Finally got my hands on the Phillips complaint.
It’s pretty disgusting, the allegations contained therein. Read at your own peril. It is a public filing, so it is ok for you to read it. And while the Plaintiff/alleged victim is over 18 now, and while her name is plastered all over that complaint, I will not tolerate any mention of her name here in the comments. If the complaint is to be believed (and I do believe it), this young woman was a sexual assault victim, and I will not have her attacked by name or even mentioned by name on this thread. Consider it the Rape Shield Law extended.
Of course, if you didn’t want her name mentioned, you might have excised it from the PDF file before posting.
A country south of Africa?
I know the AG’s office and the state police have investigated and determined that no charges would be followed. I’m guessing that by the time she made a complaint there was no physical evidence. I wonder if there was surveillance footage from any of the locations where they allegedly met. I would love to know how the attorney general made the decision not to prosecute.
Phillips denies the charges, but I always wonder why a woman would want to bring all this attention to herself and possibly force herself to relive this in court under penalty of perjury if this is not true.
Regarding her name: I will point out that she has issued a public statement on the matter: http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/phillips-accuser-its-time-we-say-no-more/1004252
So, while it is not necessary to mention her name in a post, most of us knew who it was and now everyone knows.
Personally, I think it is a credit to her for “coming out” since in her statement she implies there are others who have been in the same situation with Phillips.
I know, I am being overly protective. And I am probably being stupid.
According to the complaint, Vance sent threatening emails. Those should be recoverable, shouldn’t they? If they were, that would seem to be the basis for a criminal charge, yet no charges have been filed.
Where were this girls parents while this whole thing was taking place? They had to have known something was going on.
If the father of this girl had an ounce of self respect, he would be facing an assault charge himself ,right now.
@FBH: WTF? Her father isn’t guilty of anything. They had no reason to think someone they knew and supported politically was doing anything of this sort.
I’m more curious about those emails. Even if she deleted them, they shouldn’t be that hard to recover. If they contained the threats in the terms described in the complaint, that should be enough to indict Phillips. Either the emails aren’t as threatening as described, or the AG’s office has some explaining to do.
Perhaps her father is a law-abiding sort who thought justice would prevail. Law enforcement would investigate, bring charges and try Mr. Phillips. When that doesn’t work, you hit the perp in civil court, where the burden of proof is not as absolute and you can hurt his reputation and his bank account.
I am at a complete loss as to why anyone would go back to be abused again, and again. It’s not that hard to call 911. The shame and embarassment are nothing compared to the risk of being repeatedly raped, and maybe in danger of being killed by a freak, if this is all true. I know that truth is often stranger than fiction, but this really stretches credulity to the outer limits. Sure hope she has phone records and copies of texts to back all this up… And if it’s true, I sure will be sorry I had the remotest wisp of questioning the credulity of it all. It just defies everything I’ve wanted to believe about decency, morality and integrity in our way of life here.
I could not bring myself to read the whole document. Yikes!!!!!
I know the AG’s office and the state police have investigated and determined that no charges would be followed.
The AG’s office said there would be no charges filed “at this time” but my understanding is that the case is left open.
David Anderson on June 26, 2012 at 10:42 said:
http://www.delawarepolitics.net/anonymous-letter/comment-page-3/#comments
… The people who suspected something was wrong and intervened should be praised not condemned.
…It should have been left in the hands of the family. They seem to have handled it in way that protected the best interest of their child and brought the offender to redemption.
If you read the whole post by David, it seems clear that people knew and intervened, Vance “redeemed” himself before God, the family tried to handle it on their own, and Anderson believes the two “made out.”
Native, sexual abusers are really good at grooming their victims. They build up trust over a period of time. In this case, a young woman who had plans for the future thought she had found a person who could mentor her and help her fulfill her ambition. I think the alleged victim here really believed that Phillips would tell her parents, inform the community and make it impossible for her to advance in the GOP.
Also, remember that the number of unreported rapes dwarfs the number of those reported.
There are sexual predators everywhere. No community is immune. I think people are safe in schools, but teachers get arrested for sex crimes almost every day.
Actually, Old Sussex County Native this is almost a perfect case study of how sexual abusers “groom” their victims.
@anon: I wouldn’t put an ounce of faith in what David Anderson has to say about this. As to the notion of redemption, if he’s guilty, he can redeem himself in the prison chapel.
“@FBH: WTF? Her father isn’t guilty of anything. ”
I’m not saying he’s guilty of anything. I’m just saying if my child accused someone of something like this, I would be looking at an assault charge, because I would have hunted down that someone and assaulted them.
@FBH: Ohhh. Sorry, went right over my head.
…..But seriously I think any parent would do the same, right? Something just seems off to me regarding this whole thing.
I doubt I would stop at assault.
I need a “LIKE” button for Geezers comment