LOTA/GOTH Redux II

Here is a paragraph from a Muckraker piece of 10 July: “The saga of the lady of the afternoon (hereinafter referred to as LOTA) is on again after having been interdicted by LOTA herself. Readers of MUCKRAKER of June 20 or the Lexington Herald-Leader may remember the details. If not, that article is in the Archives for perusal and may even be interesting to those who haven’t been aware of this strange happening. The other player in the affair is a god of the hardwood (hereinafter referred to as GOTH, naturally, with all the potential meaning involved), who dallied with LOTA on an April afternoon in a university dormitory housing mostly the august and much revered basketball players. She called the hanky panky rape some 24-36 hours after the fact, while GOTH called it consensual – through his lawyer, of course. Later after making her charge, she stopped cooperating, so, without a victim, the matter was ended. GOTH, a high-profile player, was named, of course, especially in Sports Pages all over the land, but LOTA, a 29-year-old mom, was spared that notoriety, at least in the city of its circumstances, the better to protect her good name, even though the local daily knew it early on and actually contacted the woman a few times, even to the point of writing her a letter.”

Now, the plot has thickened again. LOTA has filed a complaint of rape with the office of the County Attorney, thus reestablishing the charge, only to have said official dismiss it. LOTA’s lawyers now have recourse to the Commonwealth Attorney for his decision as to whether or not perhaps present evidence, if any, to a Grand Jury, or maybe arrest or not arrest GOTH on criminal charges on the evidence, if any, he receives. Muckraker is not entirely clear on this, but those seem reasonable assumptions. GOTH, of course, is probably nowhere near Lexington, since this is the time that all former Goths are angling for a spot on an NBA team or perhaps one in Germany or maybe one in Japan. GOTH is in apparent good health, at least as far as HIV is concerned, since GOTH’s attorney has furnished proof to LOTA that his man does not possess that particular malady. One wonders, of course, if LOTA has furnished similar information to GOTH, but perhaps that is beside the point, since it isn’t illegal, though immoral, to have un-marital consensual sex in a college dormitory on an afternoon in April. In any case, since GOTH tested negatively, one may assume that LOTA is HIV-negative. There was a time when hanky-panky was a rather simple event, but now things are complicated.

So…the case is out of the hands of the county attorney, and the prosecutors may try to sort things out. This won’t be easy, since, as the Herald-Leader reported on July 10, LOTA has a history of drug use, at one time had problems with an estranged boyfriend, the father of her daughter, and statements have been made to police by a man who said LOTA was smoking marijuana the evening before the April afternoon. Presumably, all the initial documents regarding the matter, as well as physical evidence, are still in the hands of the police, who had considered the case closed when LOTA stopped cooperating earlier. The date-rape drug was not found in her system.

Why does a rape victim need attorneys? Isn’t it the job of the local police and/or commonwealth’s attorney to prosecute rape cases? She has produced for the Herald-Leader records showing she had other drugs in her system, ingested unknowingly by her, of course, on that fateful afternoon. LOTA has lawyers, so is she thinking of, by either going the court-system route (civil action) or the possibly consequent easier way of negotiations, sweating some cash out of the university? A rape conviction was not necessary in the Kobe Bryant case in order for the alleged victim to effect an out-of-court settlement with Bryant. The university is doubtlessly well-insured, perhaps even against damages claimed as the result of a sexual encounter in a dormitory. LOTA claimed to have a bruise on her thigh, after all.

And so it goes.

Jim Clark