CO Senate race: Possible October Surprise

[Keystone Phil]

I think some people around here are really grasping at straws. This has to be one of the worst possible October Surprise ideas.

[Meeker]

http://coloradoindependent.com/63925/suspect-in-troubling-05-buck-case-said-he-knew-it-was-rape

Victim: “You do realize that … it’s rape.”

Suspect: “Yeah, I do.”

Victim: “Like in a number of different ways, because I didn’t want to do it and because I was intoxicated and because I was afraid.”

Suspect: “Yes I do. I know.”

[feeblepizza]

     So people are just getting upset over him speaking brusquely to someone seeking to file charges? His words were poorly chosen, but his basic point that it was not a winnable case needed to be made.

I agree, although I think that this may be Buck's downfall.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

http://coloradoindependent.com/63925/suspect-in-troubling-05-buck-case-said-he-knew-it-was-rape

Victim: “You do realize that … it’s rape.”

Suspect: “Yeah, I do.”

Victim: “Like in a number of different ways, because I didn’t want to do it and because I was intoxicated and because I was afraid.”

Suspect: “Yes I do. I know.”

none of those constitute rape, otherwise I could have pressed charges against several girls in my past....also she had willingly put out for him before

[cinyc]

One of the reasons we elect, not appoint DAs in most places is because we give them discretion as to whether and when to bring charges.  For a DA, doing justice doesn't mean indicting everyone who might be guilty, but bringing cases against people, who in his or her judgment, are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  

Buck was absolutely right that in this case, it was going to be near impossible to get a conviction.  And that the Boulder County DA, hardly a redneck jurisdiction, agreed with his decision not to prosecute bolsters his decision here.

To those seeking to politicize justice, a DA running for another public office is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.  Had Buck prosecuted this case and lost, the fact that he railroaded someone who was found not guilty could equally have been raised by his opponent - as some of Coakley's prosecutorial decisions were in Massachusetts.

[Gravis Marketing]

none of those constitute rape, otherwise I could have pressed charges against several girls in my past....also she had willingly put out for him before

I'm pretty sure that having intercourse with someone who is unconscious is rape. There may be various legally mitigating factors, like whether he was aware of what he was doing, but it is still rape because she couldn't consent.

As far as what you've done in the past, public awareness of what constitutes rape or not has come a long way in the last several decades.

That said, I make no claims about how this plays with the public.

[Meeker]

http://coloradoindependent.com/63925/suspect-in-troubling-05-buck-case-said-he-knew-it-was-rape

Victim: “You do realize that … it’s rape.”

Suspect: “Yeah, I do.”

Victim: “Like in a number of different ways, because I didn’t want to do it and because I was intoxicated and because I was afraid.”

Suspect: “Yes I do. I know.”

none of those constitute rape, otherwise I could have pressed charges against several girls in my past....also she had willingly put out for him before

I'm not an expert on criminal rape law, but in the sexual harassment lectures I've had to sit through for various jobs and groups I'm a part of I've always been taught that without verbal consent of both parties the sexual acts are rape. Especially if one of the parties in question is impaired in some way. The fact that they'd had sex before isn't relevant at all; rapes occur between people that have had sexual contact in the past all the time.

None of that really matters in a discussion of the race though. Perhaps Buck did act correctly; I don't know and I don't really care. There are a lot of women in Colorado who, if this story continues to circulate, are not going to approve of Buck's actions here. Whether or not they're "correct" in those views is irrelevant to a discussion of the political ramifications of this.

[dmwestmi]

http://coloradoindependent.com/63925/suspect-in-troubling-05-buck-case-said-he-knew-it-was-rape

Victim: “You do realize that … it’s rape.”

Suspect: “Yeah, I do.”

Victim: “Like in a number of different ways, because I didn’t want to do it and because I was intoxicated and because I was afraid.”

Suspect: “Yes I do. I know.”

none of those constitute rape, otherwise I could have pressed charges against several girls in my past....also she had willingly put out for him before

http://www.lawinfoboulder.com/colorado_statutes/sexual_unlawful_contact.html

Any actor who knowingly subjects a victim to any sexual contact commits unlawful sexual contact if:
(a) The actor knows that the victim does not consent

At the very least, this would definitely be classified as Unlawful Sexual Contact. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that if they engaged in sexual intercourse without her direct consent, then he committed a very serious crime (high misdemeanor or felony).

[Vepres]

http://coloradoindependent.com/63925/suspect-in-troubling-05-buck-case-said-he-knew-it-was-rape

Victim: “You do realize that … it’s rape.”

Suspect: “Yeah, I do.”

Victim: “Like in a number of different ways, because I didn’t want to do it and because I was intoxicated and because I was afraid.”

Suspect: “Yes I do. I know.”

none of those constitute rape, otherwise I could have pressed charges against several girls in my past....also she had willingly put out for him before

http://www.lawinfoboulder.com/colorado_statutes/sexual_unlawful_contact.html

Any actor who knowingly subjects a victim to any sexual contact commits unlawful sexual contact if:
(a) The actor knows that the victim does not consent

At the very least, this would definitely be classified as Unlawful Sexual Contact. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that if they engaged in sexual intercourse without her direct consent, then he committed a very serious crime (high misdemeanor or felony).

But as Buck said, a jury would never side with her.

[President Marokai]

http://coloradoindependent.com/63925/suspect-in-troubling-05-buck-case-said-he-knew-it-was-rape

Victim: “You do realize that … it’s rape.”

Suspect: “Yeah, I do.”

Victim: “Like in a number of different ways, because I didn’t want to do it and because I was intoxicated and because I was afraid.”

Suspect: “Yes I do. I know.”

none of those constitute rape, otherwise I could have pressed charges against several girls in my past....also she had willingly put out for him before

If you think someone being coerced into sex after refusing to consent isn't rape you should be banned from this site.

[J. J.]

Had he tried a case this weak, he would have accused of ruining the suspect's life.  Dead end, and it might help Buck.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

If you think someone being coerced into sex after refusing to consent isn't rape you should be banned from this site.

dude, you really really really need to go and learn the difference between paper law and trial law, for you would absolutely suck as a DA

[Ebowed]

Dead end, and it might help Buck.

With white male Republicans, sure.  He was probably looking for something to motivate them to turn out.