Sexual assault lawsuit filed against William Kennedy Smith

[wndycty]

Sexual assault lawsuit filed against William Kennedy Smith
By ABC7Chicago.com / City News Service
August 25, 2004 (Chicago, IL) — A former personnel assistant to Chicago doctor William Kennedy Smith filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing the nephew of the late John F. Kennedy of sexually assaulting her inside his North Side home in 1999.



The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court Wednesday afternoon, names Smith as the defendant and seeks in excess of $50,000. The plaintiff's attorney, Kevin O'Reilly, could not be reached for comment.
-snip-

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/082504_ns_kennedy_smith.html

[Spinzonner]

1. Why does it take 5 years to decide to file these things

Maybe Karl needs something else to take up time on the evening news ....

[wicket]

3. Sometimes it takes a while for a victim to come forward

They may feel ashamed or worry about the attacks they may receive, especially if they are accusing a semi-famous person. Maybe? :shrug:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied....

A liitle while to come forward...


Perhaps.....


But five years is more than a little while...

[IndianaGreen]

13. The man has a history of sexual assault

and despite the testimony of Uncle Teddy, and the rest of the Kennedy clan, I believed the woman behind the blue dot.

[FlaGranny]

23. You wouldn't have believed her if you knew her!

That's all I'll say about it.

[bluedog]

27. same wave

I thought the same thing..they are trying to get Kennedys name back in the news....after all he is a Kerry supporter.......and as far as this girl.well.seems like she waited a long time to bring this matter up..maybe getting short of cash.......and wants 15 minutes of fame......per ROVE

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Better late than never, I guess.

[DU9598]

4. Illinois Lawyers???

What's the statute of limitations on this? It would be untimely if filed in Iowa.

[private_ryan]

8. she already filed it

my guess is that the statue of limitations has not expired yet.
How do you prove you didn't rape someone 5 years ago???????????????????

[AP]

12. Same way you try to prove they did: oral evidence

both direct (what the parties say about the event) and circumstancial (what they said to their friends at the time) and evidence of how they behaved.

Maybe Smith sent a note apologizing to her. Maybe she told a friend she had a good time with him.

Who knows? You have to look at the pleadings and pay attention to the procedings.

[private_ryan]

21. if he apologized then that's it

but if it's he said, she said, he's history regardless of what really happened. He was accused once of the same thing (doesn't matter if he was acquited) and if she cries on the stand he's guilty.

[AP]

26. so you think there wouldn't be any private ryans on the jury?

[Hepburn]

18. Same with CA ...

...civil and criminal actions would be barred by the statute of limitations.

I have NO clue on the SOL for Illinois, however.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. What, again?

[0007]

7. Hmmmm this doesn't pass the smell test

[Fovea]

9. Smith is the new Peterson

Like orange is the new black.
I am inclined to think poorly of Mr. Smith.
But I will do my best to withhold judgement until judgement is rendered.

[yardwork]

10. The timing of this stinks

Days before the RNC the nephew of Ted Kennedy is accused of yet another sexual assault? That allegedly occurred five years ago.

She had to come forward now - this week?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. Shades of Paula Jones...

Except since they can't frame either of the Presidential team, they go after a Kennedy instead.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Please, William Kennedy Smith did commit rape

but got away with it thanks to his high power attorney and the perjurious testimony from the Kennedy clan.

This is not a Paula Jones type of situation.

[notbush]

15. Rush Limbaugh's attourney

Thankyou Mr. Black.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

16. I'm not suggesting he isn't a scumbag, but

don't you find it interesting that this comes out NOW?

[Hepburn]

19. I watched that trial all the way through...

...and although Roy Black is VERY skilled, the forensic evidence cooked the alleged victim's goose. She had made allegations about Kennedy Smith using some sort of force on her dress and also about dragging her while she was wearing the dress on or through grass. The forensics said her story was bull shit. She also testified like a total crock, too.

Sorry to disagree with you, but IMO, it was the evidence that brought in a defense verdict in that case. And it did not help that the victim came off like a nut case on the witness stand and could not keep her stories straight.

[FlaGranny]

25. And how about sneaking

back into his house with her girlfriend to steal a vase to prove she was there? I'm afraid I know too much about this gal. Reminds me of a 15-year-old girl I went to high school with. Slept with every guy she could. Bragged out it to the rest of us. Even got caught in the back seat of a car in the school parking lot. Well, she got pregnant and told her parents that she was raped. They went to the police and two 17-year-olds went to prison. Any of a dozen boys could have been the "father." I guess the rest of the boys were lucky she didn't name all of them. She probably picked those two because she didn't like them as much as the others.

Rape is horrible. Falsely accusing someone of rape is horrible and makes it more difficult for real rape to be taken seriously.

[Norquist Nemesis]

17. Second time should be a snap!

I remember watching the first trial on CourtTV. It seems like Roy Black defended him then, too. They'll try to rake her over the coals in Kobe fashion.

But this IS a second time being charged with the same crime. It won't be as easy to use the same playbook, IMO. That first trial got huge publicity and people remember it.

[WhereIsMyFreedom]

20. Will Smith is JFK's nephew?

Not much resemblance.

[noonwitch]

22. Interesting that she is suing him and not filing criminal charges

I didn't find the witness in the first trial to be very credible, obviously, neither did a jury.

I do think (flame me if you will) that to a certain extent, a woman is responsible for getting drunk and putting herself in a position for that kind of thing to happen. I'm not saying that the guy is right in his actions, but I don't know if it's always something for the criminal justice system to deal with. When large quantities of alcohol are involved, how much can the woman's memory be trusted, especially in regards to consent?

I wonder if the prosecutor turned down criminal charges in this case, or if she never tried to file charges and now figures she can get some money out of him.

[redqueen]

24. Rather than 'interesting', the word I would use would be 'telling'. n/t

[lpricanprynces]

28. She had a sexual relationship w/ him AFTERWARD

Yes, this woman admitts to having a sexual relationship with him AFTER she alleges he raped her. Her attorney tries to spin this fact as "it's typical for that to happen after an acquaintaince rape". She was not a child, she was a full fledged adult who then chose to have sex with someone she claimed raped her. How sick is that?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040827/ap_on_re_us/kennedy_smith_lawsuit_9