'Rape' a loaded word, judge says
Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront said in an order last week he decided to keep the word “rape” out of a sexual assault trial because it could unfairly bias jurors against the defendant.
Cheuvront has come under fire from, among others, a national women’s advocacy group and the woman at the center of the sexual assault case for his decision to bar the word and other terms from the trial of Pamir Safi.
Safi, 34, is accused of sexually assaulting then-University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Tory Bowen in his Lincoln apartment the morning of Oct. 31, 2004. Safi has said he and Bowen had consensual sex.
The Lancaster County Attorney’s Office said Bowen was too intoxicated to give consent.
In a Lancaster County District Court order Thursday, Cheuvront said “rape,” to many people, implies a vicious, violent sexual assault. He said prosecutors in Safi’s case are not alleging he threatened or used force against Bowen.
“The issue is one of consent and knowledge as defined by the statutes of the State of Nebraska,” Cheuvront wrote.
“Because of the nature of this particular case, this court concludes that the use of the possible inflammatory term “rape” is unduly prejudicial and unnecessary.”
Cheuvront noted he is permitting use of the term “sexual assault” in the case.
Bowen, of Washington, D.C., has been publicly critical of the word ban and has said it forces her to testify using unnatural, clinical terms to describe a traumatic experience. The ban also received national attention, including from a Chicago-based women’s advocacy group that in July organized a national protest against Cheuvront’s word order.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf openly expressed puzzlement at the ban, writing he could not understand why Cheuvront issued the order. The comment came in a footnote in Kopf’s order dismissing a federal lawsuit filed by Bowen against Cheuvront.
In a subsequent footnote in the order, Kopf qualified the earlier comment by stating he had never tried a sexual assault case.
Safi’s first trial ended in November with a deadlocked jury. Cheuvront declared a second mistrial in July during jury selection. The state intends to prosecute the case again, probably some time next year.
Cheuvront ruled on a number of motions filed by prosecutors and Safi’s lawyers before the start of the first trial last year. The motions concerned a range of issues the attorneys wanted included in or excluded from the trial.
Rather than make the rulings in a formal, written order, Cheuvront ruled from the bench, the normal procedure, he said, for Lancaster County District judges.
Cheuvront on Thursday stated the rulings in the written order, without explaining why he is now diverging from the judicial district’s general practice.
Reach Clarence Mabin at 473-7234 or cmabin@journalstar.com.
Cheuvront has come under fire from, among others, a national women’s advocacy group and the woman at the center of the sexual assault case for his decision to bar the word and other terms from the trial of Pamir Safi.
Safi, 34, is accused of sexually assaulting then-University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Tory Bowen in his Lincoln apartment the morning of Oct. 31, 2004. Safi has said he and Bowen had consensual sex.
The Lancaster County Attorney’s Office said Bowen was too intoxicated to give consent.
In a Lancaster County District Court order Thursday, Cheuvront said “rape,” to many people, implies a vicious, violent sexual assault. He said prosecutors in Safi’s case are not alleging he threatened or used force against Bowen.
“The issue is one of consent and knowledge as defined by the statutes of the State of Nebraska,” Cheuvront wrote.
“Because of the nature of this particular case, this court concludes that the use of the possible inflammatory term “rape” is unduly prejudicial and unnecessary.”
Cheuvront noted he is permitting use of the term “sexual assault” in the case.
Bowen, of Washington, D.C., has been publicly critical of the word ban and has said it forces her to testify using unnatural, clinical terms to describe a traumatic experience. The ban also received national attention, including from a Chicago-based women’s advocacy group that in July organized a national protest against Cheuvront’s word order.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf openly expressed puzzlement at the ban, writing he could not understand why Cheuvront issued the order. The comment came in a footnote in Kopf’s order dismissing a federal lawsuit filed by Bowen against Cheuvront.
In a subsequent footnote in the order, Kopf qualified the earlier comment by stating he had never tried a sexual assault case.
Safi’s first trial ended in November with a deadlocked jury. Cheuvront declared a second mistrial in July during jury selection. The state intends to prosecute the case again, probably some time next year.
Cheuvront ruled on a number of motions filed by prosecutors and Safi’s lawyers before the start of the first trial last year. The motions concerned a range of issues the attorneys wanted included in or excluded from the trial.
Rather than make the rulings in a formal, written order, Cheuvront ruled from the bench, the normal procedure, he said, for Lancaster County District judges.
Cheuvront on Thursday stated the rulings in the written order, without explaining why he is now diverging from the judicial district’s general practice.
Reach Clarence Mabin at 473-7234 or cmabin@journalstar.com.
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