The alleged rape and sodomizing of a 14-year-old high school girl by two illegal immigrants in the school bathroom has rocked the community of Montgomery County, Maryland., The strategy of the law firm that has been retained to defend one of the alleged rapists, Henry Sanchez-Millian, is likely to inflame tensions. The proposed defense is that the rape was consensual. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson had one of the partners of the firm, David Moyse, on his show to explain the approach.
Usually, Carlson uses an expression of incredulousness that is often more eloquent than anything a human being can say when a guest says absurd things.
But, in this case, he suggested that the lawyers might want to see to the health of their souls if they pursue this defense. The guest, to his credit, seemed extremely uncomfortable under the withering line of questioning that Carlson was subjecting him to.
Trashing the victim as a defense against rape is a long-discredited Legal strategy, and some states have rape shield laws that prohibit the practice. Hillary Clinton infamously libeled a 12-year-old rape victim named Kathy Shelton in 1975 Arkansas to get her attacker off for time served. Shelton, now a middle-aged woman, joined in the campaign to deny Clinton the presidency in 2016.
The lawyers for Sanchez-Millian are claiming that no physical evidence exists nor did the alleged rape victim cry out when she was being attacked in the high school bathroom.
Both assertions are being disputed by local police and witnesses who claim to have heard screaming from inside the bathroom.
If law enforcement has forensic evidence of the rape and witnesses who can testify to the screaming, the law firm’s strategy is likely to collapse during a trial. The alleged rapist’s lawyers certainly are taking the extreme risk of losing in the court of public opinion.
Certainly, Moyse did not do the cause of his firm any favors by his erratic defense of the defense strategy. The better approach might be to pursue a plea bargain, though it may be too late for that now that the lawyers have blamed the victim.
