Life in Bill Napoli's America

This is the first entry in what will undoubtedly be an ongoing series on how the people who think a woman should not have the right to determine her own reproductive life are affecting women's lives even with Roe still on the books.

First, let's go to Orange County, California, where a 16-year-old girl was painted as the Whore of Babylon after being raped while unconscious by three men:

At the May 3 start of the Orange County trial of three teenage boys accused of gang-raping an unconscious minor, a defense attorney made a startling assertion: the alleged victim enticed the "sweet," "caring," "kind" defendants into a sexual frenzy and then, while faking unconsciousness, sexually assaulted them. At one point, the attorney, an incredulous Joseph G. Cavallo, blurted out to the jury, "Why isn’t she being charged with this crime?"

"She knew how to use her body. She knew how to use sex," said Cavallo, one of at least nine defense lawyers (not including the publicist, a jury consultant and an army of private investigators) representing Gregory Scott Haidl, 18; Kyle Joseph Nachreiner, 19; and Keith James Spann, 19. They’ve pleaded not guilty to 24 felony counts for the July 2002 Newport Beach incident. Referring to a video they made of the incident, Cavallo said, "The boys had every reason to believe she consented: she orchestrated it."

It was just one of the defense’s many remarkable claims after apparently horrified jurors inspected prosecution-supplied photographs of the late night gang bang. The images (which I’ll describe momentarily) are so disturbing that the defense team wasted no time calling the filmed episode repugnant, but blamed it solely on the 16-year-old girl known in court only as Jane Doe.

"The things she wanted done were done," said John Barnett, counsel for Nachreiner. "It’s disgusting and it’s awful. Who would consent to this? Jane Doe. Nobody is going to argue this isn’t morally outrageous. It is, but it was a choice. . . . This is exactly what she wanted. They believed her when she says she wanted to be a porn star."

Peter Morreale, who represents Spann, claimed that Doe rarely wore panties and flirted, and that his client "was [then] 17 years old and tripping over himself" to have "consensual sex" with her. On the night of the alleged crime, Doe first rejected their invitation to come to their party.

"They were bummed that they’re not going to get any!" said Morreale. Later, Doe changed her mind and drove to Newport Beach. When she called to say she’d arrive soon the boys "high-fived" each other. He claims the girl promised Nachreiner that she wanted a gang bang. "I’m not advocating this girl wanted to be the next Marilyn Chambers or a deep-throat expert, but that was her mentality," said Morreale.

In just his opening statement, a pacing, finger-pointing Cavallo told the jury that the girl—next to the tape itself, the prosecution’s star witness--is "a nut," "a pathological liar," "a cheater," an "out-of-control girl," "the aggressor," a wanna-be "porn star," "a troubled young lady," "a tease--that’s what she is!" "a mess," a "master manipulator," a "little opportunist," "a compulsive liar," "a cheat--that’s what she is" and a "callous" drug addict and alcoholic who trimmed her pubic hair, bragged about liking group sex and once drank a beer in a car.

"Why was her vagina and anus completely shaved?" Cavallo asked jurors. "How many teenagers have a shaved vagina and anus? I don’t know, but I can think of a reason. Sex! She’s a sexual person!"

During preliminary hearings, Cavallo called Doe a "slut"; on this day, he stayed away from the word. However, he told the jury several times that everyone, including the girl’s parents, "knows what she is." Talk outside the courtroom was less coy. In the hallway just outside, a defense consultant openly and repeatedly called Jane Doe "a fucking whore."

Are you sick yet? Read on:

Haidl had provided a soundtrack to the sex recorded by his Sony Hand-Held camcorder. It was bass-heavy hip-hop, with lyrics such as, "We like pussy. We like pussy. We like pussy . . . Fuck an asshole too . . . We just want to have sex!"

The girl is heard only at the beginning of the tape, after the boys had given her a Bud Lite, a couple of hits of marijuana and a mixed drink they claim was Bombay Gin and 7-Up. Police suspect the drink, made by Nachreiner, was laced with GHB, a fast-acting synthetic drug occasionally used by date rapists. The illegal substance can knock out unsuspecting victims for hours.

Hess had said the opening shot features Haidl on the garage sofa with Jane Doe, who is holding a beer. Haidl tries to lift her shirt.

"You’re trying to take my clothes off, huh, Greg?" she says, slurring her words. "I’m so fucked up."

The three defendants smile into the camera. One of the boys says, "Slick-ass me!" Later, someone yells, "Nigger!"

The next scene shows a naked Doe on her knees in front of the couch. At first, it looks like she is orally copulating Nachreiner and is moving. But soon the viewer learns that a well-endowed Spann has entered the unconscious Doe doggy-style and Nachreiner is holding her head up, forcing her mouth up and down on his penis. Moans are heard. The boys mug happily for the camera.

Hess had earlier told the jury what comes next: "Haidl slaps Jane Doe hard on the buttock to which she doesn’t respond." Nachreiner can be seen looking at the girl’s unresponsive face, and says, "All right, she look pretty much good!"

The sex continues on the couch. The force of Spann’s intercourse constantly moves her body. Nachreiner, still seeking oral pleasure, complains, "You’re making her eat my fucking dick with her mouth. Come on!" He then lifts and holds Doe so that her body is on top of his. He enters her vagina. Spann tries to stick his penis in the girl's mouth, but her head swivels uncontrollably and he can't fit it in. Hess said Doe's body was "flopping like a rag doll." The defendants whisper and then point. "Pool table! Pool table!" they yell.

Moving the girl toward the pool table, they drop Doe on her face. According to prosecutors, she doesn’t flinch.

Once on the pool table, Doe is again visibly unconscious. Her legs are spread, and Haidl zooms in for a close-up of Doe’s genitals. He sticks his finger in and out of her vagina; she has no reaction. Wearing a red cap backwards, Spann mugs for the camera. Doe’s face is shown, her eyes shut. She is motionless. Haidl returns for more shots of Doe’s vagina. One of the defendants says, "Let me take your spot" and someone replies, "No. No. Fuck that! Fuck that!"

Hess said Spann next rapes Doe again. Haidl focuses the camera on Spann's penis entering Doe. From the public seating section, we can hear the sound of intercourse on something like a squeaky bed. "Oh, hell yeah! Oh, that feels great. That’s fantastic! That feels so good. That’s some fantastic shit. Oh yeah!" a boy says. Haidl takes shots of the girl’s expressionless face from multiple angles. The boys laugh. Spann eventually pulls his penis out, masturbates until he ejaculates on Doe's stomach, grabs her bra, uses it to wipe off his penis and then tosses it on the floor. Shaking his hand sideways—like a baseball umpire--Spann apparently signals to his buddies that Doe is still out.

But the video goes on.

OK, that's all I'm going to reprint here. If you want to read more, it's here.

Now in what universe is this consensual sex?

Here are the words of the young woman upon whose unconscious body the above atrocities were perpetrated:

Your honor, I would like to describe my life before and after July Fourth. Before July Fourth I was a normal 16-year-old teenager. I was outgoing, cheerful, loving, compassionate and trusting. I had many friends and enjoyed spending my time with them. I was very athletic and I was on the volleyball, track and cross country teams at my high school. I was a straight a student. I was always grateful for my friends and family.

I had an extremely close relationship with my parents. My home life was great, and I felt comfortable and confident with the woman I was growing into. I had goals and dreams. I was determined to get a scholarship and go to NYU, New York University. I had dreamed of going there since I was a little girl. I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way. Very abruptly this all changed.

On July Fourth, the woman I was blossoming into and the dreams I was determined to succeed were all taken from me. I was ripped of my adolescence, womanhood, hopes, goals, dreams, and my life. All that I was and the woman I was becoming was savagely thrown away by three men. Three men brutally assaulted me not only with their bodies, but with foreign objects also. All the while I was unconscious and never even given a chance to fight back. Cowardly, they had to make sure I was knocked out cold before they sexually assaulted me, because they knew I would have said no if I was conscious.

I will relive forever in my head the morning that my father got a call from the Newport Police Department telling him they had a videotape of his daughter being gang-raped. I remember waking up to my parents standing over me, the look of horror and disgust in their eyes. My father asked me what happened on July Fourth and I told him, "I don’t know," because I couldn’t remember what happened to me.

That is when he grabbed me and he held me in his arms and tears rolled down his cheeks. He proceeded to tell me a videotape was given to the police that unveiled myself being brutally gang-raped by three men, the three men that I gave all my trust to and thought were my friends.

As the words slowly rolled out of his mouth, I began to shake violently. Before I could make it to the bathroom I collapsed on the floor, started vomiting. I was going into shock. My parents had to help me calm me down. After awhile I was able to stand up, but I couldn’t feel anything. I was numb to any thoughts and feelings. And unknown to me, I was going to stay numb for many years to come.

But at that moment, I didn’t want to believe what I had been told. This could not be possible, the detectives had to be mistaken. I was convinced my so-called friends were not capable of such a crime. But as I was rushed to the hospital to be examined by forensics, I was hit with the realization that I was no longer dreaming, this was real. My entire existence had been taken from me and thrown out by the choices and hands of three men I had given my friendship and trust to.

Since that day my life has and never will be the same.

The first few months directly following the assault I was in a severe state of depression. I would stay in bed most days and never leave my room. Sleep was difficult to get because it was always interrupted by nightmares of the events that had happened.

These three men haunted my dreams and still do. I wake up many times in a cold sweat, crying and screaming. When I gave up on trying to get a decent sleep, I would sit facing my bedroom wall, covered with pictures of my previous life. The pictures of the people I had called friends for so many years would begin to blur. The tears would stream down my cheeks as if I would never cry again. My eyes were always puffy. My nose was always sore.

I would ask God when was this pain going to stop, or if it every would. I sadly started to lose my faith in God, wondering why such a horrific and life-numbing event could happen to anyone. I spent many months in a daze. I felt like a thousand knives were stabbing me. These knives were not only stabbing my heart, but they were penetrating my soul. The woman I was had been lost forever. The people I had called friends left me alone and abandoned. Reality hit me when I realized my life and dreams had been destroyed and my so-called new life and dreams would have to be put on hold until they could be determined.

That is why we are here today, your honor. I haven’t been able to truly live since these men sexually assaulted me. I wouldn’t be able to until I feel safe and secure that they are behind bars for numerous years. When you make a decision on the amount of time you’re going to sentence these men to, I would like to tell you a little bit the about the harassment, intimidation and torture these men have done to me these last three years. I guess assaulting me and videotaping it wasn’t enough for them. They had to continue to make my life and my family’s life a living hell since. I feel that instead of showing remorse for their crimes, they have continued to assault me since every day since July Fourth.

The harassment and torture started immediately after the assault became known to the public. It started with private investigators sitting in front of our house day in and day out, watching our every move. Our family’s privacy was completely eliminated. The private investigators got worse when they began watching my parents at their places of work. One day I was driving home and a private investigator began following me. I panicked. I did not know what to do. I called my mom on her cell phone for help. All she could do was tell me to drive to the police station and try to calm down. In the parking of the police station the private investigator cornered me and began taking pictures of me.

I was still on the phone, hysterically crying for my mother’s help. I will never forget the terror and helplessness I heard in her voice. It tore me to pieces. These men have ruined me and my life, but now they are also ruining the lives of people that I loved the most. I had to stop driving alone because I was always being followed. I had to live a life in which I had to have permission to move, and my every move had to be observed for my safety. I didn’t understand – "Why were they still torturing me? Wasn’t that one night enough for them?" I guess not, because the harassment and intimidation continued.

The next big event was when fliers were placed in all the mailboxes, local stores of my neighborhood. They asked for anyone with information on the Newport Beach assault that occurred on or about July Fourth to call a number. That flier said my last name. My family never sent out the fliers like they portrayed. It was the families of these three men. Now my entire neighborhood knew I was Jane Doe, the 16-year-old girl that was gang-raped.

All I wanted was to stay anonymous, but to no surprise, they didn’t allow that to happen either. It was around this time that I lost all my friends. They all ran from me because they didn’t know how to act. I was treated by others like the one with an incurable disease, although I was the victim. I was lonely and I had no one left. I was even witnessing my family slowly collapse and my parents’ marriage of many, many years began to fall apart. Why was I being treated like the perpetrator of the crime? Didn’t people realize I was the victim?

I spent the summer before my junior year in high school locked away from the world, trying to give a reason why such a thing had happened to me, or anyone else for that matter. The things these men did to me and were continuing to do to me were so cruel and inhumane. I never would have wished this even on my worst enemy. I was in counseling multiple times a week, but the pain only increased. I experienced emotions and feelings I never knew existed. I felt angry, hurt, betrayed, lost, abandoned, worthless, and most of all, dirty. The people that used to be there for me had hidden themselves because they were unsure how to react to my cruel experience and all the intimidation. I spent all my days at home crying and severely depressed.

After everyone in my neighborhood found out my identity, my family and I thought it was best for me to transfer to a new high school and start off fresh where no one knew who I was. I was in such fear of the new kids in my new school finding out who I was. I registered at my new high school under a different name. These men had not only taken my life, but now they had taken my identity and who I was. The first few weeks of my junior year went as planned. No one knew about my past, but that quickly changed when people hired by these men came to my school and stood in the parking lot screaming out my real name as I was walking with my friends. I was stopped by a man who served me papers right in front of my new friends. Then he proceeded to tell them who I was. I wanted to curl up and die. So much for no one knowing.

In less than a week the students, staff and teachers all knew my history and real identity. I wasn’t safe anywhere, and I had nowhere else to run, so for my last two years of high school I felt like an outcast. Now they took away two more of my happiness. I kept wondering if this would ever stop. To know surprise, it didn’t. These three men continued to destroy every day my life with no guilt or shame. They slandered my name and image all over the press and media. The abuse continued up to the first trial, where I was also abused on the stand when I testified. I’m not sure how I stayed strong enough to get through that. Maybe it’s because I would do whatever it takes to see these men pay for their crimes.

There were many days I questioned if I should testify because I was so scared of what they would do. They seemed to be going to any lengths to intimidate me and I didn’t know where or if they would ever draw the line at some point. But I testified and continued to watch my family and I be abused.

The worst day of my life was when I heard the verdict of the first jury. I was in my room waiting for the verdict. I remember my mom walking into my room. She sat next to me on the bed and hugged me, looked me in the eye and said it was a hung jury. I felt my stomach drop and my heart being ripped out of my chest. There was no way this could be true. My mom had to be mistaken. When she started to cry I knew she wasn’t. I was in such shock I didn’t know what to feel. I became hysterical and started screaming.

All my anger I had towards these men and the verdict came out. I thought I was going crazy. Why didn’t anyone believe me? Couldn’t they see I was like a rag doll? I was so unconscious. I’m the victim here. All I could ask was, "Why?" I just wanted to die. If I was dead, everyone’s lives would be better. Maybe things would be normal if I was gone. The thought of suicide began to cross my mind numerous times a day, but I was stronger than that. I was not going to let these men win. They had already taken everything from me. I wasn’t going to let them take my very last breath also. So once again I told the district attorney I would testify in the second trial. I was numb to the abuse by now because it became so prevalent.

Before the second trial I was asked if I wanted to see the videotape of the assault. I was terrified. What if I watched it and it literally put me into a mental institution? I spent many weeks deciding. I knew that if I saw the video I would be able to express my feelings better to the jury while testifying, but I also knew how real it would make the assault to me.

In my heart I knew I had to see it with my own eyes, to be able to know exactly what these three men did to me, so I chose to watch it. I remember my mouth started burning while I was watching the video because it was so dry from hanging open in disbelief. I cannot and don’t think I will ever be able to describe what I felt while watching that video. I remember asking myself, "When did I become a piece of meat and not a human being to these men? How could any sane human do these things they did?" They did things not even savage animals would do. They violated me in every way possible.

As I watched that video, I remember feeling two distinct feelings. I remember becoming furious at the animals that were attacking me because no human could do such a thing. And I remember feeling my soul and inner being completely deteriorating. I was empty. They had now taken every last bit of who I was and no longer felt human. I was like a lifeless and feelingless doll that these men thought they could use and abuse in any way they wished.

A part of me died that day, a part that I don’t know if I’ll ever get back. The part that was lost as I watched three men I called my friends and trusted completely, abuse, assault and torture me. All the while they laughed and rooted each other on and smiled like it was the best day of their life. I can still hear their disgusting comments and evil laughs in my head. It makes my insides turn and my head ache. It reminds me that those three men are not me. They are sexual predators that deserve numerous years behind bars. I will never forget how I felt when I heard the verdict being read and these men were found guilty for their crimes. It was a relief like I’ve never felt. I bursted into tears of joy. Justice was finally being served, and today is where my justice is finished. These men will never be punished to the extent that I feel they deserve, but multiple years behind bars is settling enough for me.

I would like to remind you, your honor, before you sentence these men, that they are not men. Only inhuman beings can do what they did to another person. They are inhumane beings that are a threat to society and should not get the privilege of living in society with normal human beings. These men took my adolescence. They took away what was supposed to be the best years of my life. They took away my adolescent years and forced me to become an adult before it was time. They caused me to spend my time in and out of meetings with detectives, attorneys and district attorneys when I should have been out with my friends. They violated my body in every way possible and forced it to continue to be violated by doctors to try and correct the damage these men have created on me. I will spend the rest of my life in counseling, hoping someday I can deal with what they did to me.

For the rest of my life I will have restless nights filled with nightmares caused by them. For now I have very little self-esteem and I trust no one because these men took those things from me. I also feel unlovable due to the abuse I endured. I pray one day I will get these securities back, but I know that will only be after many more years of counseling.

These men also took my family’s lives, which slowly can be repaired. These men stole a part of me. They took a part of me I will never get back. I’ve come to the realization that part of my soul will be lost forever. But what hurts the most is throughout all this pain, suffering and abuse these men have put me through, they have shown absolutely no remorse. It just makes it clear to me they deserve many years in prison. I will never be who I was before July Fourth because these men unconsensually took that woman from me. I will be affected by their actions for the rest of my life. But I can live with that if I feel justice is served. With any luck, many years behind bars will give them plenty of time to think about what they did and maybe begin to feel some kind of remorse for their crimes.

Thank you, your honor.

Now, you can say all you want to that this girl made an error in judgment and should not have been drinking. But if you're going to do that, then cut to the chase and say "She asked for it", so we can see what a misogynist fucking idiot you are.

Now, if you're still reading, go back and think about the words of South Dakota legislator Bill Napoli again:

A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

Do you wonder if perhaps inside Bill Napoli's mind he performs similar acts on fantasy women in his head on a regular basis? I don't wonder....I'd bet on it.

Now let's take a side trip to Missouri, where poor women are now going to be denied contraceptives from state-run clinics:

An attempt to resume state spending on birth control was shot down yesterday by House members who argued it would have amounted to an endorsement of promiscuous lifestyles.

Missouri stopped providing money for family planning and certain women’s health services when Republicans gained control of both chambers of the General Assembly in 2003.

But a Democratic lawmaker, in a little-noticed committee amendment, had successfully inserted language into the proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 that would have allowed part of the $9.2 million intended for "core public health functions" to go to contraception provided through public health clinics.

The House voted 96-59 to delete the funding for contraception and infertility treatments after Rep. Susan Phillips told lawmakers that anti-abortion groups such as Missouri Right to Life were opposed to the spending.

"If you hand out contraception to single women, we’re saying promiscuity is OK as a state, and I am not in support of that," Phillips, R-Kansas City, said in an interview.

Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out indeed. Now that the anti-choice forces are being emboldened, their real agenda is finally coming out. It isn't about babies and sanctity of life. It never was. It's about women, especially sexual women, and how much they hate these women. They hate these women because they hate their own sexual impulses and their own inability to control them.

This is just the beginning. It's going to get worse.

(A big hat-tip to Steve Gilliard for the Orange County story.)