This article needs to be updated.(July 2023) |
The 2014 University of Minnesota rape case was widely publicized by the American media as it highlighted the inadequacies of police responses to victims of sexual assault. The victim in the case, 19-year-old Abby Honold, afterwards sought to establish federal funding for appropriate training of officials and first responders. A bill known as the Abby Honold Bill was first introduced to Congress by Senator Amy Klobuchar in 2017. [1] It was enacted into law on March 15, 2022, as part of a $1.5 trillion budget bill. The law gives law enforcement agencies access to federal grants and enacts a two-year test program to train police on how to conduct investigations without exposing victims to further trauma. [2]
The case was a highly mediatized case involving Daniel "Dan" York Drill-Mellum, a student at the University of Minnesota and fraternity member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Drill-Mellum violently raped 19-year-old Abby Honold twice at his apartment in November 2014 after luring her from a Minnesota Golden Gophers tailgate. He left claw marks on her body, bit chunks off her breasts, and shoved his fist so far into her mouth that he tore open part of her tongue during the attack. [3] After escaping, Honold immediately went to a hospital, where a nurse described the injuries as some of the worst she had ever seen. [4]
Drill-Mellum was arrested shortly after Honold reported his assault on her, but was released after his fraternity brothers secretly recorded a five-minute phone call with Honold. During the call, she stated twice that Drill-Mellum had raped her and detailed her injuries. But when Drill-Mellum's roommate asked her, "did you guys have consensual sex?”, he mumbled the words to make it sound like "actual sex." Honold responded "yes" and the Prosecutor declined the charges. [5] On December 24, 2015, Drill-Mellum was arrested again when Kevin Randolph, a veteran of the University of Minnesota's police department, reviewed the recording and successfully re-opened the case. [6] Drill-Mellum was tried for the rape of Honold and another victim he raped on Halloween 2014. [7]
The case attracted ongoing coverage in the media after Honold came forward and talked about how initially authorities did not press charges. [8]
On August 31, 2016, Drill-Mellum was sentenced to 74 months in prison following his guilty plea to two counts of rape. [9] He was released from prison on September 29, 2020. [10]
In November 2016, an episode of the Dr. Phil Show about the case was aired. [11] And in April 2017, Investigation Discovery paired with Deadline host Tamron Hall to air an episode about the case. [12]
After the trial, Honold contacted the office of Senator Al Franken to set up a meeting about a bill that would help law enforcement improve the reporting process for future victims. The bill seeks to establish federal funding for the purpose of training officers and first responders on the most effective techniques to use when interviewing sexual assault victims. Educating law enforcement officials and investigators on proper techniques is a key component of the legislation, which is tentatively named the Abby Honold Bill. [13]
In November 2017, after Franken was accused of sexual misconduct, Honold sought a new sponsor for the bill. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar's office promptly picked it up, and is working with Honold. [14]
Beta Theta Pi (ΒΘΠ), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of August 2023 it consists of 142 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada. More than 219,000 members have been initiated worldwide and there are currently around 8,500 undergraduate members. Beta Theta Pi is the oldest of the three fraternities that formed the Miami Triad, along with Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi.
Phi Gamma Delta (ΦΓΔ), commonly known as Fiji, is a social fraternity with more than 144 active chapters and 10 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848. Along with Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Gamma Delta forms a half of the Jefferson Duo. Since its founding in 1848, the fraternity has initiated more than 196,000 brothers. The nickname FIJI is used commonly by the fraternity due to Phi Gamma Delta bylaws that limit the use of the Greek letters.
Rape can be categorized in different ways: for example, by reference to the situation in which it occurs, by the identity or characteristics of the victim, and by the identity or characteristics of the perpetrator. These categories are referred to as types of rape. The types described below are not mutually exclusive: a given rape can fit into multiple categories, by for example being both a prison rape and a gang rape, or both a custodial rape and the rape of a child.
Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability, or is below the legal age of consent. The term rape is sometimes used interchangeably with the term sexual assault.
Antoni Imiela was a German-born convicted serial rapist who grew up in County Durham, England. He was found guilty of the rape of nine women and girls, and the indecent assault, and attempted rape, of a 10-year-old girl whom he repeatedly punched and throttled. The crimes took place in Surrey, Kent, Berkshire, London, Hertfordshire and Birmingham, and the press dubbed the offender the M25 Rapist after the M25 motorway that passes in the vicinity of all those areas except Birmingham. He died in HM Prison Wakefield on 8 March 2018.
Sigma Phi Epsilon (ΣΦΕ), commonly known as SigEp, is a social college fraternity for male college students in the United States. It was founded on November 1, 1901, at Richmond College, which is now the University of Richmond, and its national headquarters remains in Richmond, Virginia. It was founded on three principles: Virtue, Diligence, and Brotherly Love. Sigma Phi Epsilon is one of the largest social fraternities in the United States in terms of current undergraduate membership.
A serial rapist is someone who commits multiple rapes, whether with multiple victims or a single victim repeatedly over a period of time. Some serial rapists target children. The terms sexual predator, repeat rape and multiple offending can also be used to describe the activities of those who commit a number of consecutive rapes, but remain unprosecuted when self-reported in research. Others will commit their assaults in prisons. In some instances, a group of serial rapists will work together. These rapists can have a pattern of behavior that is sometimes used to predict their activities and aid in their arrest and conviction. Serial rapists also differ from one time offenders because "serial rapists more often involved kidnapping, verbally and physically threatening the victims, and using or threatening the use of weapons."
Rape in the United States is defined by the United States Department of Justice as "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim." While definitions and terminology of rape vary by jurisdiction in the United States, the FBI revised its definition to eliminate a requirement that the crime involve an element of force.
Campus sexual assault is the sexual assault, including rape, of a student while attending an institution of higher learning, such as a college or university. The victims of such assaults are more likely to be female, but any gender can be victimized. Estimates of sexual assault, which vary based on definitions and methodology, generally find that somewhere between 19 and 27% of college women and 6–8% of college men are sexually assaulted during their time in college.
Punishment for rape in Pakistan under the Pakistani laws is either death penalty or imprisonment of between ten and twenty-five years. For cases related to gang rape, the punishment is either death penalty or life imprisonment. DNA test and other scientific evidence are used in prosecuting rape cases in Pakistan.
Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 2020 with 28,046 cases, while in 2019, 32,033 cases were registered. Of the total 31,677 rape cases, 28,147 of the rapes were committed by persons known to the victim. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 – the legal age of consent – stood at 10%.
Rehtaeh Anne Parsons, was a 17-year-old Cole Harbour District High School student who attempted suicide by hanging at her home in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, on April 4, 2013, leading to a coma and the decision to switch her life support machine off on April 7, 2013. Her death has been attributed to online distribution of photos of an alleged gang rape that occurred 17 months prior to her suicide, in November 2011. On a Facebook page set up in tribute to her daughter, Parsons' mother blamed the four boys who allegedly raped and released images of her, the subsequent constant "bullying and messaging and harassment", and the failure of the Canadian justice system, for her daughter's decision to die by suicide.
The Safe Campus Act was introduced to the US House of Representatives by Matt Salmon (R-AZ), Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Kay Granger (R-TX) on July 29, 2015. The bill aims to prevent colleges from pursuing internal investigations in cases of campus sexual assault. This restriction would legally require alleged victims of sexual assault to report the crime to the police in order to see justice on campus.
People v. Turner, formally The People of the State of California v. Brock Allen Turner (2015), was a criminal case in which Brock Allen Turner was convicted by jury trial of three counts of felony sexual assault.
After a sexual assault or rape, victims are often subjected to scrutiny and, in some cases, mistreatment. Victims undergo medical examinations and are interviewed by police. If there is a criminal trial, victims suffer a loss of privacy, and their credibility may be challenged. Victims may also become the target of slut-shaming, abuse, social stigmatization, sexual slurs and cyberbullying. These factors, contributing to a rape culture, are among some of the reasons that may contribute up to 80% of all rapes going unreported in the U.S, according to a 2016 study done by the U.S. Department of Justice.
On the night of 21 January 2017, in Uppsala, Sweden, a group of three refugee Muslim men gang raped a nearly unconscious woman for around three hours and livestreamed the assault on Facebook. The stream was circulated on a closed Facebook group with around 60,000 members. Police were alerted the next morning on 22 January, when one viewer of the Facebook livefeed, who had initially believed the video to be staged, realised what was happening and phoned the police, who arrived at the apartment, where they found one of the men still filming and the woman still present. The case sparked outrage across Sweden and caused controversy about Facebook failing to report the crime and terminate the stream.
The Vanderbilt rape case is a criminal case of sexual assault that occurred on June 23, 2013, in Nashville, Tennessee, in which four Vanderbilt University football players carried an unconscious 21-year-old female student into a dorm room, gang-raped and sodomized her, photographed and videotaped her, and one urinated on her face.
Between 2008 and 2011, a series of rapes in the suburbs around Seattle and Denver were perpetrated by Marc Patrick O'Leary, an Army veteran who had been stationed near Tacoma. The first victim, an 18-year-old woman known as Marie, reported to Sergeant Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn that she had been raped at her home in Lynnwood, Washington. According to a later report, the bullying and hounding of her by the detectives led Marie to recant her statement, resulting in her being charged with making a false report of rape.
Kelly Moller is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Moller represents District 40A in the north-central Twin Cities metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Mounds View and Shoreview and parts of Ramsey County, Minnesota.
Reynhard Tambos Maruli Tua Sinaga is an Indonesian sex offender who was convicted of 159 sex offences, including 136 rapes of young men committed in Manchester, England, between 2015 and 2017, where he was living as a student. He was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting 48 men during this period, 44 of whom he raped, some repeatedly, although the police believe he was offending for years beforehand. Sinaga was prosecuted in four trials between 2018 and 2020 and was given concurrent life sentences with a minimum term of 30 years; raised to 40 years in December 2020 by the Court of Appeal. The Crown Prosecution Service described Sinaga as being the most prolific rapist in British legal history.
Abby Honold did everything a rape victim was supposed to do. At first, that wasn't enough.
A former student and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity brother at the University of Minnesota was sentenced to 74 months in prison Wednesday
Daniel Drill-Mellum, a fraternity member