Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, is having a rough year. To add to the problems she caused herself several months ago by quashing a corruption investigation into fellow Democrats in Philadelphia, her office has just gone to court and blamed a woman who was raped in a state prison for what happened to her.
A 24-year-old typist working at a state prison in Bellefont, Pa., was raped in 2013 when a man thrice convicted of sex-related crimes came into her office pretending to empty the trash can. He grabbed the typist from behind, choked her until she was unconscious and raped her for 27 minutes. She had tried to blow a defense whistle, but no one heard.
The victim sued the state and prison officials, noting that she had repeatedly complained to her superior about a lack of security in her office, twice and specifically about inmate Omar Best — the man who would rape her. Her complaints about Best came just one week before the attack. She was told Best would no longer be allowed in her office.
Best was convicted of the rape and is now serving a life sentence. But in response to the victim’s civil lawsuit, a senior deputy attorney general in Kane’s office asserted that the woman had “acted in a manner which in whole or in part contributed to the events.”
Outrage ensued.
“Worse than [victim-blaming], it’s an attempt to embarrass the victim,” Clifford Rieders, the woman’s attorney, told CNN.
On Wednesday, Kane’s office released a statement saying it had to consider all possible defenses, including “contributory negligence is one such defense….This initial filing should not necessarily be interpreted as meaning this defense will be pursued throughout the entire case.”
Despite thus defending the language in the complaint, the statement tries to distance Kane herself from its contents. “Attorney General Kane is disappointed that she was not made aware of this matter prior to the filing, and was saddened to learn that the filing implied that the victim somehow contributed to this crime,” according to the statement obtained by CNN.
Kane was once talked about as a potential candidate against Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in 2016, but she is still recovering from accusation s of political favoritism for ending a corruption probe that would have ensnared fellow Democrats earlier this year.
When the Philadelphia Inquirer reported the story of her ending the probe earlier this year, she hired a lawyer and threatened the paper with a defamation lawsuit.
