(Original Post 7-29-10)
An Israeli Arab has appealed his conviction for rape by fraud to the Israeli Supreme Court. Sabbar Kashur's conviction on July 20 was for telling a Jewish woman he met that he was a single Jew when in reality, he was a married Israeli Palestinian father of two. They met outside a shop in Jerusalem and had sex. This happened in September of 2008, and a month and a half later, the woman went to Israeli police and cried rape. After nearly two years of house arrest. Kashur was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison.
A panel of three judges, headed by Tzvi Segal, deputy president of Jerusalem District Court, stated their reasons for the rape by fraud verdict.
If she hadn't thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic relationship, she would not have cooperated... .The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price - the sanctity of their bodies and souls. When the very basis of trust between human beings drops, especially when the matters at hand are so intimate, sensitive and fateful, the court is required to stand firmly at the side of the victims ... otherwise, they will be used, manipulated and misled, while paying only a tolerable and symbolic price.
The verdict has sparked both condemnation and praise in both Israeli and other circles. Women's groups have said that the verdict recognizes that one does not have to use a position of authority or violence to commit a rape - that lying to get sex is just as must an assault as a forcible rape. Others have said that the true reason why Kashur was arrested and convicted of rape by deception was because he was an Arab who had sex with a Jew in Jerusalem.
There have been Israeli men who have been convicted of rape by deception in the past. Both of these have been people who were in a formal position of authority with their victims and promised their victims sex for something of value. Four states have rape by fraud laws - Alabama, California, Michigan, and Tennessee.
Massachusetts has rape by fraud legislation which has been stalled. The impetus for such a law comes from this. Wendy Murphy, a prominent law professor and victim's rights advocate, wants to see Massachusetts' law passed. “What I’ve proposed as a more representative alternative is to have a crime called penetration without consent, and avoid the force issue.”
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law professor Patricia Falk says while fiduciary relationships which are sexualized are considered to be non-consensual, defining fraud in other relationships is much more difficult. “What’s the difference between ‘I will love you forever and we’re going to get married’ and ‘I am LeBron James? What constitutes romantic inducements and things that are fraudulent enough for the law to take recognition of?”
(Update 8-4-10) Kashur was released pending appeal yesterday by the Israeli Supreme Court. The court said that due to the circumstances of the case, "The possibility should not be ruled out that a higher court may reduce the petitioner's sentence." Kashur spent his first day of conditional freedom with his children in a shopping mall.
Showing posts with label rape by fraud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rape by fraud. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
California upholds "rape by fraud" conviction of chiropractor
By a MetNews Staff Writer
An Anaheim chiropractor who molested several patients was properly convicted of the relatively new crime of sexual battery by fraud, the [California]Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled.
In what it said may be a case of first impression, Div. Three ruled Monday that an Orange Superior Court jury reasonably concluded from the totality of the circumstances that Chi Van Pham touched the women with sexual intent, and that the women allowed him to do so because they believed his representations that the acts were part of examination or treatment.
“There appears to be no limit to the ability of our species to devise new and different bad things to do to each other,” Justice William Bedsworth commented for the court.
Jurors found Pham guilty of four violations of [California] Penal Code Sec. 243.4(c), involving three different women.
Sec. 243.4(c), enacted in 2002, is a “hybridization of molestation and fraud,” Bedsworth explained. It makes the touching of an intimate part of the victim for sexual purposes a felony if the victim is “unconscious of the nature of the act because the perpetrator fraudulently represented that the touching served a professional purpose.”
The crimes occurred between 2003 and 2005. One victim testified that while she was being treated for a car accident that occurred when she was 13 years old, Pham touched her breasts and her genitals on multiple occasions.
She said those acts made her feel uncomfortable, but she believed at the time that it was part of treatment, because she had signed a consent form acknowledging that chiropractic manipulation can be discomforting and because she trusted the doctor. She did not begin to suspect the doctor had acted improperly, she explained, until two years later, when she was working as a volunteer in his office and he made unwanted advances towards her.
Another woman, an adult involved in another car accident, said that while she was being examined, Pham touched both of her breasts. She was shocked at the time, she testified, but said nothing to the doctor or his assistant at the time.
She went home, she explained, and told her mother. She called the police a few days later.
Two of the counts involved another woman, who was referred to the doctor by the lawyer representing her in an auto accident case. On two different occasions, she said, Pham performed what she described as a “tapping rub” on her breasts and around her public area.
On the second occasion, she said, she asked the doctor why it was necessary for him to touch those areas, and he told her he was “looking for pain.”
Judge Patrick Donahue sentenced Pham to seven years in prison, the upper term of four years on the count involving a minor and consecutive one-year terms on the other counts. The upper term was justified, Donahue said, because the doctor abused a position of trust.
Bedsworth, writing for the Court of Appeal, explained the unconsciousness element:
“The unconsciousness requirement does not require proof the victim was totally and physically unconscious during the acts in question....It simply requires proof the defendant tricked the victim into submitting to the touching on the pretext it served a professional purpose....This can be accomplished even when the victim has agreed to the act in question.”
There was sufficient evidence, he said, to show that the women trusted the doctor and were totally unaware that he was seeking to fulfill sexual desires by touching them, until sometime after the conduct occurred.
An Anaheim chiropractor who molested several patients was properly convicted of the relatively new crime of sexual battery by fraud, the [California]Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled.
In what it said may be a case of first impression, Div. Three ruled Monday that an Orange Superior Court jury reasonably concluded from the totality of the circumstances that Chi Van Pham touched the women with sexual intent, and that the women allowed him to do so because they believed his representations that the acts were part of examination or treatment.
“There appears to be no limit to the ability of our species to devise new and different bad things to do to each other,” Justice William Bedsworth commented for the court.
Jurors found Pham guilty of four violations of [California] Penal Code Sec. 243.4(c), involving three different women.
Sec. 243.4(c), enacted in 2002, is a “hybridization of molestation and fraud,” Bedsworth explained. It makes the touching of an intimate part of the victim for sexual purposes a felony if the victim is “unconscious of the nature of the act because the perpetrator fraudulently represented that the touching served a professional purpose.”
The crimes occurred between 2003 and 2005. One victim testified that while she was being treated for a car accident that occurred when she was 13 years old, Pham touched her breasts and her genitals on multiple occasions.
She said those acts made her feel uncomfortable, but she believed at the time that it was part of treatment, because she had signed a consent form acknowledging that chiropractic manipulation can be discomforting and because she trusted the doctor. She did not begin to suspect the doctor had acted improperly, she explained, until two years later, when she was working as a volunteer in his office and he made unwanted advances towards her.
Another woman, an adult involved in another car accident, said that while she was being examined, Pham touched both of her breasts. She was shocked at the time, she testified, but said nothing to the doctor or his assistant at the time.
She went home, she explained, and told her mother. She called the police a few days later.
Two of the counts involved another woman, who was referred to the doctor by the lawyer representing her in an auto accident case. On two different occasions, she said, Pham performed what she described as a “tapping rub” on her breasts and around her public area.
On the second occasion, she said, she asked the doctor why it was necessary for him to touch those areas, and he told her he was “looking for pain.”
Judge Patrick Donahue sentenced Pham to seven years in prison, the upper term of four years on the count involving a minor and consecutive one-year terms on the other counts. The upper term was justified, Donahue said, because the doctor abused a position of trust.
Bedsworth, writing for the Court of Appeal, explained the unconsciousness element:
“The unconsciousness requirement does not require proof the victim was totally and physically unconscious during the acts in question....It simply requires proof the defendant tricked the victim into submitting to the touching on the pretext it served a professional purpose....This can be accomplished even when the victim has agreed to the act in question.”
There was sufficient evidence, he said, to show that the women trusted the doctor and were totally unaware that he was seeking to fulfill sexual desires by touching them, until sometime after the conduct occurred.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Police officer pretends to be twin - accused of rape by force and fraud
Officer Jared Rohrig of the Orange, CT police department was charged with rape after allegedly tricking a woman who had a sexual relationship with his twin brother Joe into having sex. The woman found out it was her "boyfriend's" brother after she noticed that a tattoo on her "lover's" butt was missing from the man she was having sex with.
Rohrig, 25, of Flax Mill Lane, has been on paid administrative leave from his job since July 23, pending the outcome of an internal investigation, said Orange Police Chief Robert Gagne.
The unnamed woman told police July 22 that she was sexually assaulted July 19 at the Rohrig home, where she went to meet Joe Rohrig, Jared's identical twin. The woman had been having a sexual relationship with Joe Rohrig since March, and on July 19 she talked on the phone with someone she believed was him and agreed to meet at his house, according to a search warrant.
When she arrived, she got into the hot tub with the Rohrig brother she believed was Joe, began kissing him and agreed to go to an upstairs bedroom with him.
It was then that she had noticed that the cowboy tattoo on Joe's left buttocks were missing. According to the warrant, the woman "immediately began to cry and asked him where his tattoo went. The male replied that he had never had a tattoo and told her that she must have hooked up with his brother who had a tattoo. The female victim realized at this point that this was not the person that she had previously had sexual relations with."
After she tried to leave the bedroom, Jared threw her back on, and "grabbed her arms and threw her on the bed, where she continued to cry," while Jared continued to have sex with her.
When the woman told Jared Rohrig to get off her, he allegedly put a pillow over her face, and while it did not prevent her from breathing, she felt "scared and claustrophobic," according to the warrant.
Her attempts to push him off were unsuccessful "because he was too strong and she gave up," the warrant states. Later, the man -- still claiming to be Joe Rohrig -- drove the woman home in Jared Rohrig's pickup truck, but could not find the way, even though Joe had previously visited there several times, she told police.
"The female victim looked at the male and asked, 'When did you think I was going to find out? When I realized you didn't have a tattoo? When we didn't use Joe's car to drive home? Or when you didn't know how to get to my house because you've never been there?"
Jared claimed to have said his brother, the woman's "boyfriend," "told me to go for it." The victim recieved a text message from Joe's phone stating "I want to apologize for what my brother did last night. I had no idea what was going on until this morning."
A graduate of Jonathan Law High School, Rohrig is the son of Joanne Rohrig, a Republican member of the Board of Education, and the family owns Lasses Restaurant and catering in Milford.
A separate investigation into anonymous allegations that adults served alcohol to minors at a July 12 graduation party at the Rohrig residence has determined those charges to be "unfounded," said Milford Police Chief Keith Mello.
There was no evidence substantiating the claims, Mello said, adding that investigation showed "the family went to significant steps" to avoid giving minors access to alcohol at the party.
According to Gagne, Jared Rohrig is still in the 18 month probationary period given to all new police officers, having been hired July 11, 2008. He was released on $50,000 bond Friday, August 21, charged with 1st degree sexual assault and criminal impersonation. His preliminary hearing will be September 8 in Milford Superior Court.
Rohrig, 25, of Flax Mill Lane, has been on paid administrative leave from his job since July 23, pending the outcome of an internal investigation, said Orange Police Chief Robert Gagne.
The unnamed woman told police July 22 that she was sexually assaulted July 19 at the Rohrig home, where she went to meet Joe Rohrig, Jared's identical twin. The woman had been having a sexual relationship with Joe Rohrig since March, and on July 19 she talked on the phone with someone she believed was him and agreed to meet at his house, according to a search warrant.
When she arrived, she got into the hot tub with the Rohrig brother she believed was Joe, began kissing him and agreed to go to an upstairs bedroom with him.
It was then that she had noticed that the cowboy tattoo on Joe's left buttocks were missing. According to the warrant, the woman "immediately began to cry and asked him where his tattoo went. The male replied that he had never had a tattoo and told her that she must have hooked up with his brother who had a tattoo. The female victim realized at this point that this was not the person that she had previously had sexual relations with."
After she tried to leave the bedroom, Jared threw her back on, and "grabbed her arms and threw her on the bed, where she continued to cry," while Jared continued to have sex with her.
When the woman told Jared Rohrig to get off her, he allegedly put a pillow over her face, and while it did not prevent her from breathing, she felt "scared and claustrophobic," according to the warrant.
Her attempts to push him off were unsuccessful "because he was too strong and she gave up," the warrant states. Later, the man -- still claiming to be Joe Rohrig -- drove the woman home in Jared Rohrig's pickup truck, but could not find the way, even though Joe had previously visited there several times, she told police.
"The female victim looked at the male and asked, 'When did you think I was going to find out? When I realized you didn't have a tattoo? When we didn't use Joe's car to drive home? Or when you didn't know how to get to my house because you've never been there?"
Jared claimed to have said his brother, the woman's "boyfriend," "told me to go for it." The victim recieved a text message from Joe's phone stating "I want to apologize for what my brother did last night. I had no idea what was going on until this morning."
A graduate of Jonathan Law High School, Rohrig is the son of Joanne Rohrig, a Republican member of the Board of Education, and the family owns Lasses Restaurant and catering in Milford.
A separate investigation into anonymous allegations that adults served alcohol to minors at a July 12 graduation party at the Rohrig residence has determined those charges to be "unfounded," said Milford Police Chief Keith Mello.
There was no evidence substantiating the claims, Mello said, adding that investigation showed "the family went to significant steps" to avoid giving minors access to alcohol at the party.
According to Gagne, Jared Rohrig is still in the 18 month probationary period given to all new police officers, having been hired July 11, 2008. He was released on $50,000 bond Friday, August 21, charged with 1st degree sexual assault and criminal impersonation. His preliminary hearing will be September 8 in Milford Superior Court.
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