Allison Leotta's Blog, page 10
November 29, 2012
November 21, 2012
SVU Episode 14-8: Lessons Learned
“Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public. Scouting officials frequently urged admitted offenders to quietly resign and helped many cover their tracks, allowing the molesters to cite bogus reasons for their departure.”
Don’t even get me started on the Catholic Church’s shameful complicity in the sexual assault of countless children by priests.
Something has to change. Institutions must know that they cannot shuffle around predators and sweep sex-assault allegations under the rug. Many states have laws mandating that people in certain professions (e.g., social workers, teachers, doctors) are legally obligated to report such allegations. In light of these scandals, there’s been a strong push to expand these rules. Kudos to SVU for shining a light on a crime that flourishes in the dark.
What they got wrong:
There is a New York law saying a dead patient’s medical records can’t be released if they would harm his reputation. While tonight’s opposite-world courtroom showdown was interesting, it wouldn’t have happened in real life. Everything that takes place in a Grand Jury investigation is strictly secret, known only to the prosecutor, police, and jurors. The Manor Hill lawyer would not know the ADA had the evidence. Even if she did, her client had no standing to object to its use. It’s not the school that had gonorrhea or whose wife would be furious if she found out.
Similarly, the DA couldn’t come out of the Grand Jury and tell the victim how the school officials testified. A prosecutor may not tell one witness what another said in the Grand Jury. Barba could have saved his witness a night in the ER if he’d followed the rules of secrecy.
I’ve had plenty of witnesses get cold feet before their Grand Jury date. I’ve asked many police officers to go search for them. None was ever discovered naked with a hooker. (But if anyone had to make that discovery, I’d want it to be Ice-T.)
Finally, I disagreed with the ADA’s evaluation that the naked guy’s credibility was shot. Plenty of credible witnesses admit to using drugs or prostitutes – or are prostitutes themselves. Crimes don’t just happen to nuns and orphans. Depending on the surrounding evidence, most jurors can believe a witness’s story, even if he hasn’t lived a perfect life.
What do you think, SVU fans? Leave your comments!
November 14, 2012
SVU Episode 14-7: Vanity’s Bonfire
What they got wrong:
Adorable tween killers. We see so many of them on SVU, but they are almost never the sex-offense or child-abuse culprits in real life. There are real predators out there. They typically aren’t high-achieving high-school girls.
What do you think SVU fans? Would you go to jail to protect your daughter? Would a jury convict an accomplished teenage girl who’d been forced to watch her dad do a John Holmes impression? And should The Enquirer get more journalistic credit? Leave your comments!
November 8, 2012
October 31, 2012
SVU Episode #14-6: Friending Emily
What do you think SVU fans? Are you going to put masking tape over your phone’s round little camera eye now? Did you skip trick-or-treating to watch tonight’s show? And under what circumstances would you live-taunt the police while committing a horrific crime? Leave your comments.
October 25, 2012
October 24, 2012
SVU Episode 14-5: Manhattan Vigil
Well SVU fans, what do you think? Was this show a fitting milestone for the 300th episode? What were your favorite moments, tonight and over the years? And can we expect another 300? Leave your comments!
October 19, 2012
October 17, 2012
SVU Episode 14-4: Acceptable Loss
What They Got Wrong:
The medical plot points tonight were exaggerated. Doctors can’t really tell if a woman is a virgin. The presence of a hymen usually suggests that a woman hasn’t had sex – but it is both possible for a woman to have had sex while retaining an intact hymen, and for a virgin’s hymen to be broken by something other than sex. Maybe Olivia just said this as an interrogation technique. (And I pity the prosecutor tasked with applying for a court order for that examination). But earlier in the episode, the ME also said the dead woman “was very sexually active” based on her perineal scarring. That’s an unlikely diagnosis. In most sex crimes, there’s no injury at all. This is highly elastic anatomy that can stretch to fit a whole baby.
Finally, there is no way – no way! – that Homeland Security would allow the local sex-offense police to raid the terrorist mastermind’s house. SVU wouldn’t have gotten within six blocks of the terrorist’s apartment building – not even if Dateline was simultaneously filming an episode of To Catch a Predator there. Olivia is fabulous, but she’s just not gonna be the one to collar Osama Bin Laden.
What do you think, SVU fans? Is a bar-code the world’s nastiest tattoo? Will it be this awkward every time Cragen investigates a prostitution ring from now on? And will the FBI soon have to look for sleeper cells in the Playboy Mansion? Leave your comments!
October 10, 2012
SVU Episode 14-3: Twenty-Five Acts
As a former prosecutor, my legal beef concerns the issues of consent and rape shield laws. The episode confused the two concepts. In this case, the jury would consider whether a reasonable man in the Cain’s position would have believed that Jocelyn consented to what he did. To that end, Twenty-Five Acts was relevant. Cain had read it, he and Jocelyn promoted it on TV, and their subsequent conversations revolved around its themes. Even though Joceyln hadn’t actually written it, Cain reasonably thought she did. His understanding of what was okay with her was informed by the book, and it would have been admissible.
But that doesn’t “open the rape-shield door.” Rape shield laws prohibit evidence about a sex-assault victim’s past sexual behavior and reputation. These are fairly modern rules, strictly interpreted, intended to protect victims from the sort of horrific invasion of privacy they often faced in the past. (And just because Jane said “yes” to Joe doesn’t mean she said “yes” to Bob.) Nothing about Twenty-Five Acts opened the door to Jocelyn’s past sex life.
But perhaps the most implausible thing was Nick combing through the academic articles of the victim’s former college professors. As a prosecutor, I often had to cajole cops merely to revisit the crime scene. I don’t see Nick doing a dissertation on Fifty Shades, regardless of how great the sex scenes are.
So, what do you think, SVU fans? Is bondage the new black? Did Cain have a colorable consent defense? And is there anything in the world that could convince you to read Fifty Shades out loud to your mother? Leave your comments!
