If you were in the DA’s office and this came across your desk, would there be any one thing that would tell you, “I’m going to go ahead with this” or “I’m not going to go ahead with this?” Or is it kind of the cumulative stuff that you discussed?
It depends because prosecutors have a different degree of tolerance for risk in these sorts of situations. Personally, I think this whole case is better taken civilly. I think what happened here is really a series of awful, disgusting, abusive acts that, to me, look like civil wrongs. That’s why, for me, I don’t think any of these incidents, while horrible and disgusting, are really, as described, worth the criminal process. But if I were looking at this — and especially with an eye toward wanting to bring charges against a powerful person for having done this — I would be looking particularly for (1) whether or not the victims are fully willing to cooperate and wanting to go through this process, which is long and arduous, and (2) how credible they are.
You would want to talk to them. How credible is this person? Is there anything that might [be] an ulterior motive for them bringing this case? Is there any way he could tar them in such a way to undermine their account? And finally, that contemporaneous evidence. It’s probably that third piece that I would be paying a lot of attention to. I personally would not bring these cases just on the woman’s account — not because I didn’t believe her but because of the burden of proof. I would rather want to have a stronger case than that in order to be able to prove both that it happened and what his intent was.
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