Articles Posted in Crime News

At the beginning of this year CBS News reported that there were more than 300 open investigations of sexual violence at colleges and universities across the country according to the Department of Education.  They also explained that of the 223 schools under investigation, five are located in Florida.  The five schools are Full Sail University, Stetson University, the University of South Florida, the University of Miami and Florida State University.

The Orlando Sentinel also states that many Florida residents believe that no one ever gets convicted of rape on Florida’s public universities.  According to police records, in 2012 and 2013 55 rapes were reported on between different campuses but only five arrests were made and of those five cases, three have already been dismissed.

The parents of these victims feel that there is something wrong with the way universities and colleges are handling sexual assault and rape cases, they want law and regulations changed.  They also feel that there are hidden reasons why the schools handle these cases the way do and those hidden reasons are usually funding, student attendance, and the school’s reputation.

Under the investigation completed by the Orlando Sentinel, four of every five campus-rape cases were actually considered date rapes and three of every four of those cases, the alleged victim was extremely drunk or on drugs.  Alcohol and drugs created more complicated issues when the perpetrator and the victim are actually acquaintances at a social event, rather than when the perpetrator is a stranger.  Recently, the White House and Congress have declared that campus sexual assault and rape is a widespread issue and that colleges are doing too little to stop it.

According to the FCASV ( Florida Council Against Sexual Violence), the State of Florida university police departments say they take rape allegations seriously. They usually have several officers investigate. Then the victims are referred to victim’s advocates; witnesses and suspects are interviewed; security-camera videos and entry card-readers are checked; and clothing and other evidence are sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for DNA tests.

Universities have also created noncriminal student-discipline programs that victims can use instead of courts. They offer a lower standard of proof and no criminal punishment to certain students. This is because a sexual-battery conviction in Florida carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years and it also establishes the lifelong stigma as a sex offender, which many parents do not wish for their children.  State attorneys offer very few plea bargains for cases of this matter, most of them only offer a misdemeanor battery that doesn’t carry a sex-offender identification and no prison time.

Therefore, who is to blame for the lack of safety the students encounter on a daily basis? Are the schools doing a good enough job to keep the students safe and are they providing enough information on their campuses’ that explain where help could be found for those types of situations? Why are certain cases publicized and others are not? How are schools planning to fix these issues? These are a few of the many questions that parents and the Department of Education have for those in charge of the universities and colleges dealing with these types of crimes. According to the DOE, the number of victims of sexual assaults in college should be decreasing with how advanced criminal technology is nowadays, not increasing.

Sexual assault cases are on the rise in the United States because victims are finally opening up about it after allegations against Hollywood movie producer, Harvey Weinstein. Sexual assault, according to the Bureau of Justice is a wide range of victimizations, separate from rape or attempted rape. These crimes include attacks or attempted attacks generally involving unwanted sexual contact between victim and offender. Sexual assaults may or may not involve force and include such things as grabbing or fondling. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling verbal threat, and attempted rape.

On October 5^th, 2017, the New York Times published the initial article that opened the door to the Weinstein sexual harassment epidemic and those of other Hollywood artists.  According to the Rolling Stones, the article from the New York Times revealed allegations of many women who explained that Mr. Weinstein has been sexually harassing women in the industry for decades.  The allegations of these women went into deep patterns of intimidation and even rape.  This event is just one of the thousands of situations that happen around us everyday but the victims decide to suffer through it alone due to fear.

According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network), every 98 seconds, another person is experiencing sexual assault.  The number of people victimized each year is composed in the following way: 80,600 inmates were sexually assaulted or raped, 60,000 children were victims of “substantiated or indicated” sexual abuse, 321,500 Americans 12 and older were sexually assaulted or raped, and in the military 18,900 experienced unwanted sexual contact.  The majority of sexual assaults occur at or near the victim’s home, a public place, a relative’s home, parking lots or garages, or on school property.

The Rolling Stones explains that Weinstein’s victims date incidents back to 1984 and since then almost 30 reports followed into 2015.  The investigations have been able to reveal the pattern he had when committing these crimes.  Weinstein would invite younger women to his hotel room or apartment on a professional pretense, appear in a bathrobe or completely undressed, and request a massage and/or sexual favors, either implicitly or explicitly offering the exchange for career advancement. Many of the victims refused to speak about these incidents in public due to fear of jeopardizing their careers.

Many of these cases are not reported in a timely manner because woman believe that they live in a society where they are discouraged from coming forward with stories of harassment and rape.  According to the National Institute of Justice 9 out 10 victims of rape are females and only these statistics have not changed since 1998.  When these types of crimes are committed it is important to report them as soon as possible because each state has different statutes of limitations.

Since statutes of limitations vary from state to state it is important for victims to understand that the sooner they report these crimes the quicker the police will catch these perpetrators. This is crucial when there is DNA involved.  When conducting an investigation DNA evidence can make or break the outcome of the alleged crime. These types of forensic exams are beneficial in three ways:  it increases the likelihood of identifying the perpetrator, it increases the likelihood of holding them accountable, and it prevents them from committing future sexual assaults.

According to the Florida Sun Sentinel in 2005, teacher Blake Sinrod, was accused of molesting four third grade students at Coral Sunset Elementary School.  He fondled the four girls in his classroom during their reading groups, a classroom movie, and he would also instruct them to touch his genitals or he would he would place their hands on his genitals over his clothes. After a 12-year-old lawsuit, the Palm Beach County School District gave the approval for a $3.6 million settlement.

Mr. Blake Sinrod was fired from Coral Sunset Elementary in 2006 and his teaching license was revoked in 2008.  Mr. Sinrod plead guilty in 2006 to molesting two of the four girls but the four families persisted in filing a joint civil suit against the school district.  According to file from 2006, the defense used by Mr. Dale Friedman, the defense attorney, was that the victims were old enough to understand the consequences of of their actions and conducted themselves in careless and negligent minor.  The parents of the four victims could not believe this was the defense tactic used by the school district.

Attorney Dale Friedman, told the Sun Sentinel that the district’s outrageous claim was used in an effort to reduce potential damages the district might have to pay out, a tactic she referred to as “comparative negligence.” Friedman insists, “We have never blamed the girls or given them the appearance of holding the girls responsible for what their teacher did.” But this defense only weakened the defense’s case further because it re-victimized the victims. According to Mr. Jeffrey Herman, an attorney who represents victims of sexual abuse, explained that he had never witnessed the use of such a defense and the fact that the school district was blaming the four girls of what happened to them would remain as permanent record of the case.

However, when the parents of the four third grade students filed a civil law suit in 2006, their lawyer at the time, Charles Bechert, said that the parents believed their children were preyed upon in part because they were immigrants and that perhaps the teacher thought their parents would not know how to report the crimes, or feel comfortable doing so.  This is something that continues to happen to children all over the world but children do not speak out about it because of fear of their families being deported or hurt in any form.

According to 7 News what infuriated the parents of the victims and their attorneys is that the school district failed to investigate or take proper action against Blake Sinrod in the sexual molestation incidents in 2003.  The Sun Sentinel reports that the school district also uses as its defense that Mr. Sinrod’s actions were unknown and beyond the foresight of a reasonably prudent person.  But this insufficient for both the parents of the victims and their attorneys because they do not understand how the School District did not think that this man was a danger to the students and why he was not revoked of his teaching license from that very moment.