Seeking legal help - aggravated sexual battery

Last month, my girlfriend became the victim of aggravated sexual battery. I really need some legal help. PLEASE read the whole post before responding. ALSO, PLEASE read the 5th post down, as it contains the 2nd half of the story. Please note that I am located in Georgia, USA, so Georgia law must be applied to this case. I have changed people's names and omitted the name of the city to protect the identities of those involved.

Victim information:
Name (changed): Ashley
Age: 20
Primary residence (changed): Hometown
Location at time of Incident (changed): University Town
Relation to culprit: ex-fiancee

Culprit information:
Name (changed): Ben
Age: 21
Location at time or incident (changed): University Town
Relation to victim: ex-fiancee

The incident occurred at night in Ben's apartment in University Town. Ashley was spending the night. She did so for the following reasons:

1. Her job is in University Town, and Hometown is too far away to commute.
2. School had let out for the summer, and students were no longer allowed to live on campus.
3. This was a temporary arrangement. She had plans to stay with two friends of hers, but the person in charge of the community where they live insists on a background check for all "extended guests." The background check had not yet been completed.
4. Ashley was under the impression that Ben's mother would be present. However, Ben's mother's out-of-town flight was delayed one day.

In the hours before Ashly and Ben went to bed, Ashley made it clear to Ben that she had no intention of romantic or physical involvement with him. Ben stated that he understood this.

Both Ben and Ashley went to bed between the hours of 12 and 2 AM. Ashley woke up sometime later to find that her nipples were wet with (what she believed to be) saliva and/or pre-ejaculate. Two (I believe) of Ben's fingers were inside of her vagina, and were also wet with (what she believed to be) saliva and/or pre-ejaculate. Both parties were on their sides, facing each other. Ben's leg was placed over Ashley's legs. When Ashley woke up and looked at Ben, she sleepily asked what he was doing. Ben looked back at her, anticipating that she might fall back asleep. Suddenly Ashley became aware of what was going on, shouting and pushing Ben off of her.

Ashley promptly left the apartment and spent the rest of the night at her place of work. She stayed with her mother for a couple of days, and moved in with her two friends once the background check had been completed.

Approximately a week later, Ashley attempted to obtain a court-ordered TPO (Temporary Restraining Order), but it was denied due to lack of evidence and a technicality in the law (TPOs are only issued in cases of stalking or harassing communications). It was at this time that she finally decided to press charges of aggravated sexual battery.

At this time, I should note that Ben HAD in fact stalked Ashley and sent harassed her repeatedly in the past (I have witnessed some of these incidents). Ashley decided to press charges for the harassing communications as well.

Ashley contacted police and explained everything that had happened up to that point. However, due to a miscommunication with the officer, Ben was arrested only on the harassing communication charges, not aggravated sexual battery. Ben made bail about 90 minutes after his arrest (his mom paid for him).

After discovering that the charges had not been made, Ashley, I and one of her friends went to the local detectives bureau (the police were being of little help). She recounted the situation once again, and the initial charges were amended to include aggravated sexual battery.

Here is where thing begin to get tricky, which is what I will get into in the next post.

[edit on 6/14/2007 by spookymusic]

Whilst I empathise, the Police had to consider when charging Ben whether they had reasonable cause to convict. It seems to me that they reasoned that there would have been room for reasonable doubt in the mind of a jury. You have not had the benefit of hearing Ben's statement to the Police and have only heard Ashley's account.

I am neither saying that Ashley is right or wrong. I am saying to look at this pragmatically the Police concluded they might not get a conviction for sexual battery, however they did try to help by bringing charges for harassing communications.

If there is ever a resumption of contact there will be no second chance for Ben if he is convicted for this harassment charge.

You undoubtedly feel embittered by Police response, but I think you need to deal with the realities and limitations on the Police.

It is always open to Ashley after the criminal conviction for harassment to take a civil action for sexual battery.



[edit on 14-6-2007 by sy.gunson]

Is this really appropriate for the board?

Its non-consensual sex, so its rape.

Its going to be hard to explain why she was on the same bed with the guy, and it will be her word against his. You know how that can turn out.

Had she been smart, she would have gone on the couch to sleep. Still, she should have a case, because no means NO.

Was she unconscious thru all this? drunk? under the influence of something? Because if that happens to me (i pray, but with a willingness on my part) I'D SURE AS HELL BE AWARE OF IT.

Shortly after I found out about the incident, I started doing some online research on Ben, to see if he had mentioned anything on blogs or what have you. I discovered that on a particular blogging site, he had a screen name with the word "stalker" in it. Under this name he was subscribed to over 50 sites containing explicit pornographic material, and was a member of several groups which also contained pornographic sites. Cross-referencing Ben's AOL screen name, I found that he had contacted several people who had been soliciting sexual favors, and he himself had also solicited sexual acts. Some of the people he contacted were minors.

I made screen captures of his homepage as well as a few of his subscriptions, but was unable to find anything specifically referencing the incident in question. I printed the pages and gave them to the officer at the detectives bureau (I thought they would at least serve as a testament to Ben's character). Because of the information I gathered, the case was handed over to the bureau, to be assigned to a detective at a later date. This was over 3 weeks ago.

Ashley and I have called the detectives bureau several times. I have left one voice mail with a detective and two with the Lieutenant in charge, but neither Ashley nor I have received a response.

Now, shortly after the arrest for harassing communications, odd thing started to happen. Nearly everything that could have incriminated Ben started disappearing. All of Ashley's text messaged from Ben disappeared (ONLY those ones), and many of her emails from or involving Ben also disappeared. Her MySpace password also got changed. In addition, she began receiving text messages from my phone, which I never sent. These messages were usually quickly deleted without Ashley's doing. I did, however, manage to get a scanned image of one of the messages (all it said was, "sure," but she received it while I was asleep, and there is no record of my phone ever sending that message).

We want to retrieve the erased messages from the phone company's database (they keep a record of all of them), but we cannot do so without a court-ordered subpoena. And, unfortunately, we can't get the subpoena without the district attorney. And the case can't be assigned to the DA unless a detective gets assigned to the case first and makes an arrest.

In addition, Ashley heard through the grapevine that Ben has already hired a top-notch attorney (he's a spoiled rich kid; his parents get him whatever he wants) to potentially defend him.

So, obviously, this leaves us needing some help. So I have some questions:

1. What is the best way to get the Detective Bureau's attention on this matter?
2. The big weakness in Ashley's case is that there were only 2 witnesses: herself and Ben. We're assuming that Ben will lie. How can she deal with this in court?
3. Are there an other LEGAL methods (besides the various web searches I used) to find out more about Ben (arrest records, people he's chatted with, any mention of the incident, etc.)?

If you can help, both Ashley and I will be eternally grateful. This isn't about revenge; it's about getting a dangerous man away from Ashley and anybody else he might try to hurt. It's about teaching Ben that he can't get away with things like this anymore.

Its going to be hard to explain why she was on the same bed with the guy, and it will be her word against his. You know how that can turn out.

I'm with you on that.

It's going to turn out to be a he said/she said ordeal.

She says she said no, he says she was groping him in bed or that nothing happened at all.

It boils down to, its going to be very tough to convince a jury of his guilt.

Originally posted by dgtempe
Its going to be hard to explain why she was on the same bed with the guy, and it will be her word against his. You know how that can turn out.

Had she been smart, she would have gone on the couch to sleep. Still, she should have a case, because no means NO.

Was she unconscious thru all this? drunk? under the influence of something? Because if that happens to me (i pray, but with a willingness on my part)

I'D SURE AS HELL BE AWARE OF IT.

Ashley wasn't in the same bed. He was on a futon, and she was on the floor. Ben had just moved in to the apartment, and it wasn't furnished yet.

She woke up part of the way through. She's a very heavy sleeper.

Also, rape is defined as vaginal penetration by the penis, which never happened.

It is at the very least, attempted rape.

God, I despise males who behave like what they got swingin' between the legs entitles them to act like some latter day barbarian. He needs a reality check, preferably a two by four upside his stupid noggin type reality check.

Best of luck sorting this out, spookymusic.

My only advise is get a lawyer, and get one soon...

[edit on 14-6-2007 by seagull]

Bottom line, you need a lawyer in real life. What you get on the internet is pretty meaningless. Counsel awaits you.

Originally posted by intrepid
Bottom line, you need a lawyer in real life.

The big problem is getting a lawyer who can give affordable advice. Neither of us has a lot of money at our disposal, whereas Ben does.

Originally posted by spookymusic

Originally posted by intrepid
Bottom line, you need a lawyer in real life.

The big problem is getting a lawyer who can give affordable advice. Neither of us has a lot of money at our disposal, whereas Ben does.

Legal Aid. Better than anything you'll get from unqualified people. I'm not dissing the membership here but unless we have a lawyer here that deals in criminal law, you're only going to get opinion.

Get a lawyer pronto.

Sort things out and the lawyer will know what he can be charged with, what will be beleivable, and give professional advice which we here simply cannot give.

Good luck to your friend!

You can't force the state to press charges. If you've went to police / DA and they refuse to pursue the case, I don't think there's much you can do. You can sue him civilly, but that'd require a lawyer paid for by you or at least who agrees to take it on a contingency, which I think would probably be unlikely.

If you separate the issue of what Ben did to Ashley from the other issue of his stalking behaviour then you might get progress dealing with his stalking.

I suggest you write to your congressman.

If he is into kiddie porn and stalking then there is a public interest angle.

Post Script

Just as an after thought have you considered approaching Church Groups and Woman's rights groups for support and or pressure ?

[edit on 14-6-2007 by sy.gunson]

ive been through legal proceedings a couple of times fot it to be aggravated there would have to be aggravating circumstances....like a knife being used or a fight....its hard to get aggravating sircumstances they have them on me....((never shouldve even had the #ing gun in the first place))...but ussually if the detectives are taking thier time this means there trying not to screw up because without substantial evidence you cant do anything and theres a lot of technicalities that can happenn if they jump the gun but just because it doesnt seem like there doing anything doesnt mean they arent...it took them a month to arrest me for what i am being tried for and it was on the front page of our paper but what do you know as far as court goes has the state picked up the case? hell propably be arrested then shell be asked to testify at his arraignment hearing....then a while later ((if he doesnt file motions to review bond)) there will be a pre-trial confrence and then the trial then sentencing i dont know too much about sexual assault cases but i know about regular assault and this is ussually the flow of things in a criminal hearing

[edit on 14-6-2007 by justanothergangster]

Absolutely get a lawyer right now. Any advice you get here may be helpful to a point but you must have legal counsel. If you can't afford it go to Legal Aid and as another poster suggested women's groups.

Ashley should remain vigilant and observant of her surroundings as this guy sounds like he could be dangerous.

I must agree with Seagull this male of the species needs a reality check upside the head.

Be prepared that this could very well turn ugly with the she said he said scenario.

Good Luck.

for sexual cases they need evidence..physical evidence. he said she said doesn't cut it ..but thats why i know for california not georgia. did she she shower after? if she got a rape kit done and theres traces of his "semen" (hate the word haha) on her vag area and if it looked "tore up" that can be considered evidence

if this IS taken to court there gonna bring up the whole her being in the bed with him they might use it as a whole "she was asking for it" kind of defense..
also in cali fingers count..u can get charged for raping someone with a hairbrush even.

but i dontknow i mean hopefully theres some physical evidence. but like i said i dontknow georgia laws.

Unfortunately hairbrushes and fingers don't leave semen. And from what Iv'e read so far it doesn't sound like there was any bruising or anything of that nature. I hate to say it but I think you have a tough road ahead of you.

I wish you well and hope you get the scum bag.

legally, rape is defined as non-consenual penetration. it can be penetration by instrumentation or anything that is able to penetrate. you usually have to be a nun with a minimum of 5 bullet wounds to get a conviction on those types of charges so you might have better luck with the stalking charges. also, if there's internet porn solicitation with minors, the fbi might be interested. btw, why didn't she stay at your house? best of luck to you both.