FACEBOOK 2019
Camille Jones Etheridge I saw a psychologist after it happened. Here are her notes.Impressions:
a. I believe her. By the time Camille shared this experience with me, I had worked with her in psychotherapy for a year. During that time, I experienced her as forthright, honest, and willing to discuss hard things about her childhood without blaming anyone. She was angry with her mother, and open about it, but more than willing to accept responsibility for her own life and choices since then. I found Camille articulate, clear, and humble—a survivor who had developed a remarkable sense of integrity and diligence regardless of a rough upbringing. While she could be hard on herself, she maintained a sense of humor and inner goodness. She had worked hard to give her son a happy and safe life without depending on welfare. “I didn’t want him raised like I was raised”.
b. Motivation: Camille had nothing to gain and quite a bit to lose by reporting a sexual assault by a police officer who was well known in her community. It took courage, the same courage that she had developed surviving her difficult childhood, to file the report. Also, Camille’s report of her bewilderment and confusion about why Bobby would do this to her also supports her story. She liked him. She had every reason to believe that he liked her and would want to pursue a relationship with her. There is no motivation for a revenge report.
c. Her story has remained consistent over time. While she remembered a little more detail as she talked, she neither added to nor embellished her story. **She provided the types of insignificant/unnecessary detail that add credibility and believability in reporting assault:
-sitting up in bed after the assault (whether she sat up or not makes no difference in evaluating the credibility of the assault).
-Bobby had his back to her afterwards (again, an insignificant detail).
d. Camille did not attempt to “fill in the blanks”. She was comfortable telling what she remembered, and comfortable letting the blanks in memory be there.
This is also consistent with being drugged. Memory can be completely blank in some areas, but quite vivid, momentarily, in others. This is sometimes called “fragmented memory”. Also, something like a sexual assault is seared into the brain, grips one’s attention, and is more apt to be remembered in some detail, even when drugged.
e. Camille’s report of her symptoms after the second sip of her drink matches symptoms of the so called “date rape” drugs, especially GHB (sweating, nausea with a fairly quick onset, faster than Rohypnol). Camille is not sophisticated medically and would not have known what symptoms to “make up” if she was fabricating.
f. Camille genuinely struggled with her effort to regain her memory of events that night, even hoping for “camera evidence”. This is strong support for victim veracity. Assault victims who are fabricating would never suggest looking for cameras that might provide evidence of an event that didn’t happen.
g. Physical evidence. The medical report speaks for itself—rectal tearing and bruising, along with her other symptoms, are consistent with trauma to the rectum.
Final Comments:
Camille delayed reporting this incident for about two months, a time frame that is common among assault victims today. During this period, victims typically think they can “put it out of their minds”; they struggle with potential consequences if they report; and they eventually come to realize that “this isn’t going to go away or get better”. Their anger and sense of betrayal only increases, especially if they are facing reminders of the event (intrusive memories, preoccupation, difficulty concentrating, physical symptoms, etc.). Camille experienced all of this.
Finally, while Camille and Bobby had initially gone on a date, this must not be construed as “date rape”. Camille did consent to go on an overnight date with Bobby. She did consent to stay in a hotel with him. But she most certainly did not consent to having her anus penetrated while she was unconscious. There is nothing ‘date-like’ about having an expectation of a fun night out, then being drugged and waking up in pain with a man you thought you could trust penetrating your anus until it bled. It was a violent sexual assault that has left physical and emotional scars—by someone who meets the qualifications of a violent sex offender.
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