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Jury orders blogger to pay $8.4 million to ex-Army colonel she accused of rape

KHarvey16

Member
This is like the Gawker thread. People like the to see ruinous jury awards against people and companies they don't like, with no care to the effects of the verdicts down the road.

I am explicitly and specifically denying the effects you're dreaming up will happen. I'm not saying they won't matter, I'm saying they won't be. And they won't be, because your position is based on a complete misunderstanding of the case and a failure to consider the actual facts of what's happening.
 

Piecake

Member
This is like the Gawker thread. People like the to see ruinous jury awards against people and companies they don't like, with no care to the effects of the verdicts down the road.

How many people do you think are actually going to read this story? How many do you think are going to remember it 6 months from now?

How do you know that the lesson that the people who do read it, remember it, and then experience sexual assault will be that they better not press charges because of this, and not take it to mean that crazy people who make up shit whose story can't be backed up by evidence will get sued for defamation?

It really seems like you are vastly overestimating the reach of this story and underestimating the intelligence of people who will read and remember it.
 

mcrommert

Banned
I don't know that it's a GAF thing per say, but it definitely seems like the media really latches on to it. It's kind of stupid really, because it only helps perpetuates MRA type nonsense.

You mean how false rape accusations are pretty common?

Yeah that totally doesn't happen at all.
/s
 

Cat Party

Member
I am explicitly and specifically denying the effects you're dreaming up will happen. I'm not saying they won't matter, I'm saying they won't be. And they won't be, because your position is based on a complete misunderstanding of the case and a failure to consider the actual facts of what's happening.

Ok, please explain to me why $8.4 million is a fine verdict based on the facts of this entire case and not simply what is in the article.

How many people do you think are actually going to read this story? How many do you think are going to remember it 6 months from now?

How do you know that the lesson that the people who do read it, remember it, and then experience sexual assault will be that they better not press charges because of this, and not take it to mean that crazy people who make up shit whose story can't be backed up by evidence will get sued for defamation?

It really seems like you are vastly overestimating the reach of this story and underestimating the intelligence of people who will read and remember it.
When someone scores a big verdict, that news travels fast in the legal world. Lawyers will know about it.
 

KHarvey16

Member
Ok, please explain to me why $8.4 million is a fine verdict based on the facts of this entire case and not simply what is in the article.

Punitive damages will be capped at $350k by law and the other $2 million will be from lost wages and other lost compensation. That's perfectly fine.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
It's because rape cases are largely hard to prove, tend to boil down to he said/she said, and can potentially have massive consequences in more way than one for the accused.

As far as I know nothing else really hits all of those notes. I expect if something else did then it would be treated similarly.

Major murder cases and pedophilia accusations are basically the only things I think that are in the same ballpark.
 

KHarvey16

Member
That's not what we were talking about but whatever.

Hang on, what you just asked me wasn't what we were talking about. Whether or not the jury's decision about damages is fair or reasonable isn't the same thing as not accepting their finding of the facts or dissuading women from accusing the men who abuse them. You moved that goalpost, not me.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
False crime accusations exist at a similar percentage across all criminal acts and yet false rape accusations seems to be the one that makes people "take accusations less seriously" and "create more doubt."

I'm pretty sure people who feel that way are just looking for an excuse to continue to ignore the problem.
Because rape is one of the very few crimes where we strive to take the accuser and their testimony seriously, and where that testimony may be the only real evidence that a crime was committed. So when testimony is shown to be maliciously false it does create more doubt, because it carried more weight in the first place.
 

shandy706

Member
9/11 made her become a born again Christian conservative. One of her recent FB posts is wondering what she did to make God hate her.

I hope she doesn't do anything drastic.

Sounds like my ex-wife. Found god, got baptized, was sleeping with her "secret" boyfriend again 2 weeks later.

Crazy woman, and any negative thing in her life was always someone else's fault.
 
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