Karl-Anthony Towns and Jordyn Woods were browsing Zillow for Milwaukee homes during trade rumors involving Giannis Antetokounmpo back in January
“We were on Zillow looking at Milwaukee. Like, ‘Hey, babe, I went around town, and it’s not that bad. This could be a good spot right here.’”
(Via @JonKrawczynski, h/t @TheNBABase)
I’ve held my tongue for a while, but being from Ithaca, a Cornell alum and a former criminal defense attorney, and seeing how out of hand this story has gotten, I am compelled to comment on the lawsuit alleging a gang rape at Cornell.
I cannot purport to know what happened one night at a frat house in October 2024—any more than you can. However, here are a few basic principles much of the public appears not to understand.
A lawsuit is a series of allegations made by the plaintiff. It is not proof. Allegations made in lawsuit turn out to be untrue all the time, either due to mistake, intentional misrepresentation, or flat-out lies. Unfortunately, people often misrepresent the truth in lawsuits due to monetary and other incentives. In the past, there have been instances of fabricated rape allegations. About a decade ago, Rolling Stone published a piece about an allegedly horrendous rape that occurred on the UVA campus that garnered similiar outrage to this incident and turned out to be entirely fabricated.
I have read the DA’s press release and the lawsuit itself. According to the cited portions of Jane Doe’s statements to police shortly after the incident, crediting it as entirely true, there was simply no basis to charge the alleged perpetrators. Everyone involved was apparently extremely intoxicated. Jane Doe gave consent to the encounter at the beginning and does not explicitly recall any activity occurring after consent was withdrawn. It is possible that, due to her inability to recall, she had not given consent for some of the activity towards the end, but possible is not a basis for a district attorney to file criminal charges.
Her current lawsuit is fairly consistent with her initial statement—except it omits the portions where she told the police she gave consent. Is she lying? Did she later remember something she didn’t initially? Is she mistaken? I do not know—and again, neither do you.
What I do know is that if we are to live in a society of laws, going after the jobs and reputations young men who may have participated in an entirely consensual incident, and the DA who made the correct decision not to charge, is mindless mob justice. We actually want prosecutors to decline to seek indictments when there’s insufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
None of this is to say I approve of what happened as reported in the initial statement to police. That’s a cultural and parenting issue, though, not a matter for law enforcement. I encourage people to let the DA’s office handle the case going forward, and not to participate in the witch hunt against either the prosecutors involved or the young men who, as of now, have not been charged or shown to have committed any crime.
@JeninYounesEsq Gross and regrettable but not illegal is a category many people are uncomfortable with, but it may be the right category for this incident.
@DanHollaway Your wife take penis up her butt from dudes that aren’t you and you’re going to lecture me on spirituality? You are literally married to Jezebel.
@Bigggtittyyymom@RobLovato9@ahm_victor 150k federal, 2 million total incarcerations. Also at some point you have to ask what crimes the white people are in there for— I’m sure whites are over represented in federal prison due to the nature of their crimes such as fraud or tax evasion. Any black dudes gay stay mad
@Bigggtittyyymom@RobLovato9@ahm_victor I’m saying you simply showing the federal prison statistics isn’t the full picture. For example, at the individual state level whites and black people make up roughly the same percentage of inmates and the state level is 16 times larger than the fed prison population.
@RageMen4@StanSmith226377@RobLovato9@ahm_victor Yeah but it’s like if I posted a video of Fleece Johnson Booty Warrior saying some heinous shit and I said, “man black dudes hella gay.” Like yeah sure that one is, but Fleece ain’t the average black man. These dudes busting on their homies ain’t the average white dude.