(DLCC.org) – You might remember Republican State Sen. Dennis Nolan of Nevada from last week, when he was caught on tape allegedly offering to bribe the witness in a rape trial to change her story. <\/p>\n
Well, this story just got much, much uglier. Sen. Nolan has now posted an open letter on his campaign website claiming he feels \u201ccompelled to believe the sex was consensual\u201d because the 16-year-old victim had been \u201cvery sexually active\u201d prior to the rape, and because (\u201cas a side note,\u201d he says) 42% of Nevada teenagers have been sexually active before age 16.<\/p>\n
Just to reiterate, this is a man whose job it is to write laws, including the laws used to prosecute sexual assault. This man has no business serving in any public office \u2013 he needs to resign, immediately. <\/p>\n
This is the sort of document that eventually gets scrubbed from a campaign website, so we\u2019ll quote from the screen-shots we took:<\/p>\n
As a side note in Nevada, approximately 42% of all teens ages 12-16, admit to having had intercourse, about 25% of them admit to having multiple partners.(Council of Chief of State Schools Officers), Is it right? NO! Is it right for adults to engage in sex with minors? NO! But sadly, it is happening, and that\u2019s the fact.<\/p>\n
Knowing this young lady, reading the case and observing her behavior before and after the incident, I am compelled to believe the sex was consensual. She was very sexually active and, according to court records, had an abortion just two weeks prior to the alleged sexual assault (this is now public record). Was it right? NO!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Nolan also lashes out against the victim\u2019s father, accusing him of being a pedophile: <\/p>\n
My call to the \u201calleged\u201d victim\u2019s sister, Mr. Lawes’ ex-wife, who is an acquaintance, was made only after I received information that both young women were abused as children by their father and that he may be continuing to \u201ccontrol them\u201d as abusers often do. The possibility that the very person publicly accusing me of \u201cdefending a SEX OFFENDER, being FRIENDS with a RAPIST \u201c may himself have been or may be an abuser, is maddening.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And as for the answering machine message \u2013 the one where he tells a witness from the case that it would be \u201cvery financially beneficial” to change her story? Nolan has an explanation for that too: <\/p>\n
I made two calls to the woman pleading with her to talk to me and offering to assist in getting the help she needed to stand up to her father and regain custody of her children. They went unanswered, I left a third message implying \u201csomeone\u201d could compensate her if she would tell the truth \u201cabout what was going on\u201d. The Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau Legal Division issued a written legal opinion which stated clearly, this did not constitute \u201cattempted bribery\u201d! These allegations are just plain lies!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Clearly. Nolan\u2019s logic is that he offered someone else\u2019s money, therefore it couldn\u2019t have been a bribe. Just like this girl could not have been raped because some other teenage girls are sexually active. And just like being sexually active even once means that all future sexual activity is consensual. <\/p>\n
This kind of disgusting rhetoric \u2013 especially coming from an elected official \u2013 is exactly why sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes in the country. Victims have to worry about whether they\u2019ll be believed at all and whether their reputations will be dragged through the mud by people like Dennis Nolan. <\/p>\n
We already thought Nolan had gone too far, but now we\u2019re convinced. He needs to resign<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(DLCC.org) – You might remember Republican State Sen. Dennis Nolan of Nevada from last week, when he was caught on tape allegedly offering to bribe the witness in a rape trial to change her story. Well, this story just got much, much uglier. Sen. Nolan has now posted an open letter on his campaign website […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5479"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5492,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479\/revisions\/5492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}