Kat O’Brien: I was raped by an MLB player

This thread had me thinking yesterday. Of course it would be great if more women confronted their attackers. Even reading that part from the Mac Engel column that @gingerbread quoted. ... the part about Kat feeling she has nothing to gain and a lot to lose by naming her attacker, I was thinking, "No, name him. He's probably sitting comfortably in retirement. Throw his life into turmoil. You are not going to get a criminal conviction, but #metoo has made a lot of men answer for things."

I'm not saying that as a criticism of her, before anyone jumps me. The right thing for her to do is whatever she's comfortable with.

But the saddest thing for me, other than the incident she wrote about, is that she believed she had no recourse. I guess we can argue about to what degree her belief was right. And people can opine all day long about what they would have done (and I agree, walk even an inch in her shoes before you speak with such certainty). But there is obviously something to that feeling of helplessness, because that is what you hear a lot of women who are raped and sexually assaulted feel.

 

The thing that was different about Desiree Washington was that she made the allegation immediately. ... she called 911 that night, went to the police and went to the hospital the next day to have a rape kit. Tyson's limo driver who drove her right afterward testified about her state and how she seemed to be in shock. The doctor who examined her testified that what he found was consistent with a rape. She immediately told her roommate at the hotel she was staying at that she had been raped when she got back.

She was afraid that nobody was going to believe her (she said so during her 911 call), but she didn't hesitate to report it and follow through. That gave the prosecutor the evidence that was necessary to get a jury to convict.

The problem is that these are always he-said, she-said situations because they happen with two people alone in a hotel room or a private home. And without the kind of case that Desiree Washington's series actions built, it's almost impossible to prosecute and win.