argh! said:
gawd, you are insufferable. we get it - you are all seeing, all knowing, and have this whole thing figured out due to your incredible ability to 'read between the lines', and conjure up meanings that support your bias. way to go!
Let me be just a little more insufferable.
The problem here, and it is very likely the reason that the Defense put up a Motion to Dismiss in a criminal case where it is ordinarily unusual. And, it was necessary in this case.
Firstly, Fred Van Valkenburg has a time bomb. Her name is Jane Doe. By her admissions, she is a psychologically damaged young women unable and unwilling to engage in normal boyfriend/girlfriend relationships in college "
because of her relationship with JJ."
A relationship that she also acknowledges didn't actually exist.
But she's got some fantasies. She "knew" that someday they would have a relationship and would "have consensual sex." JJ, she notes, was a really nice guy. He would go out with her once in a while, but he was developing a relationship with Kelly. For some reason, she goes alone to the Forester's Ball, and is pretty well three sheets to the wind already. She sees JJ and Kelly dancing. She goes over to them, and separates JJ from Kelly, saying in front of witnesses that she'd "do him any time," and convinces him to dance with her. He's a nice guy, he does so. Kelly's likely standing over there wondering "what this is all about."
Jane Doe is really enjoying herself. Everyone is seeing her in her fantasy, as JJ's girlfriend in a very public place; the most public social event on the UM campus. He asks her to go the "Marriage booth," and they are standing in line. JJ sees Kelly across the gym floor, and realizes he's got a social problem brewing. He leaves Jane Doe standing there. Kelly likely has some words to say.
Everyone sees what happened. Jane is humiliated.
JJ feels terrible about the whole thing, but you know, this is all pretty normal college-age behavior. Relationships are being sorted out. So the next day, BECAUSE HE IS A NICE GUY, he texts her, hey let's do something.
Her admissions on what happens during that afternoon are positively bizarre, and not just because she offers different versions of it at different points ("he took off my shirt," "I took off my shirt"). She wants to watch a movie. Her
favorite movie.
About a college age girl who invents sexual fantasies involving herself.
Now, we are at the weird part. You strip your male companion after taking off your own clothes, and straddle him. You have what appears to be a fairly weird soft porn movie playing. Her
favorite movie.
Now, at that point, it's her house, it's her bed, it's her idea, and it's her weird movie.
And, she's mad about last night.
She discloses during the investigation that she was abused at a younger age. She was diagnosed with PTSD. She suffers from depression and she has ideated suicide. Now, she is in the middle of a bizarre and public case in which she has demonstrated a pattern of behavior that suggests an obsession with Jordan Johnson. After a very public humiliation by Jordan, she gets him over to her house, sets up the soft porn movie and takes off her clothes, straddling JJ.
The next morning, she goes to get the rape kit, isn't really interested in fully cooperating, just wants to make sure she's got a "report" on file. Goes to a Superbowl party. Texts a friend a couple of days later sounding almost giddy. "It's all good." She's seems fully aware that a rape charge will hit JJ "like a ton of bricks."
Hmmm. Wonder why she thinks that?
Four weeks later, just so we are on the same page here, she writes JJ a letter that doesn't mention rape, it accuses him of "humiliating" her. That's the emotional driver here.
He doesn't respond. "Dammit, then I'm going to file for a TRO, that I am in fear of bodily harm," a claim completely inconsistent with everything she ever said about JJ, and for which in fact, there was no basis for the claim. It was clearly retaliatory for NOT contacting her or responding to her letter. She would "teach" him.
Now, Fred has this file on his desk. And I can hear Fred as he is reading it. "Oh sh....".
Jane Doe has pretty much fabricated a case, out of an unsuccessful fantasy relationship that she had been pursuing. The clue is found in her changing stories. It always is.
Fred knows there's a huge problem with the case. He's got DOJ sniffing around. He's under some public pressure. And that's not his main concern. His main concern is that the public tailwind around this case is driving to a very public conclusion that will likely not be favorable to a very fragile young women with a history of problems.
And I will tell you as a fact just from knowing Fred for 40 years, he is concerned about where this is going, and it has less to do with JJ than it does with a young woman for whom her fantasies got out of control and she has precipitated a very public spectacle of what can still be an unfolding tragedy.
She has already complained about a public humiliation, and that it was JJ's "fault." The "humiliation," in her own words, has very much driven her escalating behavior. And it may drive it farther. Fred knows that. He knows this case cannot go to trial.
And that conclusion has very little to do with Jordan Johnson.
