Victims’ Advocates Protest as Prosecutors Detain 17-Year-Old Rape Victim in California
In a case that has pitted law-enforcement officials against advocates of victims’ rights, prosecutors in Sacramento County, Calif., have detained a 17-year-old girl for twice failing to appear in court to testify against the man accused of raping her.
The prosecutors say that testimony from the teenager, who twice ran away from a foster home before scheduled court appearances, is critical in the upcoming trial against a man who has a long criminal record and is also suspected of raping at least one other woman. But the teenager’s lawyer and victims’ advocates say that the detention would discourage others, especially those who have been sexually assaulted, from coming forward. They described the move as a setback in a state with some of the country’s strongest laws protecting victims.
Both sides agree that the detention of a material witness, particularly a juvenile, is extremely rare. The girl, who has been held in a juvenile detention center since March 23, is scheduled to appear on Monday at a hearing concerning her detention at Sacramento Superior Court.
The girl was 16 and staying at a foster home when she was attacked in July, the authorities say. She had gone out with friends one evening in Sacramento, officials said, when the suspect, Frank William Rackley, 37, is said to have abducted her from a light rail station and raped her. Prosecutors have been forced to postpone the trial against Mr. Rackley because of the teenager’s missed court appearances.
(...)
Lisa M. Franco, the teenager’s lawyer, said the detention violated Marsy’s Law, a 2008 amendment to the state’s Constitution that guarantees victims be free of intimidation during the criminal justice process. That provision should supersede the authorities’ power to detain a material witness, Ms. Franco said.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/us/california-prosecutors-defend-detention-of-teen-rape-victim.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
What's next, when forced to go on the stand, and she doesn't say what the prosecution wants, will she be sentenced for obstruction of justice?
Fined with court costs for the prosecution of this rapist? Hey, go all the way, bill her for his legal fees.
And they're doing this to a person who is a minor, does not have the ability to sign a legal contract, etc., so they shouldn't have hinged their case on her. But it doesn't matter, she was involved in a criminal act, now she's a criminal. Like women getting lashed for being raped under Sharia law, same logic.
Just where are we going with the war on women?
Okay, fine, let's arrest all the women at birth, since they have all those potential persons inside of them, and at puberty, will begin murdering people monthly.
At puberty, get it over with and turn them over to the corporate prison system to act as concubines. No woman is safe in the United States anymore. I've lived all these years to see one gender reduced to the same treatment as farm animals.
Apply 
where appropriate.
Yes, I'm a bit ticked off. 
