Now we’re on to hearsay? Sorry but we’re way out ahead of ourselves and vastly overthinking this.
We know close to nothing about the actual allegations, but from the limited things we have heard from credible sources, an educated guess can be made. A woman reported that she and TSJ had an interaction, at some point that physical aspects of that interaction exceeded the bounds of her consent (according to her), and there was at a minimum some kind of forcible touching where there was penetration (again, according to her). If an accuser is willing to swear to those allegations and there’s no determinative contrary evidence that would demonstrate the allegation is false, that is sufficient to sustain a criminal charge in pretty much any jurisdiction.
Maybe that sounds unfair and “me-too” run amuck to many of you reading this, but most criminal charges involving person-to-person crime are not initially supported by additional evidence beyond the sworn statement of the accuser. The test of whether the claims are true occurs during the discovery, pre trial, and trial stages. People get charged with crimes and the charges are later dropped or significantly reduced all the time. It’s not because of police or prosecutor misconduct as a general rule. It’s because there are ambiguities in life and the full truth of anything is often not clear.
In a case like this, if it ever went to trial, the witnesses (other than the accuser) and the “evidence” so to speak is not going to have direct bearing on whether the crime did or did not happen. It’s mostly just going to be corroborative. E.g., the victim claims to have been sitting alone with the defendant at X location at X time and yes, the “witnesses” and “evidence” supports that. In other words, do the ancillary aspects of the story check out more for one side or the other. Which goes to credibility. But it won’t prove or disprove the case. The detectives are doing their due dilligence looking into all that. But it’s ultimately going to come down to whether the accuser is believable and could convince a jury of that.
I will fault the Kansas DA in one respect however. It is really unfair to drop a charge like this on a high profile college athlete knowing how inflammatory it is and how widespread the news will be publicized without following up that charge with a public statement that at least clarifies the basic nature of what has been investigated and is being alleged. There is no gag order on DA’s offices that prevents them from issuing a statement. And in fact DA’s offices issue press releases about arrests that were just made and people who were charged every day. When you click on an article that says “Local Man Arrested For Driving Intoxicated After Crashing Into Parked Cars On Oak Street,” or “Woman Charged With Embezzling $100k From Charity Fund” or whatever, where did the reporter get that information? From a DA or police department press release. Abs it’s not different for sex crime cases. Obviously, the accuser’s identity will be withheld, but the basic nature of what is being alleged is not protected information. It does a great disservice to everyone involved with the case and the public at large to charge someone with such an insidious crime and then provide no explanation whatsoever as to what’s going on. They’re literally inviting just the worst imaginable speculation to run rampant all over and cause the most long term damage possible. It’s extremely bad practice and has to undermine anyone’s confidence that the people at that office are professionals who understand what they’re doing.
