BLAMING THE VICTIM IS SHAMEFUL
I can't stand injustice. I never could. I got myself in trouble repeatedly at school for telling the truth and not knowing when to keep my mouth shut. My father, of blessed memory, had this same problem. He ended up as a Lieutenant with the Sheriff's Department where he lived. Me? I just vent about it on this blog... (and in therapy).
When I worked as a paralegal there were times I had to go to court to file papers or get the clerk for a particular judge to sign off on them. I got to sit through some proceedings or parts of them that really disgusted me. But this one in the news recently is particularly heinous.
Since learning about Destructive Narcissism and Sociopathy and now working with Domestic Violence victims, who, like me, were victimized by people like this - certain trials have fascinated me. O.J. was interesting but obvious after all was said and done. The BTK Killer was good.
Scott Peterson was personally riveting because he was a destructive narcissist who stepped over the line. A serial philanderer and pathological liar who, like all narcissists, believed his own lies fully. And tried to blame Amber Frey for some of his behavior - like all disordered personalities - its never their fault, never. Or they didn't do it. Or they and their attorneys (such as that slime Mark Geragos) go on a smear campaign against their accusers to create public sympathy for their client. Liars do this all the time but when you see it in court, it sometimes reaches epic proportions. (Good post on BLAME - click here)
Now there's Peter Braunstein. A couple years ago on Halloween this cretin dressed up as a fireman, set a fire outside the apartment of a woman. Knocked on her door and of course, she let him in to help. Once inside he beat, tied up, threatened, sodomized and raped the poor woman for 13 hours and then left to run from NYC in a manhunt that ended with him trying to slit his own throat. His manifesto of murder and misogynistic whining has been read in court. The woman he raped and assaulted turns out to be a friend of his ex-girlfriend. Payback in this case was not a bitch - it's name was Peter.
So guess who defense is blaming? You got it! The EX-GIRLFRIEND. The defense went on the attack and read about the sex games these two played, all the love letters, everything that might happen in a PRIVATE, ADULT RELATIONSHIP (emphasis PRIVATE) between two people who love each other.
This woman had no way of knowing Braunstein was a sociopath who was slowly breaking down her defenses like many personality disordered sex addicts do. Slowly gaining her trust and getting her to do things she would never have done other wise, making her believe there was a real relationship there. Seducing and then abusing her, berating her, blaming her for every problem he had - to the point where she would have sex with him just to placate him. (see LOVING TO SURVIVE) You don't have relationships with these guys. To them you will always be an object.
But this woman did the unthinkable! She broke it off with him when she finally hit the wall with his nonsense - and the cherry on the sundae was she told the truth about him. She broke it off and Braunstein's tantrum involved harming anyone who knew her or might have been involved with her career. I give her a lot of credit for acting like a lady when her private life was torn wide open by Robert Gottlieb, Braunstein's attorney. And she kept telling the truth.
The defense decided this abusive relationship was the cause of all Braunstein's problems - and that she was the ABUSER!! This is so classic and yet so un*******real and naseauting to me personally. Braunstein and his attorneys are doing the typical smear campaign of twisting, turning, minimizing, blame shifting and cherry-picking facts. Now, granted, by law this sicko is entitled to the best defense his attorneys can give him. Unfortunately.
The defense is using the 'hell hath no fury' tactic for Braunstein, who apparently can't control himself when he's dumped and no longer has a human punching bag to trot out as his girlfriend then abuse and use behind closed doors. If anyone should be enraged here it's Jane Larkworthy. She just got violated emotionally and mentally by an attorney on the stand. And it was legal at that.
I've seen attorneys blame rape victims for being raped by saying... "if she'd just moved away a little bit he wouldn't have been able to rape her." It took a lot of control for me not to get out of my seat and b*tch-slap the defense the times I heard this. Thank goodness juries are seeing through that crap these days. Sometimes.
But this one went way beyond blame and dissected their private relationship in public then blamed her for being a sexual human being. And one who was willing to do anything to please her then-boyfriend. It was just between the two of them until Braunstein's attorneys brought it out into open court. Pathetic.
What happened in court is shameful. Baruch Hashem - the judge saw through this disgusting tactic. Braunstein may be mentally ill, but he's a criminal who needs to be in a dark hole somewhere for the rest of his life.
When someone is being smeared to you or talked about in a derogatory manner - question the ulterior motive of the speaker. Every time. As an anti-DV advocate and survivor, please question the source and ask yourself why are they really saying this?
And in this case it was perfectly legal - but that doesn't make it right.
SHAMEFUL PROCEEDINGSShe was forced on the witness stand to describe the bedroom games she had once played, forced to read aloud from intimate diaries. Peter Braunstein's defense lawyer might as well have been wearing a fireman's uniform himself for all the torment he inflicted on an innocent woman.
Her fault. That's the defense. What happened was all Jane Larkworthy's fault - because she had broken off a romance with Braunstein, because she had caused the poor fellow to transmogrify into a compulsively mad sex predator.
No one, male or female, should ever have privacy destroyed in a court of law the way Larkworthy's privacy was ripped to shreds at Braunstein's trial in Manhattan Supreme Court. Here is a woman who did nothing to deserve the humiliation of having to testify about matters that were nobody's business but her own.
Worse, this was the second time Braunstein has victimized Larkworthy.
The two of them, co-workers, began a relationship - one she ended after discovering that demons lurked beneath his surface. After that, he bombarded her with more than 200 voice mails, put nude photos of her on the Internet, harassed her family, taped her to a chair and threatened her with a knife.
Larkworthy had Braunstein prosecuted. He got off with probation.
After which, masquerading as a fireman, he chloroformed another woman, tied her to a bed and sexually abused her over the course of 13 hours.
There is no question that Braunstein did those things. His lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, admits as much. But Gottlieb is trying to get his client off by convincing the jury that, having been earlier dumped by Larkworthy, Braunstein was helpless to control himself.
Gottlieb's spin: Why, Larkworthy had such a powerful hold on this poor demented man that he was driven to replicate their kinky-sex rituals. If the jury buys this, Peter Braunstein, a truly dangerous pervert, will have the right to walk free.
By the book, this is all legal.
And deeply shameful.
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