, 2007 at 7:17 pm (injustice, prostitution, rape) This made the news a couple of weeks ago. A 20-year old prostitute was raped multiple times at gunpoint. She did negotiate to have sex for [...]