{"id":37204,"date":"2011-07-12T10:59:12","date_gmt":"2011-07-12T15:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=37204"},"modified":"2011-11-02T20:13:26","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T01:13:26","slug":"reception-of-rape-victims-silsbee-tx-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/07\/12\/reception-of-rape-victims-silsbee-tx-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Reception of Rape Victims: Silsbee, TX Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

I traveled to Silsbee, Texas<\/a> five times in the past six months, with conservative blogger Brandon Darby<\/a>, to investigate why, despite the volume of evidence, a grand jury did not indict two football players accused of raping a high school cheerleader (who was later kicked off the squad for refusing to cheer for one of them).\u00a0 The case is a troubling example of what many victims experience when they dare to report their rape and proceed with a prosecution.\u00a0 In this post, I\u2019d like to highlight the community reaction.<\/p>\n

Hillaire was found half-clothed and crying under the pool table, saying she\u2019d been raped.\u00a0 She reported that Rakheem Bolton, a star high school football player, raped her while another football player, Christian Rountree, held her down.\u00a0Three students outside the room heard her cries of \u201cstop\u201d and broke through the door, only to find that three of the four athletes in the room had fled out the window, breaking it in the process.<\/p>\n

As Bolton ran off, Stacy Riley, the homeowner, heard him yell:<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t rape no white girl.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t use anyone else\u2019s dick to fuck her. I didn\u2019t put my dick up inside her. I don\u2019t know if she has AIDS. I don\u2019t even know that girl.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bolton would later admit to penetrating Hillaire.<\/p>\n

This was not a he said\/she said situation and you can read the evidence in more detail in the full report at my blog<\/a>. Suffice to say: Witness statements from the police report confirm that Hillaire was raped. An inexperienced drinker, Hillaire was exceedingly intoxicated after drinking a beer and six shots and could not legally consent. Before her friends cut her off, Hillaire made out with a guy in the living room and was egged on to kiss a female friend by a group of ogling young men. Bolton and his friends arrived late to the party, and, seeing an intoxicated and flirtatious Hillaire, isolated her in the pool room.<\/p>\n

Hillaire spent the early morning hours after the rape at the police station and at a nearby clinic.\u00a0 Of the four guys in the room, Bolton and Rountree were charged with \u201cchild sexual assault\u201d (because Hillaire was a minor and they were \u201cof age\u201d) which carries a prison term of two to twenty years.<\/p>\n

Hillaire assumed this crime would be fairly prosecuted. Instead, she faced intense mistreatment from her peers, many residents of Silsbee, school officials, public officials prosecuting the case, and the local press.\u00a0 When she returned to school she faced a chilly environment from her peers and school administrators. School officials urged her to take a low profile, and the cheer squad wanted Hillaire to skip homecoming because, according to a fellow cheerleader, \u201cSomeone from another city had called and threatened her. If she cheered at another game, they were going to shoot her.\u201d Hillaire went anyway, and some students painted Bolton\u2019s and Rountree\u2019s jersey numbers on their faces to protest their removal from the football team. Students also chanted \u201cfree tree\u201d (referring to Rountree) at the homecoming bonfire within earshot of Hillaire.<\/p>\n

Many in Silsbee bought the \u201cslut\u201d defense \u2013 that Hillaire was to blame for what happened that night because she made out with several people at the party. Describing Hillaire\u2019s sexual behavior at the party, Sarah [name changed], a fellow student and cheerleader, told me that she believe Hillaire was raped and that \u201ca majority of the school felt this way.\u201d\u00a0 Hillaire was called a \u201cslut\u201d several times to her face.<\/p>\n

An anonymous letter to Hillaire\u2019s family laid bare the \u201cslut\u201d defense that so many in Silsbee seem to hold:<\/p>\n

These boys are nice respectable boys and you can\u2019t tell me that there were no other girls that wanted to be with them so they raped your daughter (please).\u00a0 Just think how you have ruined these children [sic] lives and your daughter gets to carry on and be a cheerleader after\u00a0drinking<\/span>herself<\/span> and going against your family values\u2026 This makes your daughter [sic] reputation look very bad and if you think people will forget, remember we live in Silsbee. Someone will always remember!\u00a0 (Don\u2019t think she won\u2019t be talked about).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A toddler approached Hillaire at a town parade shortly after the rape and called her a \u201cbitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hillaire\u2019s status as a popular cheerleader at the high school couldn\u2019t compete with the popularity of high school sports that grants the best male players special privileges. The high school stadium seats 7,000\u2014equal to the town\u2019s population\u2014and it\u2019s full on game days. Celebrating high school sports is ingrained\u00a0in Southeast Texas cultures, so it\u2019s no wonder that many in Silsbee rallied behind Bolton and Rountree.\u00a0 A common argument, articulated to me by one student, is that Bolton wouldn\u2019t rape anyone because \u201che was popular. A lot of girls wanted to be with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolton and Rountree did not receive the same chilly treatment as Hillaire. In a\u00a0taped\u00a0interview with\u00a0The Silsbee Bee<\/em>, Rountree\u2019s mother thanked \u201call the members of the Silsbee community that have supported us; all the love and prayers that have been sent out. We\u2019ve had a tremendous, just a tremendous outpouring of support and we just appreciate everyone and thank you for believing in these boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

[wpvideo eWIYrDXp]<\/p>\n

The local paper,\u00a0The Silsbee Bee<\/a><\/em>, favorably covered the accused, even publishing an article titled, \u201cSexual Assault Prosecutions Cost County Nearly $20,000.\u201d It was hard to miss the implication that this was money ill spent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Later the editor of the Silsbee Bee would resign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In many ways Hillaire was the perfect victim.\u00a0 She\u2019s pretty, white, and underage; a cheerleader in a football-loving town. She went to the police and the health clinic immediately after her assault. In addition to the physical evidence that was collected, she brought into court the testimony of witnesses and a threat from her rapist.\u00a0 Detective Dennis Hughes, the officer assigned to the case, told Hillaire\u2019s father that, given his four decades of police experience, \u201cThis is a slam dunk case. There\u2019s more evidence than we see in most sexual assault cases, and we\u2019ve got lots of witnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, despite all of this, the community turned against her. It\u2019s no wonder that rape victims are reluctant to report their assaults; how much evidence, and how much privilege, does one need to get justice?\u00a0 Three months after the rape, a grand jury dismissed the case.\u00a0 Later Bolton would plea guilty to assault, a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

——————<\/p>\n

For more — including ways to help Hillaire and protest her treatment, as well as details about the role of the NAACP and highly suspicious ties between Bolton\u2019s family, the police, and the district attorney \u2013 see the unabridged reporting on this story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I traveled to Silsbee, Texas five times in the past six months, with conservative blogger Brandon Darby, to investigate why, despite the volume of evidence, a grand jury did not indict two football players accused of raping a high school cheerleader (who was later kicked off the squad for refusing to cheer for one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2056,23384,34,55,2098,2090,283,120,108,133],"class_list":["post-37204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crimelaw","tag-social-construction-discourselanguage","tag-education","tag-gender","tag-gender-prejudicediscrimination","tag-gender-violence","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-sex","tag-sports","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37204"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41393,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37204\/revisions\/41393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}