Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! seriously! What a complete travesty! This is almost reminiscent of the Jena 6 trials. It's disgusting.
Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! The Story of Eric Frimpong- Justice denied.. http://www.independent.com/news/2008/jan/24/story-eric-frimpong/ I hope MLS steps in and help this poor kid out of this nightmare. I don't mind helping this kid if BS set-up a Fund raising event. I am sure there are lawyers among us can help this kid .
Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! The sad thing is this happens all the time in IV. The IVFP have blatant disregard for your rights if you do not know them. I was harassed constantly by the IVFP whilst I lived there. My all time favourite time was when I was with my buddy coming back from playing around of golf at ghetto meadows and we were pulled over in front of the post office where my buddy was dropping off his tax return because we "looked suspicious" I find it hard to believe that two upper middle class white kids with shaggy hair in a $40k BMW convertible with golf clubs and wearing polo shirts look suspicious... I called them because someone broke into my apartment, and it took two days and three phone calls before someone bothered to come to my apartment which was on Pardall the same street as IVFP and about 50 yards away. It just so happens that it was on a weekend and they were "too busy" to have someone come over to take a statement. and by two busy I mean there were to concerned with handing out MIPs to freshmen. Yet at the same time they ignore the dirty little secret of the area with is the growth of Latino gangs such as the G13. And the fact that they rail roaded Eric is not a surprise... The sad thing is even after everything that happened there in 1970 very little has changed.
Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! this is amazing... and this kid doesnt even have a lawyer.... at least a court appointed lawyer for god sake... No DNA on the "victim" from the soccer player, and hes locked away... supposedly raped at the beach, yet she has no sand on her at all.... bless the soccer community/boosters out there that did what they could for him, but he needs a lot more help now it looks like... any Big Soccer lawyers care to chime in on all the holes in this?
Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! And yet. From the same paper: http://independent.com/news/2007/dec/17/frimpong-found-guilty-rape/ Perhaps since the other thread was locked this thing should be moved to another forum.DNA evidence takes this beyond 'he said, she said' as if 'he' always has more credibility than 'she'. sadly, 'he' did not take the stand. sidebar: though I am not suprised seeing a bunch of guys on big soccer supporting a convicted rapist. I've been convinced by the mysogynistic posts on big soccer lately about things like the women's soccer league, and theverbal abuse of women sports writers-andrea canales or commentators-judy foudy, or the abuse hurled at me daily. seeing you guys take this up as some sort of 'cause' and playing the race card does not suprise me in the least. strangely i'd hazard a guess if this guy were a basketball player or had the victim been black most of you wouldn't have bothered/cared.
Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! With all due respect, I don't recall the victim's race being identified in the article, yet my anger was still there. I really enjoy your posts on BS Jade, but I competely disagree with you here. Just because he had her DNA on his genitals does not mean he raped. There was no evidence of a struggle, which makes me believe that if anything, this was consentual sex. Evidence was withheld, the accused was manipulated and due process was not in practice here. That is a travesty. We've seen this card played before. And lastly, by hazarding a guess of our standards is committing the same act of stereotyping that you are accusing us of. No, they weren't basketball players, but need I remind you of the Duke Lacrosse case? Respectfully yours.
Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! to be honest, we don't know much here you can throw out that either side is correct, but we don't have all the facts i know that's something that we should never admit but that would be called the truth and to jump on either side without knowing the whole truth is a bit absurd, although we do know a jury convicted him... we just haven't seen what they've seen
Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! The fact that her DNA was on his genitals means that, as a tactical matter, he had to take the stand (or have some other witness who could testify to a consensual encounter) or else he was in big trouble. I agree that there's not enough here to jump to a conclusion either way. I do know that prosecutors can be overzealous, but by the same token, this newspaper writer is basically accusing the prosecuting witness, the prosecutors, the judge, 12 jurors, and the police of a railroad job with not a lot of hard evidence either. This is not a good example of media restraint. That said, I work for a major California law firm and I know a lot of big firms are involved in providing pro bono legal assistance (especially in high profile cases like these were there is the potential for an actual innocence habeas petition), so if the story gets out there, someone may pick this up. Edit: I also wanted to add the fact that the ordeal of going through a rape trial as the prosecuting witness (victim) is a very difficult and trying ordeal. So to assume a woman is lying about a rape is really against the odds. A woman who has the courage to press charges through trial and testify is much more likely than not telling the truth. That's not to say Frimpong is guilty, I just wanted to mention that there shouldn't be a rush to assume anyone has been railroaded, because if you want to play the speculation game on guilt, someone convicted of rape is much, much, much more likely to be guilty than innocent.
Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! Jade you are way out of line. First of all, I can say with one hundred percent certainty that you have no understanding of the dynamics of IV nor how it is laid out, or the out right incompitance of foot patrol and SBSD, whom are only slightly more effective than the keystone cops. But let me break this down for you since you have never been to UCSB or IV. 1) The house in question is on the 6500 block of Oceanside DP and lets be honest there is a 50 cliff that one would have to scale to get to the beach. Every year there are at least 3 people that get too drunk and fall to their deaths. Now I had a bunch of friends that lived at 6507 DP and they rigged up this rope to climb down to the beach in stead of walking to the beach access stairs in the park next to the Sigma Nu senior house which I believe is 6527 or of there abouts, the next closest access point is at the bottomeof the embarcadero loop by Super Cucas, which is where embarcadero runs into DP at 6550 ish. But getting back to the rope at 6507 Its not easy to do sober I did it drunk once and damn near killed myself, so a girl who I can certain was either wearing heels or uggs with a BAC of .30 blacked out would have had no chance of making it down the cliff. so they would have had to walk to one of those access points, and on feb 16th which was a friday night there would have been no shortage of people walking up and down DP going to one of over a 100 parties that takes place every friday and saturday night. 2) The young woman in question had a fight with her boyfriend earlier in the evening, after which she set out to a party on DP before meeting Eric. I am not disputing that they had sex. And I am sure it was as concentual as it can be with two people who are extreamly drunk. I have blacked out in IV because I was having "too much fun" woke up the next morning in either the dorms or some strange apartment somewhere in IV next to some girl that I could barely remember her name and think oh god is this chick going to call foul because she regrets what she did. Which in IV is not all that uncommon. Also another thing you must understand the soccer team are like rock stars in IV, girls throw themselves at them. So in all probability this chick slept with frimpong ended up seeing her boy friend they had rough sex and made up some story about Eric because she felt guitly and told her boyfriend, and maybe not in that order. 3)The boyfriend who's DNA was found on the victim and saw Eric and his girlfriend together and by all accounts was upset about was not interviewed asked for clothing he was wearing, or had his body inspected. Oh did I mention that they know about him that evening? Yep sounds like excellent police work to me. But hey that is IVFP and the SBSD for you. I mean if want a suspect for rape I would guess he would be at the top of the list. 4)The evidence was mishandled, and in some instatace there is evidence that the reports were changed. For example the alleged bite marks were never swabbed for saliva, again sounds like SBSD had their A team on for this investigation. The procecuter also misrepresent facts and by some accounts hid exculpatory evidence. Also Eric's rights where not fully explained to him. And being from Ghana I am pretty sure that he did not know his rights to the fullest extant of the law. Do you know what one of the most common complaints of people arrested in IV is? No? well let me tell you its the police not fully informing people of their rights, this is trailed only by police harassment, illegal search of person, and illegal entrance of homes. These complaints are taken and promptly placed in the circular fill. Its nice to see its not 1970 all over again... 5)During deliberations, the jury asked to review certain items of evidence including the accuser’s and Frimpong’s statements to detectives. After hearing only the accuser’s statement, Judge Hill stated it would take too much time and sent them back to go over what they had already heard. Two hours later Frimpong was convicted. What was not stated was Judge Hill had a vacation that was set to start the next day. Oh by the way one of the jurors also was set to leave on a vacation. But who cares about due process this kid was not American, he was from some piss poor west African nation that a bunch rich white people from the American Riviera that is Santa Barbara could careless about. Man if that is not a triumph of our legal system I don't know what is. We need to remember something it is not the duty of the defendant to prove his innocence, but rather it is duty of the prosecution to prove his guilt. Which in my opinion based on the facts and what I have read a long with other info provided to my by my friends in IV I have to say that this case has been mishandled at every level. A mistrial should be declared and a new trail ordered, or he should be out right exonerated of these charges. And before you make another stupid claim about how I only care because I am a guy or I would not care if he was a Basketball player you are simply wrong. One of the great things about living in IV is that it is like no other place on earth. There is no place that I know of that you will be invited into a party without knowing a single person there. It is like a giant family in a way. My friends and I would routinely BBQ on my balcony at 6515 Pardall and just call random people up for a beer and a burger and just hang out as they were coming and going from class. And the only problems I have ever had in IV are with people that are not from there because they do not understand the "unspoken rules." And as far as Judy Foudy being a ************ commentator well she kinda is, and that has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman. And you playing that is a little hypocritical as you chastised others for saying race was involved.
Re: 1/24/08 - This was no boat accident! The Santa Barbara Sheriff department and Prosecutors have in the past tried to rail road innocent people. One of best examples of this is Lefty Bryant. They tried to pin the burning of the bank of america on him even though he was in police custody the night the bank burned. And he is only one case of this during the winter and spring of 1970. I want to point out that I am not saying that this is the case here but it has happened in the past.
Eric Frimpong http://www.independent.com/news/2007/jun/21/d-launches-frimpong-rape-case/ Frimpong denied any sexual activity whatsoever with the alleged victim, who is described as Asian in appearance in a related article. In the absence of any testimony from Eric about the event, the jurors have only her version & the lab results. "The woman said Frimpong then suggested they go to the beach, where he allegedly raped her. At 1:15 a.m., a student encountered her on Del Playa crying and covered with sand. For the rest of that morning, the woman received rape counseling and medical attention. Her face and neck were bruised, and her blood alcohol level showed her to be very drunk." OP link says there was no sand on the victim. Did this student testify at the trial?
Re: Eric Frimpong Woman very drunk = impossible to consent to sex. So it's tough for the defense to play that up to attack her credibility if the defense is "we had sex, but it was consentual."
Re: Eric Frimpong It argued no sexual activity. Which, frankly, is a guaranteed loser if the victim's DNA was on his genitals.
Re: Eric Frimpong Bumping this thread with the most recent article from ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4300383
Re: Eric Frimpong I sure hope you've never had sex with anyone who was intoxicated. 'Cause that would in your own words make you a rapist.
If, as the one of the article suggests, the prosecution removed all black jurors from the jury pool, the conviction could be overnturned on Batson grounds. Although according to the ESPN article and there were no potential jurors who were black as the overwheming population of the area was white, then the matter is moot. Although, as suggested in the article, if this matter was such a hot local issue, I wonder why the defense try to move the case to another venue as it happens time to time, I think OJ's case was this way wasn't it? If you are inclined to further research what Batson grounds would be google Batson v. Kentucky.
This whole thing is a travesty. Let's see: really drunk girl tries to piss off ex-boyfriend by grabassing with school's biggest athletic star. Ex-boyfriend teaches her a "lesson". This has to be the most poorly investigated and defended case I've ever heard of. Hopefully it will be overturned on appeal. Unfortunately, as with most of these sorts of cases, the authorities who railroaded this kid and did a huge disservice to the victim will walk away scott-free. And somewhere, the ex-boyfriend is walking around laughing to himself about how he got away with rape.
This. There seems to be little doubt that the girl was raped - and that's despicable. But there seems to be a lot of doubt that Frimpong was the perp; it appears as if he were railroaded. Maybe it was the ex-boyfriend, maybe it was someone else. Regardless, it looks like somebody got away with rape, and the wrong guy is doing time for it. If anything, this should perhaps serve as a reminder - you shouldn't drink yourself to the brink of death. Very little good can come of it.
True. Maybe it wasn't the boyfriend. That's possible. But I think if you look at all the various possibilities, that's the most plausible. Just the simple fact that she was absolutely trashed makes any accusations she makes incredibly suspect. I'm not saying she lied about being raped. But the fact that she was in such a state, makes me wonder why the police would not have looked at any and all other possibilities. That fact alone makes me hopeful that a more rational court will throw this out on appeal.
Joined a Facebook group regarding the case. "Justice for Eric Frimpong a.k.a Saviola" At last count, it has nearly 5800 members.