Accusations and lawyering in the public sphere
September 22, 2016 7:20 PM Subscribe
I wanna first add a trigger warning for descriptions of abuse and rape accusations.
There's a lot of controversy brewing in the Portland, OR music scene right now over the fact that a fairly well-known local musician has admitted to sexually assaulting a woman while black out drunk. He made a public Facebook status admitting he had done this, and afterward a lot of people came out claiming that he had done this before, including a woman who said he had raped her.
I want to say that I'm not looking for legal advice, and am barely peripherally connected to these events (I know some of the people in the music scene who have had issues with him previously), but I would like to know what typically happens in these situations.
Basically, after the initial Facebook post, a lot of people came out claiming that he had abused others many times in the past. Yesterday, the musician in question and his lawyer had an interview on local news station KGW that was posted online. However, KGW accidentally posted the raw version of the video which included an extra few moments where the interviewer, the accused, his lawyer, and the lighting guy all talked about the rape accusation, and seemingly laughed at the accuser, who is a burlesque dancer. This video was quickly deleted, but A LOT of people saw it. Another video surfaced, which was then taken down, presumably because KGW asked for it to. Nonetheless, a transcript of the interview was posted, which can be seen here.
The main thing I want to know about is whether or not it is normal for a lawyer to claim that accusations are false. The lawyer specifically says "The problem was after this happened, untruthful accusations came out,". Doesn't this make it really hostile and place blame on the accusers? Also, what typically happens in these events? There is no court case yet, but there's a lawyer involved. Does it just go away? Isn't it slanderous to call them untruthful, when people on the community know who these people are? A lot of people would have seen this video, and it would have painted many of the accusers as liars right off the bat, while they have no representation.
Sorry for any typos, I'm on my phone.
I want to say that I'm not looking for legal advice, and am barely peripherally connected to these events (I know some of the people in the music scene who have had issues with him previously), but I would like to know what typically happens in these situations.
Basically, after the initial Facebook post, a lot of people came out claiming that he had abused others many times in the past. Yesterday, the musician in question and his lawyer had an interview on local news station KGW that was posted online. However, KGW accidentally posted the raw version of the video which included an extra few moments where the interviewer, the accused, his lawyer, and the lighting guy all talked about the rape accusation, and seemingly laughed at the accuser, who is a burlesque dancer. This video was quickly deleted, but A LOT of people saw it. Another video surfaced, which was then taken down, presumably because KGW asked for it to. Nonetheless, a transcript of the interview was posted, which can be seen here.
The main thing I want to know about is whether or not it is normal for a lawyer to claim that accusations are false. The lawyer specifically says "The problem was after this happened, untruthful accusations came out,". Doesn't this make it really hostile and place blame on the accusers? Also, what typically happens in these events? There is no court case yet, but there's a lawyer involved. Does it just go away? Isn't it slanderous to call them untruthful, when people on the community know who these people are? A lot of people would have seen this video, and it would have painted many of the accusers as liars right off the bat, while they have no representation.
Sorry for any typos, I'm on my phone.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Hey, this needs to be probably tighter and less specific to be more of a question and less of a referendum. If you want to edit it in the next hour or two, drop us a line at the contact form. Thanks. -- restless_nomad
« Older Hook Me Up! --MAC VERSION - external keyboard | I take measurements, you mail me clothes Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.