Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/16/man-accused-of-writing-so-i-raped-you-to-victim-finally-arrested.html
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To quote Cheese and Chong: Bailiff whack his pee-pee.
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I remember when the story originally broke in regards to the social media post and I’m really glad they caught this absolute piece of shit. I hope the victim finds closure and the healing they need.
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This reminds me of a story from LSU with another rapist that also fled to France to avoid a reluctant prosecution that let him leave the country. It is infuriating that our criminal justice system that is overly aggressive in all other cases has to be forced to prosecute white rapists
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In late December 2015, days after she returned from Seville, Keeler learned he would not be filing charges. The two-year window to sue her attacker had closed.
“So, basically, you’re telling me that anybody that rapes a girl in Adams County gets a pass?” Keeler thought.
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According to his records, his office filed 10 rape charges in the county from 2013 to 2019 involving adult victims…Yet Gettysburg College alone received 95 rape complaints during that period
So yeah, she was exactly right - the prosecutors don’t bother to even file charges in 90-something percent of reported cases (unless presumably the suspect confesses in writing, or similarly rare circumstances) - rapists in that county, like many others, are “given a pass.” It’s functionally an unenforced law.
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Also, after the prosecutor declined to file charges in 2015, they destroyed her rape kit, because that was the policy at the time. So even now, she may have trouble getting justice.
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I ran out of words, because rage, but yeah - although he was arrested in France, I still don’t see any indication that anyone on the US side is all that interested in prosecuting him. They weren’t interested when they still had the rape kit, and the suspect was still in the area and they knew who he was. Even the written confession doesn’t seem to mean much - they’re already making excuses about how they have to prove he wrote it, and it’s technical and gosh, it’s so difficult…
Students report rapes to the school, that passes on some reports to the police, who take some reports and pass them on to prosecutors, who just ignore almost all of them, unless there’s a written confession and a ton of public scrutiny, at which point it goes back to “we have a detective working on it” (and maybe it doesn’t go any further than that). Meanwhile everyone who saw what happened in previous cases realize there’s no point in reporting it in the first place.
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He’s got a pretty unique name. Google him and he comes up all over the place; as a writer for some known media outlets. Posting youTube videos, essentially working without this seeming to influence his ability to get work and respect.
Someone should tip-off #metoo in France and pressure the authorities to do something about it.
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They’ve already arrested him. What else would you like them to do?
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Even horrible people have a right to a fair trial.
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Even Trump!
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I don’t get it. What are you divining about this guy from the photo?
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He literally skipped on bail to avoid trial… so, I don’t know, maybe there should be consequences to having multiple credible accusations of sexual assault and then breaking a promise to appear in court by escaping the country.
He is in custody in France and a court will decide whether to extradite him to the United States, where the alleged offences took place. France’s responsibility for bringing him to justice will end once he has been extradited.
The “consequences” you are asking for will be felt once he is back home and is put on trial. As @danimagoo said, what more do you expect the French authorities to do?
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I don’t believe he ever did that. There is a warrant for his arrest, but not for failure to appear. Look, I want justice, and I hope this guy is charged with rape and convicted, but we can’t ignore rules and laws designed to protect people’s rights just because we are certain the person is guilty. If we start allowing those rules to be selectively followed, it’s not going to be white men like this asshole who pay the price.
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That’s already true, of course, but we should do all we can to make the criminal justice system be actually just. 
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Something I missed in the coverage is that he was arrested in France due to an unrelated possession of stolen goods case. So it seems like, as far as the rape case is concerned, the only thing that’s changed is that they happen to know where he is at the moment (and presumably could more easily extradite him) until he gets released. That somehow just makes me more angry.
Nope, the arrest warrant was only issued in 2021, after he made the Facebook posts while he was living somewhere in Europe - they had no idea where he was. In 2013, when the crime was committed, the school, police and prosecutor all declined to do anything about it, and no charges were filed.
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Based on what the French prosecutor said, extradition proceedings are or will be underway.
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What I’ve read is they can hold him for up to 60 days* “which is the amount of time American judicial authorities have to file an official extradition request.” I’m not seeing any evidence the request has actually been made yet, though - only that the French prosecutors expect it to be made, given the international arrest warrant issued. But that presumably requires the will (and competence) of American prosecutors, which… But they were shamed by news coverage enough to issue the arrest warrant in the first place,so unless someone screws up, I expect it will happen.
*Except he was apparently detained last month… I’m not sure at what point the detention related to the stolen good case turns into detention waiting for extradition.
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