Sarah’s News Roundup 02.09.19

Lt Gov Justin Fairfax

Lt Governor of Virginia Justin Fairfax has denied sexually assaulting Vanessa Tyson at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and said that the “uncorroborated smear” was intended to derail his career.

He claims the encounter was “100% consensual” and that Ms Tyson was “very interested in him”.

Ms Tyson said she had accompanied Fairfax to his hotel room so that he could collect some papers.

She went on to say: “I stood in the entryway of the room and after he located the documents, he walked over and kissed me. Although surprised by his advance, it was not unwelcome and I kissed him back.”

Fairfax then held her down and sexually assaulted her.

County District Judge Michael Gibbens has said that two girls aged 13 and 14 were partly to blame in a case of sexual abuse involving a 67-year-old man and has reduced his sentence to 5 years and 10 months – much less than the minimum of 13 years called for by Kansas sentencing guidelines.

He said the girls went to Raymond Soden’s house voluntarily, had “taken money for sexual favors” and that “the victims in this case, in particular, were more an agressor than a participant in the criminal conduct”.

Prosecutors are considering an appeal.

US singer Austin Jones has admitted to getting teenage girls to share naked images with him over social media.

He admitted in a plea agreement that between 2010 and 2017 he exchanged sexually explicit photos and videos with underage girls and had online conversations with six of them.

In one conversation Jones is said to have told one of the teenagers “that she needed to ‘prove’ that she was his biggest fan by sending videos of herself”.

He remains on bail while he undergoes psychiatric counselling.

Nathan Sutherland has pleaded not guilty to charges of raping an incapacitated woman who unexpectedly gave birth at a clinic where she was under his care.

The nurse was arrested and fired after his DNA matched that of the newborn.

Dave Gregan, Sutherland’s lawyer, told reporters that his client “is entitled to due process of the law”.

He added that Sutherland will fight the charges and plans to commission an independent DNA test.

Phoenix police chief Jeri Williams said there could be more victims at the clinic but finding them could be impossible as many of the patients are unable to communicate because of their medical conditions.

Dayquan Turner and Regina Gomez are facing charges of criminal sexual offences against a minor and evidence tampering in the first case tied to Bernalillo County’s backlog of thousands of previously untested rape kits.

Spring Schofield, assistant DA and chief prosecutor on the case, said: “This is just the first of what we hope will be very many. She (the survivor) along with many other victims in the area have been waiting a long time. The assault happened in 2016, the victim (survivor) was only 16 at the time.”

Schofield is one of the first prosectors on the DA’s newly formed rape kit backlog cold case unit.

Federal grants are paying for the testing, investigating and prosecution tied to around 5,000 untested kits.

The Supreme Court has blocked a Louisiana law on abortion.

Nancy Northup president of the Center for Reproductive Rights said: “The Supreme Court has stepped in under the wire to protect the rights of Louisiana women. The three clinics left in Louisiana can stay open while we ask the Supreme Court to hear our case. This should be an easy case – all that’s needed is a straightforward application of the court’s own precedent.”

At The State of the Union women from both sides of the house made a powerful political statement by wearing white to celebrate the centenary of the women’s right to vote in the US.

This also highlighted how many more female Democrats there are compared to Republicans, many of whom took office after the recent mid-term elections.

After Trump said: “No one has benefited more from our thriving economy than women who have filled 58% of the new jobs created in the last year” they enthusiastically clapped, cheered, danced, hugged, waved and high-fived each other, and finally took up the “USA USA USA” chant.

Trump tried but was unable to stop them.

They seized the evening.

And they celebrated.

Sarah x

#metoo

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