Last Wednesday, on the eve of Catherine Crowell Webb`s courtroom recantation, closing arguments were being heard in another rape trial in Cook County Circuit Court, that of Rodney Willis, a 22-year-old Chicagoan charged with the home invasion and sexual assault of a 55-year-old woman.
Facing Willis` jurors, assistant public defender Guy Hoch argued:
”Saying it is so doesn`t make it so. We had a woman in this county who claimed to have been raped, and a man went to jail.”
In his opening statement a day earlier, Hoch had been even more direct, referring by name to Gary Dotson, the man Webb says she wrongly accused of rape, in a flagrant courtroom reminder that sometimes ”victims” lie.
Though Willis was found guilty, Hoch`s comments confirmed a growing fear on the part of judges, prosecutors, rape counselors and rape victims alike: that Webb`s much-publicized recantation will be used to taint the testimony of victims who are telling the truth.
”It`s a terrible, terrible time to be a rape victim,” said Barbara Engel, rape counselor and director of women`s services at the Loop YWCA.
”I knew when I read the first story about Webb that she would give momentum to a myth we`ve spent a lot of time trying to diminish, the myth that women often lie about rape. I would not want to be a victim with a trial coming up now.”
”My big fear,” said Dickelle Fonda, Engel`s assistant, ”is that this will set the rape education movement back 10 years.”
Since 1971, when the country`s first rape crisis line was opened in Cambridge, Mass., efforts to raise the public`s awareness have resulted in the steady dismantling of many myths and prejudices about rape. The notions that women invited assault, enjoyed it or commonly lied about being attacked were generally replaced by an understanding of rape as a violent crime.
Webb`s public change of heart, however, has invited skepticism among those who process rape cases–particularly cases, like Webb`s, in which the victim is the only identifying witness.
According to a prosecutor in the Cook County state`s attorney`s office, who herself was raped in 1969, cases like Webb`s were difficult to prove even before the publicized recantation. ”So many times there is only one person`s word against another and there is not corroborating evidence,” she said.
”Jurors, lawyers and maybe even some judges who have some misgivings will be mindful of this case,” said Judge Gino DiVito, a former prosecutor.
”This is unfortunate for two reasons. First, it undermines some of the good work that rape crisis people have done in bringing the crime of rape to the attention of the public. But it may also serve to victimize the rape victim a second time.”
A 23-year-old woman, who is going to court in May to testify against a man she charged with raping her last November, said she is ”angry at that woman,” Webb, for raising doubts about the credibility of victims` testimony. ”She not only hurt Dotson and his family, but she has hurt me and any other woman in the future who will go to court with a rape case,” said the woman, who, because she is charging an acquaintance with rape, has faced skepticism even within her family.
”Every policeman, every state`s attorney, every juror on a case like this will think of this woman and wonder, `Is this one telling the truth or lying?` ”
The Dotson case was not discussed during jury deliberations in the Willis rape trial last week, one jury member said afterward, but the defense attorney`s mentions of it gave the juror pause. ”It had to enter your mind,” he said. ”All you have to do is read a headline or watch the news.”
Mary Scott Boria, director of the Chicago Sexual Assault Services Network, a coalition of 30 city agencies, said teenage rape victims are most frequently doubted ”because the stereotype is that teenagers lie.” Boria said Webb`s case is a haunting reflection of that stereotype and may make it more difficult to convict a rapist whose victim was a teenager.
”The myth is that teens lie about rape in order to cover up their sexual activity,” Boria said. ”That is precisely what (Webb) said she did. We have such a hard time getting fair treatment for teenage victims in the system. That`s the group that will suffer the most due to this case.”
In 1977 Webb, then 16, told police she had been raped and identified Dotson as her attacker, resulting in his conviction and a sentence of 25 to 50 years. She now says the charge was fabricated out of fears that she was pregnant after having sex with another boy, and in court last Thursday she testified that she had lied. Though Dotson was released on bond after that testimony, he and Webb will return to court Thursday for continued
deliberations on the question of his guilt or innocence.
Although the Dotson case has engendered concern about the potential effect on victims, it has been greeted less warily by those who work with rape defendants. Lorna Propes, a former prosecutor practicing as a criminal defense lawyer, said Webb`s public confession has brought welcome attention to the accused.
”In the last several years, all of the media attention given to rape has been given to victims` rights, and rightly so,” said Propes, who, in a recent Chicago Lawyer poll, was voted by local judges as the attorney they would most recommend to a defendant in a rape case.
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”But in all of this, some real concerns about the validity of eyewitness identifications and witnesses` stories have been overlooked. There should be an equal concern with protecting the rights of the accused.”
Propes, who doesn`t believe the Dotson case will decrease the odds of convicting defendants in ”legitimate cases,” said the publicity attending Webb`s recantation can only result in more thoughtful deliberations.
”If it causes a jury to be extra sensitive to their duties and extra careful about their responsibilities, I don`t think anyone would have an objection to that,” she said. ”This heightened awareness couldn`t hurt anyone.”
Still, Engel of the Loop YWCA said the most pernicious effect of the case may be felt not by those victims who go to court but by those who don`t because they have been scared into silence. A recent survey contended that half of all rapes are not reported, a finding Engel calls conservative.
”It`s enormously painful for a victim not to be believed,” Engel said.
”I`m concerned this case will inhibit legitimate victims from coming forward for fear–enhanced fear–that they will not be believed.”
But Hoch, who may have been the first lawyer to exploit the Dotson case in defense of a client, believes the issue will die after the saga passes from the headlines.
”In six months, `Dotson` will only be a car,” Hoch said. ”You`ve got to strike while the iron is hot.”