It was not that long ago that in many jurisdictions in America, it was impossible for a man to rape his wife. Why? Because under most rape statutes, rape was largely a property based statute, and a man could not rape something he owned.
Thanks to the feminist movement, we have moved far beyond those days, at least statutorily. Anyone who has gone to college has surely heard “no means no,” over and over. Things are far from 'fixed,' of course. The numbers of women that report being assaulted and raped by acquaintances is staggering. The hurdles that rape victims still face when they report crimes is still shameful.
Which brings us to Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni. Deni, as most of us know, dismissed claims by a prostitute that she was gang-raped at gunpoint, instead calling it theft of services. As with many people, I had a visceral reaction when I heard that news. But, after a little while, and talking with multiple lawyers who had good experiences with Deni in court, I thought it would be better to take a step back before advocating to effectively end this judges career. Try and look at any context I was missing, etc., and then make a decision.
Well, deep breaths taken, steps back taken. And, I still strongly believe that Judge Deni should not be retained. I have never been able to read the transcript, but, the Chancellor of the Philly Bar Association did, and this was her response:
Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni's handling of the case was an "unforgivable miscarriage of justice," said Jane Leslie Dalton, the bar association's chancellor. "The victim has been brutalized twice in this case: first by the assailants, and now by the court."
Dalton's criticism came just 28 days after the association recommended that voters Tuesday retain Deni for a third six-year term.
The Bar Association is a pretty ‘polite’ and staid group, not prone to issuing statements condemning their own members (especially one they just effectively endorsed). To hear this amount of outrage after Dalton read the transcript is really telling of just how screwed up this whole thing is.
A judge can make a screwed up ruling, but, when they make that kind of ruling against a rape victim, and then make a statement like this...:
"Did she tell you she had another client before she went to report it?" Deni asked me yesterday when we met at a coffee shop.
"I thought rape was a terrible trauma."
A case like this, she said - to my astonishment - "minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped."
...you should not serve as a Philadelphia judge.
Does this mean problems with how sexual assaults are treated in the justice system are magically fixed? No. Does it mean that Judge Deni may be replaced by a judge who is potentially less friendly to poor folks? Potentially. But, if society has gotten anywhere with a change in attitudes towards rape and rape victims, then there is a line that Judge Deni has stepped far, far over, and I think it merits her not being retained.
Get her out!
Glad to hear that you are voting against her. Now we just need a few thousand more of you.
And, just to let you know, not only are the above quoted comments just horrifying and dehumanizing, but Deni's question, "Did she tell you she had another client before she went to report it?" was actually a lie. This did not happen and is nowhere in the court transcripts. She made it up for the reporter.
Judge Deni
Kathy Hogan
The part you don't know is that this was a smear campaign orchestrated by political operatives, to feed a deliberately twisted story to the press right before the election, in an effort to have Judge Deni removed from office for political reasons that had nothing to do with the story.
They knew they had Judge Deni ocver a barrel because the rules of judicial conduct prevent her from debating the facts of a pending case in the press.
Once they got one reporter to write their nonsense, the other papers just jump on the bandwagon and repeated the false facts published in the first story.
The goal of this kind of political dirt is to fan the flames of public outrage, and leave no way to respond to it.
The only people surprised to hear this are people who don't know how nasty political games can get in Philadelphia (and elsewhere).
What you read about Judge Deni or what happened in this case is not what happened.
Kathy, do you have the real
Kathy, do you have the real story? If you can give the other side, I for one would be interested to hear it.
--Tim
Election Day efforts to oust Judge Deni
So far, ADA, Phila NOW, and DC 47 have recommended a No Vote on Deni to their members. The 9th ward (Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy) and the 27th ward (West Philly) have also recommended NO vote on Deni on their sample ballots and letters to constituents.
If anyone wants to do something on Election Day, Xerox 100 copies of the Bar statement on Deni or one of Jill Porter’s DN articles and pass them out to voters as they enter the polls. I have been a committeeperson for over 2 decades and can attest that in relatively low-profile races (particularly judicial races) a poll worker can have considerable impact.
Anyone who can do this at prime time (either 7:00-9:00 a.m. or 4:30-8:00) in one of the liberal, relatively high turn-out wards (center city wards, Fairmount, 22nd ward in Mt. Airy) can probably get 100 no votes. Why be content with just your one vote against Deni?
The group coordinating this effort can be reached at: no.on.deni@gmail.com
I'm voting against retaining as well
Thanks, Dan, for your thoughtful approach to the matter. It also was the "Philadelphia Bar slams judge in rape case" article in yesterday's Inquirer, which you blockquote above, that cemented my decision. This attitude is utterly unacceptable, and leaves me questioning what other latent sexist, racist or social biases are coloring her judicial decisions.
I posted a link to the same article in comments to a discussion of the issue on DailyKos last night.
And thanks for the excellent suggestion, kbojar. I think I've finally found a good use for my energies in the late afternoon/evening hours I will be available on Election Day.
Let's be careful here...
The movement to oust Judge Deni has me very uncomfortable. We talk the talk about an independent judiciary, but when a Judge does something we are upset with, there is a vocal movement to oust her. And while I appreciate the thoughtfulness with which Dan U-A approached this, others are not being so thoughtful. In fact, the Bar Association is upset with Jane Dalton for coming out so strongly against Deni-for precisely the reasons I am mentioning. The legal community is very conflicted about this, and rightly so. The role of the local and national media is also troubling, and this "piling on" of Deni is a bit scary.
With that said, it is truly a puzzling decision which seems contrary to law. But remember that we don't get to hear the witnesses' testimony and judge their credibility, and don't have the ability which the judge has, i.e., to listen to all of the evidence and make a decision. Let's not be arm chair quarterbacks. We either have a true independent judiciary or we don't.
We don't
At least right now, we have an elected judiciary. Either we have the retention vote -- which we can use to judge judicial candidates by whatever criteria we wish -- or we don't.
And if judges were selected in a different way, they should still be susceptible to outrage when they make outrageous decisions, especially those that both degrade a whole class of people and appear to show indifference towards the law.
--Tim
Not convinced, and still against Deni
While I appreciate your caution and your defense of an independent judiciary, I'm not convinced by your arguments.
You say: "In fact, the Bar Association is upset with Jane Dalton for coming out so strongly against Deni-for precisely the reasons I am mentioning. The legal community is very conflicted about this, and rightly so."
Well, that's a pretty broad statement, and perhaps you have a bunch of citations you can offer. But all I've seen are two people speaking out publicly against Jane Dalton: Jeffrey Lindy and George Newman.
Neither of them presents very convincing arguments to me, either. As for the piling on of the press, well, a lot of the criticism has come from the comments Deni herself made to the press in response to questions. She helped dig her own hole on that one.
I'm still voting against retention.
YOU don't have all the facts...
That doesn't mean the rest of us don't.
The campaign to oust Deni didn't take off because we read an article in the Daily News. It took off because one of the members attended a city task force meeting in which the case was discussed and was informed by a number of the people who were in the courtroom that day that Jill Porter's account of what happened was very accurate. It was further fueled by Deni's own commments to the press. How can anyone not be incensed by that?
Any member of the "legal community" who has read the court transcripts would have the same reaction as Jane Dalton--the victim revoked her consent, was raped, and Deni flouted the law by punishing the woman for the initial action of agreeing to illicit sex for money. Rape is rape. A judge has no business deciding that some people just plain deserve it.
Deni was wrong, Deni is biased, Deni needs to go. Period.