IT IS with great horror that I read Lindsay Huggins' incredibly irresponsible and error-filled column regarding Commonwealth v. Beebe ("The painful consequences of silence," Mar. 16). While I am sure every current Wahoo wants to wave the flag of school pride, such editorial laziness should not be allowed as it does not in any way help other students. That said, I am glad attention is being brought to the horror of rape. Huggins, however, needs to get some of the facts straight and stop this disgusting and disturbing "blame the victim" stance. That serves no one and shows just how clueless current students are at the University.
I was never, as she says "suddenly bombarded by feelings of anger," prompting me to call Chief of Charlottesville Police Tim Longo. I received letters and e-mails at my home -- an address given to Beebe, in his own words, by the University Alumni Office, although he never graduated. For nine years, that man tracked me with the University's help. Nice, right? That would give anyone pause, and I reached out when those e-mails began to frighten us.
Also, my rape at the hands of William Beebe was not a "date rape," as she calls it. It was a stranger rape and now, as we know, a group rape. What exactly is "full cooperation of the victim," as Huggins would have had from me, when one has been so savagely violated? If you've been a victim of rape, is there a proper way to act? If there's a book about that, I sure didn't read it. Not in 1984. Not now.
Let's make the facts of the case clear:
1) I went to the Emergency Room, where I was turned away, being told they "couldn't" do a rape kit.
2) I did go to Student Health and was examined. No paperwork was given to me.
3) I went directly to my RA, then to Dean Angela Davis, then to then Dean of Students Robert Canevari. He told me, point blank, "The Charlottesville Police has no jurisdiction over that fraternity house" and that I could not call them. Who was I to question such authority? He told my parents the same exact thing. I was 17 years old and had been on Grounds for five weeks. What would you have done?
4) I was not offered an "honor trial." The deans offered a University Judiciary Committee hearing to me weeks afterwards. Why on Earth would I agree to that? The ultimate sanction would have been to throw Beebe out of school (for the second time, by the way) and he was already gone. How do we expel someone who is no longer a student? Gone not for fear of, as Huggins says, "being contacted by school officials" (Beebe indeed met with Dean Canevari multiple times), but because he decided to cut and run, heading to rehab in Arizona -- once again, in his own words.
5) I met with then-Chief Michael Sheffield of the University Police more than once, accompanied by now-deceased Dean Sybil Todd. According to Leonard Sandridge in an e-mail sent to me in November 2005, they "could not locate" my University report. Huggins believes I had stacks of paperwork memorializing this event and I chose to destroy it. Not true. It is your University that has done away with the paperwork.
6) How dare she criticize my parents and characterize them as "encouraging" me to stay silent? They were fed the same line of lies as I was and they had no reason not to trust those in authority. They pushed on until they hit the wall of silence as well.
7) I have in my possession the only University report that exists. It is not on letterhead, it is not dated and it is handwritten. Here are some choice quotes: "4 men had sex with her," "there were drugs in the punch," "so much blood that we thought someone had been shot," "I saw her wrapped in a sheet and bleeding vaginally," "she was unconscious," "we saw a man with blood on his pants flee the room." So, I'm supposed to know what happened? We had no cell phones then, and quite obviously, I was not even conscious.
A typewritten summary -- once again, not on University letterhead, not dated and with the witnesses' names blacked out -- is the only thing I have in my possession. Imagine what it's like to not know what happened to you.
Your current Sexual Assault Board is not the place for rape to be solved. Once again, I urge any student who has been violated to call Charlottesville Police. This is more than someone stealing a laptop.
No one was able to help me because they chose to turn a blind eye and protect the perpetrator(s). They are still protecting the others as the investigation continues. The University is indeed one of the players complicit in this crime and defending them doesn't help any survivor of rape. Listen, do not judge and get the facts. No one but me, the perpetrators, the Charlottesville Police and the Commonwealth's Attorney's office know the details of this case, and sloppy writing does us all a great disservice.
Liz Seccuro graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences in 1988.
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