Was it? Serious question, not rhetorical or busting your chops at all, I think that question gets to the core of the problem. I just think there is no evidence that ND did anything wrong at all or that anyone is guilty of anything.
There are thousands of sexual assaults and rape cases brought at universities across the country every year. Most of them go nowhere, a minority ever result in a party being found "guilty." I'm finding the assumption that just because NDSP, who is a fully vested police department, didn't immediately notify the prosecutor on day 1 of the investigation they screwed up to be a very false assumption. No prosecutor would ever prosecute a case like this without more information, so what's the point? There is just a very serious lapse in logic going on by a lot of media members and such because they want to make use.
The facts of the case are this: a girl with serious self esteem and anxiety issues put herself in a one-on-one situation with a guy. Something happened, she says it was an unwanted advance and he says it was consensual. There was no sex. After that it is fuzzy... but it seems like her anxiety issues caused her to take her life as the investigation was progressing.
There are no facts that ND did anything wrong, that NDSP did anything wrong or even that the person in question is guilty of anything. There is a lot of smoke... but until the investigation concludes and someone shows me fire I will not jump to conclusions and wish the media used some better judgement on how they present their "facts." But just like with the Duke lacrosse case, everyone assumed with 99.99% certainty that they were guilty and then it turned out they did absolutely nothing and the accuser was crazy. Do we not learn from mistakes anymore?
I only can speak for what information I am given. But the "he said, she said" and the "they didn't hand the case over timely" to the "yeah they did hand it over", just doesn't sit right. It seems that their are people trying to cover themselves. I do not think it is ND trying to cover anything, rather a screw up on the Law Enforcement end. It's not that they didn't hand the investigation over on day 1 that is the problem, it's the not checking phone records immediately, not interviewing friends..etc. The Prosecutor's Office isn't just prosecutor's (attorneys), they have teams of detectives divided up into Units (Sexual Assault, Narcotics, Homicide, Major Crimes, Domestic Violence) that investigate all INDICTABLE a.k.a Felony criminal activity. The campus police department, I have to imagine, is not equip to handle such investigations. They will have one of their detectives work with a Pros. Office. Investigator. Then, if such fact finding warrants a arrest the case will go in front of a Grand Jury.
That is my point, the remark you made about no evidence. There is none. None to charge anyone, and none to clear anyones name. The girl dying really screwed any chance of finding out if what she said is true or not. We are just left with a ugly situation that will be fuel to irresponsible journalism, people developing their own scenarios, and a family that will have no closure and be left wondering.
The facts of the case are this: a girl with serious self esteem and anxiety issues put herself in a one-on-one situation with a guy. Something happened, she says it was an unwanted advance and he says it was consensual. There was no sex. After that it is fuzzy... but it seems like her anxiety issues caused her to take her life as the investigation was progressing.
The girls issues do not matter. Example, a hooker who working gets raped, if shes working or not, if she says "no stop" its still rape. Did the girl say no? What was the advance? Did he stick his fingers in her? Did he take off her shirt and touch her? Did he coerce her into it? Was she willing to participate? Was she drunk, and the next day embarrassed, so she cried assault? Did she have a boyfriend, and she was afraid he'd break up with her? Did she have some kind of issue with the player that she wanted revenge? There are so many questions that have to be taken in with sexual assault cases. I am not by any means saying the player did anything wrong. I just think a lot of those questions were not asked at the time they were supposed to be. And, by time flags were thrown by the family, that answers could not be gotten because Lizzy was dead. A thorough investigation from the start would have stopped this circus from the start.
I am not assuming anyone was guilty. As with the Duke case, a proper investigation did not take place, and look what you got. I just wish that all steps were followed because ND would not be in this mess. There would be little room left for ridiculous assumptions if all the evidence was gathered correctly. Now, we have are going to have ridiculous claims of conspiracy's, ND football cover ups, and ND damning articles by irresponsible tabloid journalists who represent credible media sources. It just flat out sucks.
