Sexual Assault Victim Won’t Be Charged with Contempt for Tweeting Names of Attackers
Score one for common sense: 17-year-old Savannah Dietrich of Louisville won't be charged with contempt of court after defense attorneys for the two teens who sexually assaulted her withdrew their motion.If found guilty, Dietrich could have spent up to 180 days behind bars.
Dietrich had been under court order not to release the names of the two juvenile boys who sexually assaulted her, but chose to defy the order after the teens received a plea bargain she felt was too lenient.
"There you go, lock me up," she tweeted back in June after posting the boys' names. "I'm not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell."
Defense attorney David Mejia said the contempt motion was pointless now that the story had garnered widespread attention. "What could contempt do now?" he said. "Seems like a rather useless exercise doesn't it?"
Mejia claims the decision to withdraw the motion was not motivated by the resulting public outcry or the online petition signed by over 80,000 people. One of Dietrich's attorneys released a statement on behalf of her client, saying "Savannah greatly appreciates the overwhelming support from all over the world and we are pleased these defense lawyers withdrew their motion for contempt."
Dietrich was reportedly assaulted by the two teens, whom she knew, after she passed out at a gathering in August of last year. Photos of the assault were later circulated by the perpetrators. (Ridiculous!!)
The two were charged with felony sexual abuse and misdemeanor voyeurism — crimes to which the pleaded guilty in June. The exact details of the plea bargain have not been released, but, according to the Courier-Journal, Dietrich and her family say the boys got off with "a slap on the wrist."
source: http://gawker.com/5928410/sexual-assault-victim-wont-be-charged-with-contempt-for-tweeting-names-of-attackers?popular=true
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