aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Thursday, June 14, 2007

McDade a friend to victims?

My earlier disquisition on victims impact statements came to me when I read in Ann Woolner’s news column yesterday that:

District Attorney David McDade, whose office prosecuted him, could let Genarlow go free in the meantime if he would agree to bail. Standing firm in the face of public outrage and protests, he won’t. [...]

McDade, who has won recognition as a friend to crime victims, wasn’t acting like one when he gave legislators a videotape of the party that led to Genarlow’s prosecution.

Not only was the oral sex captured on tape, the video also showed a 17-year-old girl—who claimed she had been gang-raped—having intercourse. Genarlow’s jury decided what happened to the older girl wasn’t rape, though McDade has continued to characterize it that way as have legislative leaders justifying their refusal to give Genarlow a break.

It isn’t clear whether the girls’ faces were obscured in the video. But the idea of a prosecutor distributing a sex tape to lawmakers in the name of victim protection is bizarre at least. The young women and their families can’t possibly be grateful for help like that. We aren’t talking about Paris Hilton here.