[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 21, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4047-H4050]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           TELLING SURVIVORS STORIES THROUGH THEIR OWN WORDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Russell). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about what 
occurred at Stanford University a couple of weeks ago and a follow-up 
to some of the events that occurred after that.
  The victim in that case gave a powerful victim impact statement. It 
was 7,200 words long. Last week, 18 Members of Congress from both sides 
of the aisle, led by Jackie Speier from California, read the statement 
into the Congressional Record: Jackie Speier from California, Katherine 
Clark from Massachusetts, David Cicilline from Rhode Island, Niki 
Tsongas from Massachusetts, Maxine Waters from California, Bonnie 
Watson Coleman from New Jersey, Judy Chu from California, Anna Eshoo 
from California, Mark Takano from California, Debbie Dingell from 
Michigan, Marcy Kaptur from Ohio, Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, Ted Poe 
from Texas, Eric Swalwell from California, Loretta Sanchez from 
California, Susan Davis from California, Paul Gosar from Arizona, and 
Ann McLane Kuster from New Hampshire. It took almost an hour to read 
her compelling statement about what happened to her when the rapist, 
Brock Turner, committed this crime against her.
  After the crime was committed, there was a trial. The case was not, 
as we say in the system, plea bargained. There was no plea agreement. 
It was an actual trial. After the trial, the judge assessed punishment 
for three felony crimes that he committed--that being Brock Turner. The 
judge assessed punishment as a misdemeanor of 6 months in jail, which 
means that Brock Turner will spend probably 90 days in jail, a half of 
a semester, for the crime that he committed against the victim.
  As a former prosecutor for 8 years trying these type of cases and a 
judge in Houston for 22 years hearing only criminal felony cases, I 
have seen historically how devastating the crime of sexual assault is. 
We, as a community, need to understand how victims are impacted by this 
crime.
  Obviously, the judge in the Stanford case didn't get it. You can read 
what he said. It is obvious that he was more concerned about the 
feelings of the criminal and his future than he was about the victim. 
He was almost dismissive of her statement that she read into the 
record.
  There is a movement that is being started by a Stanford law 
professor, Michele Landis Dauber, whom I got to meet last week--very 
impressive, Mr. Speaker. She gets it. She understands about sexual 
assault, this crime especially at Stanford, and the impact on the 
victim.
  She is using a recall system that is in California that a public 
official can be recalled if there are enough signatures on a petition 
to get the recall on the ballot. She is feisty, and she is going to get 
it done.
  I admire the State of California for having recall of public 
officials. This is a perfect example of why other States ought to have 
recall of public officials, especially judges who don't get it right. 
In my opinion, the judge should be removed from office.
  After I spoke on the House floor, and then 19 Members spoke a couple 
of days later on the House floor about this crime, I have received 
hundreds--hundreds--of contacts from sexual assault victims throughout 
the country, primarily by email. Some of these sexual assault survivors 
have never told anybody, according to them, what happened to them years 
ago or of recent years. Many of them just didn't get the justice that 
they deserved.

  They didn't tell for a lot of reasons, mainly because they were 
ashamed. Rape survivors--God bless them--think sometimes the crime is 
their fault. And it is not, Mr. Speaker. It is never the fault of the 
victim. When a sexual assault occurs, it is the fault of the criminal 
every time--not most of the time, every time. Judges need to understand 
that.
  The justice system needs to work for victims of crime just like it 
works for the accused citizen. The same Constitution that protects 
defendants protects victims of crime as well.
  We have come a long way since the days I was prosecuting. Once again, 
California has led the national movement for victims' rights. My friend 
Jim Costa from California and I head up the Victims' Rights Caucus. He 
was the sponsor of the Three Strikes sentencing law that passed in 
California.
  California has a history of looking out for victims. I commend 
California for that. I know that may shock you, Mr. Speaker, but I 
commend them for getting it right when it comes to victims.
  In this particular case, it all went wrong. The victim articulated it 
quite well in her statement. I hope every Member of Congress reads the 
Congressional Record because the statement of that woman is in the 
Congressional Record. Just read it. And, more importantly, if you are a 
dad, read it to your sons as well. I will come back to that in a 
minute.
  I have four kids--three girls and a boy. I have 11 grandkids; 7 of 
them are girls. I sure don't want my kids and my grandkids to continue 
to grow up in a society that doesn't really take care of crime victims 
and is dismissive to them.
  Of the many survivors that wrote me, several bravely offered to share 
their stories with me. I am here to read some of those stories. Not all 
of them, just a few. Some have asked me not to give their names. Some 
are anonymous. Some said it is okay for me to say what their name is. I 
am not going to tell their whole name. I am just not going to do that. 
I think they deserve that privacy. I hope, by sharing these words, the 
world will see what outstanding resilience these few sexual assault 
victims have had over the years.
  Jennifer writes:

       It was January 2004. I was 24 years of age. I am a divorced 
     mother of three elementary school children studying to become 
     a preschool teacher. The man I loved came home drunk after 
     wrecking my car. My children were upstairs asleep. He beat 
     me, beat my head against the cement floor, and then he raped 
     me as I tried to stay quiet, so quiet, so still, so he would 
     leave and no one upstairs would wake up. He did finally 
     leave.
       My mother said that since I loved him, it wasn't rape. 
     Because I got involved with a man who would do that, it was 
     my fault, and I couldn't very well make him lose his job 
     because of my poor judgment. I was young. I didn't know. To 
     this day, I blame myself for letting it happen, even though 
     now I know that none of it was my fault.
       Because of that night, I have post-traumatic stress 
     disorder. My body remembers, even if my mind doesn't know all 
     of the details.
       After reading the speech you made, I told my new husband 
     about what happened to me. This was the first time I have 
     ever told him. We have been together for 10 years.

  Mr. Speaker, in all due respect to Jennifer's mother, Jennifer's 
mother was wrong. It was not Jennifer's fault that she fell in love 
with a worthless guy. And the sexual assault was certainly not her 
fault. It was his fault. He should have been held accountable for what 
he did. Jennifer still suffers to this day for what that individual 
did.
  The rape--and we use the word ``rape,'' and we use ``sexual 
assault.'' ``Sexual assault'' is a relatively new term. It used to be 
called ``rape'' because that is a specific type of sexual assault. 
Sexual assault is broader. But rape is never the fault of the victim, 
and neither is sexual assault.
  The defendant always has an excuse to blame the victim: ``Well, she 
came

[[Page H4048]]

on to me,'' or, ``It was what she was wearing,'' or, ``She was drunk,'' 
or, ``She was under the influence of narcotics''; ``She didn't 
resist''; ``She didn't scream''; ``She didn't tell me no''; ``She 
didn't run for help.'' The defendants in these cases always blame the 
victim. But rape is not the fault of a victim. ``No'' means no.
  If people out there in America want to join in on this conversation, 
they can use the #survivorsspeak, and just keep discussing this issue 
because I think we should discuss this issue.
  Here we have a victim, ``I said no.'' Saying ``no'' means no. It 
doesn't mean maybe. It doesn't mean yes. ``No'' always means no.
  So if folks want to join in on that, I would encourage them--
#survivorsspeak.
  That is Jennifer's story.
  This story was written by a family member because of the age of the 
victim. She is anonymous, of course:

       Twenty-six years ago, a 6-year-old was raped in Mercedes, 
     Texas. The rapist got his fix as he pleased. The pervert? 
     Well, he is still on the loose. He is a pedophile, a rapist, 
     and a scumbag, yet he still walks the streets. His victim is 
     now 30 years of age. She still has post-traumatic stress 
     disorder. She still cries, is depressed, and relives her 
     tragedy each day. Thank Congress for what they are trying to 
     do for this crime.

  This is a case where we know who the perpetrator was, and for some 
reason we don't know, he got away with it--maybe because of the age of 
the victim; maybe she didn't want to testify. We don't know.

                              {time}  2045

  He got away with it, and the victim still suffers now, 24 years 
later; but what happened to her when she was 6 years of age?
  Christina writes this:

       As a victim of rape 25 years ago, I am disappointed to see 
     that we really haven't made progress as a Nation or a people 
     in changing the attitude toward rape victims. It is time to 
     recognize the lifetime impact that rape has on a victim. It 
     affects every part of your being. It is time to stop the line 
     of questioning that the victim is subjected to--the line of 
     questions that insinuate: Well, what did you do to cause 
     this?

  I have been at the courthouse. I see how criminal defense lawyers ask 
a question in cases like this. Usually, the defense is: the individual. 
It is the fault of the victim. It is not the fault of the rapist. That 
is one of the defenses--to go after the victims. Attack them.
  She continues:

       My assailant was a friend of a friend. It still causes me 
     to be overly guarded with relationships. I still question my 
     judgment. On every new date, the first thought is: Where is 
     my escape route? Then it progresses to: What are the signs 
     that I am ignoring that I should be aware of that would harm 
     me? I am aware that this is an abnormal thought process, but 
     more than 25 years later, it is what I need to do to feel 
     safe again--a lifetime of grief.

  Aja writes this:

       My name is Aja. I was raped. I have not received any sort 
     of justice for the act committed against me. I have stayed 
     silent about this for nearly 5 years, and, today, that ends. 
     Today, I am no longer a victim of crime, but I am a survivor. 
     I am not alone. I am not my past. I am not meant to stay 
     silent. I actually matter.

  Good for Aja.
  Hillary writes this:

       I am writing you so my voice and so many others may be 
     heard. I was 19 when I was drugged and raped. To this day, I 
     will never know how many individuals raped me. I may have no 
     memory of the act, but it doesn't change the outcome. I was 
     unconscious and never was given a chance to say no. I will 
     always remember the pain, seeing the bruises that covered the 
     inside of my thighs. My underwear was ripped from my body and 
     tied together and put back on. I never want to see those 
     clothes again.
       I reported my rape, but never received justice, like so 
     many other rape victims. I went through humiliating questions 
     from the police. I felt so much pain and humiliation again at 
     the hospital, through the pregnancy tests, the STD test, and 
     the HIV test. Pictures were taken of my bruises on my body, 
     and I felt so much shame. When the rape kit was done, I 
     cried. It was painful. I felt ruined. I was given a lifelong 
     sentence while he and others walk free.
       I live with the feeling of shame. I could not smile. I 
     live, even to this day, with nightmares. I blame myself 
     because--maybe, if I had not taken that drink. He took my 
     voice for years--a piece of me he did not deserve. I went 
     through lots of therapy for depression, but I will live in 
     fear no more. My body was taken without asking, but I have a 
     voice now, and it will not be silenced.
       I tell my story so others won't feel alone. We didn't ask 
     for this. We need to make sure that no more victims are made 
     to feel like they did something wrong. I did nothing wrong. I 
     didn't violate him, but I carry the scars of what he did. I 
     stand with every victim out there. I cried while writing this 
     letter. It is the first time I have given my voice to be 
     heard. Thank you again for giving us a voice to fight with.

  She is thanking all Members of Congress who have spoken out against 
this type of crime.
  This is another anonymous individual. I have three more, including 
this one.

       Mr. Poe, I can only hope that your words will be heeded and 
     that the wrong will be made right, just a tiny bit, by this 
     victim. From personal experience, the nightmares never stop. 
     Not even after my rapist was killed in prison did the 
     nightmares stop. I still see his face in the dark. I can hear 
     his voice appraising my body like I was a cow at an auction. 
     I have carried this burden since I was 7 years old, and it 
     can't ever be fixed, but we can stop it from being the fate 
     of others by making the punishment so severe, the crime is 
     not an option.

  She probably wouldn't have agreed with the 6-month sentence that the 
Stanford judge gave the defendant who will only do 90 days.
  Another anonymous letter:

       In college, a man broke into my apartment and brutally 
     raped, beat, and pistol-whipped me.

  It is hard to read this, Mr. Speaker.

       He sodomized me with his gun. I have horrible flashbacks 
     and can barely live a day when I don't have anxiety or panic 
     attacks and the wish just to die and end it all from the 
     emotional, physical, and psychological damage that he did to 
     me.
       You give some of us hope, and I want to sincerely thank you 
     and other Members of Congress for standing up for us rape 
     victims. I am honored for you to share my story to help 
     others, but I want to remain anonymous because I still fear 
     my attacker even though I don't know his name. My rapist 
     knows my name. He stalked me prior to the rape. Thank you for 
     taking the time to write me back.

  The last case, Lauren's, was a case I actually tried. I tried the 
person who assaulted her and her sister. It was in 1997. Lauren was the 
age of 11, and her stepsister was 9 years of age. They were repeatedly 
molested, not by a stranger or by a friend, but by someone closer--
their grandfather. He molested them several times. This happened 20 
years ago next year, and Lauren still can't talk much about it. She 
reached out to my office to tell us that sexual assault stays with you 
for life. In her case, the individual was convicted. He received a 10-
year sentence in one case and a 5-year sentence in the other, and they 
were stacked on top of each other, which means he had to do 15 years in 
the penitentiary of the State of Texas.
  We have done some good things over the years. We have done some good 
things in Congress. The Justice for All Act strengthens the rights of 
victims of crime in the criminal justice process, increasing their 
access to restitution and the reauthorization of victims' notification 
grants. It takes steps to reduce the rape kit backlog. It expands the 
use of sexual assault nurse examiners in underserved communities.
  I have been around so long that, when I started prosecuting cases, we 
didn't have a rape kit. We didn't know what that was. We certainly 
didn't have DNA. But we have rape kits now because some wonderful 
doctors have figured this out, some of them at the Texas Children's 
Hospital in Houston. It is a forensic kit that is taken of the sexual 
assault victim. These items are analyzed and tracked through DNA to 
find out who the rapist was; but right now, in our country, we have 
rape kits that are sitting on the shelves in police departments 
throughout the country that are gathering dust. People just can't get 
around to solving these crimes. They make all kinds of excuses: We 
don't have the money; we just need more help.
  The bottom line is that we are denying justice to sexual assault 
victims for the failure to analyze these rape kits. We need to analyze 
the rape kits, but it cuts both ways, Mr. Speaker. Some of these rape 
kits, after they are analyzed, exonerate people in the penitentiary. 
Get it done. Solve this problem of the backlog of rape kits. There is 
no excuse for the Justice Department, for the FBI, for any local law 
enforcement agency not to analyze those sexual assault kits right away.
  You see, when the crime is committed, Mr. Speaker, the system works 
in such a way that we don't let the victims forget about what happened 
to them because they may have to testify,

[[Page H4049]]

and they can't get on with their lives, so to speak, until the rape kit 
is analyzed, and the idea that one has to wait a year or 2 years before 
we know who committed this crime is abuse of the system. The system is 
abusing the victim again. Like I said, it may exonerate an offender who 
is in the penitentiary.
  So no more excuses. It needs to be a priority of police departments. 
Analyze the sexual assault kits, analyze that DNA, because it really is 
good evidence in the courtroom to convict the guilty and exonerate the 
innocent; but you can't get to that point and the victims can't get to 
trial until the sexual assault kit is analyzed. They have to continue 
to remember this. They can't forget it, not that they would forget it, 
but they can't get on with their lives.
  The same thing is true about postponing these cases. So many judges 
take a sexual assault case and: Ah, we will postpone this case. We are 
going to try some slip-and-fall case instead.
  Courts in the United States, by the legislative authority of the 
legislatures, should make a priority of sexual assault cases, 
especially of minor children, and put them in the line first to get 
their day in court. Some States do it--some don't--but that is one easy 
fix that we could do.
  Of course, this law, the Justice for All Act, protects VAWA funding 
streams that are critical to crime prevention, and I mentioned about 
DNA testing.
  I mentioned Jim Costa--a great American. This issue is a bipartisan 
issue. We have 80 in our Victims' Rights Caucus--40 Republicans and 40 
Democrats. Every year, we have this fight with the appropriators. We 
are in the appropriations season. There was a great law that was passed 
by Congress--sponsored, I believe, by Ronald Reagan or whoever--that 
said this:
  When a criminal is convicted in Federal court, the judge may impose a 
fee, and that fee goes into what is called the Victims of Crime Act 
fund. VOCA is what it is called. God bless those Federal judges. They 
are nailing these criminals, because more and more money every year is 
going into the Victims of Crime Act fund. That fund is to be used for 
victims of crime, including for services, restoration, counseling--all 
of those good things that we now do for victims that we didn't used to 
do; but here is the problem:
  More money than ever before is coming into the Victims of Crime Act 
fund. Right now, my understanding is there is $9 billion in the fund. 
Now, this isn't taxpayer money. This is money that criminals have paid 
toward the rent on the courthouse. They have paid for the crimes they 
have committed, plus their sentences, and it is a fund that is supposed 
to go to crime victims. It is a great idea. The problem is Congress--
us. This has been going on for years. It doesn't appropriate all of the 
money every year that came in the previous year. Only about 30 percent 
of it is appropriated to crime victims' organizations, and many of 
these organizations are barely keeping their lights on.
  I am no appropriator. I am not a CPA. I am a lawyer. The 
appropriators say: Well, we can't spend that money because we need it 
as an offset for other spending in other programs.
  It is not for other programs. It is not taxpayer money. What Jim 
Costa and I have been trying to do since we came in here in 2005 is to 
say: What goes in this year comes out next year. Spend it all. We don't 
need to have a rainy day fund because the money keeps going up every 
year because Federal judges are making defendants pay into this fund.
  Once again, it belongs to victims of crime, but it is administered by 
the Justice Department. It is no reflection on this administration. It 
has been going on for years. The Justice Department just hangs onto it 
because the appropriators don't spend it all and appropriate all of the 
money, as I said, because they want to use it as an offset.

                              {time}  2100

  The country and some judges, like the one at Stanford, have to get 
their mindset right today in 2016. Sexual assault is a crime we don't 
talk much about. It is just kind of distasteful, so we don't talk about 
it. We talk about other things.
  Yet, these sexual assault victims live quiet lives of despair. And I 
have known a lot over the years. Some of them keep in contact with me. 
They just call to check in. And they don't ever get over it, Mr. 
Speaker. We would hope that they would. We would hope they get their 
lives together. You know they become survivors, but, emotionally, many 
of them just don't get over it for a lot of reasons; because they are 
ashamed, their mom told them it was their fault, whatever.
  We need to make it real clear that Congress is on the side of sexual 
assault victims. Make no mistake about it, we are on their side because 
really we are their only voice. We are it. If we don't speak for them 
and help legislation forward to protect them, it doesn't get done. So 
we have a lot to do.
  One thing that I would like to mention, the father and the mother of 
the rapist gave a statement to the judge, and I read those statements. 
I would like to talk about the father. He basically blamed the victim 
for the conduct of his son. He is wrong. And the problem is he actually 
believes it is her fault. He didn't just say that to try to protect his 
son. He believes it is her fault. That is what is really bad.
  Most of us who are males in this House, we have sons. I do have one. 
I have grandsons. We have an obligation to raise our sons in accordance 
with basic human rights and explain to them when they are very young 
that there are some things you just can't do. You are going to be 
punished for it, but also it is wrong.
  Sexual assault is one of those. It is wrong. You cannot do that. We 
need to explain that, because we have a generation of young males--
every generation of young males has to be reeducated.
  We have that obligation in our families to educate our sons that 
because you think you are somebody, you are not going to get off if you 
do that crime, whether you are an athlete, whether you come from 
pedigree, whether you are rich, famous, whatever. We need to explain to 
our sons that it is morally wrong to sexually assault a person under 
any circumstances because ``no'' always means no. It is not the fault 
of the victim.
  So I would encourage dads to do this. This doesn't cost any money. It 
doesn't cost any legislation, but it is a moral obligation we have as 
fathers. I think if fathers did a better job--I have said this a long 
time--if fathers did a better job, we would have fewer young males at 
the courthouse; because most of the people who showed up at the 
courthouse when I was a judge, they were young males. Most of them were 
under 25 years of age and they were males. And it is not because the 
women get away with it. It is because young males commit most of the 
crime. We have that obligation, and I encourage fathers to do that.
  I want to talk about two more cases that I was involved in. I tried 
this case as a prosecutor, and this was a senior citizen. Sadie was her 
first name. And in the trial, the victim had to state what happened to 
her. She would never say ``rape.'' She certainly never said ``sexual 
assault'' because we didn't use that term, but she kept testifying from 
the witness stand.
  What happened to you?
  And she said: It is a fate worse than death.
  Well, can you be a little more detailed?
  No. It is a fate worse than death.
  And we went through this for a little bit, and she kept saying that: 
It is a fate worse than death.
  She eventually said enough of the right words to meet the legal 
qualification for rape. And I asked her at the trial: Why do you keep 
saying it is a fate worse than death?
  I don't know if you have ever heard that before or not.
  And she said: It is real simple. When you die, you die once. When 
this crime is committed against you, you die every day. It is a fate 
worse than death.
  That is the way sexual assault victims view this crime, and that is 
the way the law ought to view this crime. To many, it is a fate worse 
than death. And she had it perfectly because it is a fate worse than 
death.
  The last case I will talk about is one that I prosecuted as well. 
This individual, the victim in this case--I won't use her name because 
her family still lives in Houston--she was leaving one of our major 
universities and driving home to a town north of Houston, and all the 
lights turned on on the dashboard.

[[Page H4050]]

  She is having car trouble, and she pulled into a service station. She 
thought it was open. It was not. She came in contact with who she 
thought was the service station attendant. He was not the service 
station attendant. I am not going to mention his name; he doesn't 
deserve it.
  He kidnapped her. He had a gun. He took her from this area, put her 
into some woods, sexually assaulted her, beat her up, and she survived 
because she was a remarkable lady. In fact, my understanding now after 
the trial, the defendant was mad that she did survive.
  Anyway, he is tried. He is convicted by a jury of 12 right-thinking 
Houstonians who convicted the defendant. In Texas we have, in some 
cases, jury sentencing. And the jury sentenced this individual, this 
rapist, to 99 years in the Texas penitentiary. That was the maximum. He 
deserved every minute of it.
  Now, we would hope everything would be okay and that life would go 
on. Bad guy, outlaw, goes to prison; sexual assault victim gets justice 
in court. But it doesn't work that way because that is not life.
  The first thing that happened was she started abusing alcohol and 
then other narcotics. Her husband left her. And a year--maybe 2 years--
after the crime, I get a call from her mother, and she tells me that 
her daughter has taken her own life and she left a note that says: I'm 
tired of running from the criminal in my nightmares.
  See, she got the death penalty for what somebody did to her.

  In the cases that I mentioned tonight and the many, many others that 
we have all received since last week, there are a lot of victim 
survivors. And we really are judged by the way we treat innocent folks 
in our community; not the rich, not the famous, not the athletes, but 
by the way we treat the innocent, the kids, the people who have no 
voice in our justice system, except Congress. So we speak for them, and 
we need to speak for them as well.
  So I would remind the people that are out listening to this to use 
the #survivorsspeak and weigh in on this conversation if they want.
  Mr. Speaker, this subject, as I mentioned at the outset, is one that 
we sometimes don't want to talk about, but we can't ignore it ever, not 
anymore, not today, not in this town, or any town in America. That is 
why the Stanford judge needs to go, and that is why I commend the folks 
in California for having a recall petition.
  Judges need to get their head on straight to know they have to get it 
right every time when it comes to justice. The scales of justice are a 
balancing act. Justice for defendants, but also justice for victims and 
survivors of crime, because rape is never the fault of the victim. And 
when a rapist commits a crime against usually a woman or a child, that 
rapist is stealing the very soul of that victim because that is what 
happens sometimes. Let us not forget that.
  And that is just the way it is.

                          ____________________