TheStatehousefile.com
INDIANAPOLIS–When Crystal Shultz’s 12-year-old daughter was raped, she never thought her daughter would be the one that would end up in handcuffs.
After reporting her rape, Shultz’s daughter, Alyssa, was charged with false reporting after police determined that simply saying no to sex didn’t constitute rape.
“I ask that this be considered to be changed, that saying no does classify as a crime because they live with it every day, it never goes away,†she said.
Shultz recounted her daughter’s story Thursday as she stood in the Indiana Statehouse in front of clotheslines festooned 1,500 cards, each recounting a sexual assault victim’s personal story and words of advice. The El Tendedero/The Clothesline Project is an effort by the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Women4Change to call attention to sexual assault in Indiana.
Tracey Horton Krueger, director of the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault, said Indiana law requires evidence of the force to prove rape. Cases without force, the threat of force or incapacitation are not technically a crime.
“We say ‘no means no’ but right now, in Indiana, that is not a crime,†she said.
Krueger said one in five Hoosier females will experience sexual assault at some point. Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, said she is one of them.
Nearly two years ago, Reardon, along with three other women, accused Attorney General Curtis Hill of groping them during a party that marked the end of the 2018 legislative session.
In February, former Indiana Supreme Court Justice Myra Selby recommended to the Supreme Court that Hill be suspended for 60 days for his conduct. Tuesday, it was announced that U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson dismissed a separate civil suit against Hill, saying the women don’t have a valid sexual harassment case because they don’t work directly for Hill.
“We must uplift women suffering these injustices and let them know we see them and we stand with them,†Reardon said.
Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, authored two bills this session that she said would help women faced sexual assault. House Bills 1160 and 1161 would define consent and sexual battery. Both died after not receiving a hearing in the House Courts and Criminal Code Committee.
Errington said she and other legislators wrote a letter addressed to the four majority and minority leaders of the legislature urging them to create a summer study committee on sexual assault.
“We already know what the issue is, but they seem to need a lot more proof,†said Rep. Sharon Negele, R-Attica, who co-authored the bills with Errington.
Rep. Lisa Beck, D-Hebron, said the 2015 California case of a Standford University student who assaulted an intoxicated and unconscious woman is a good example of women having a voice when it comes to sexual assault.
The student, Brock Turner, was convicted of three counts of felony sexual assault but was only sentenced to six months in jail by a judge. An outraged public voted later to recall the judge from the bench.
“If you don’t think you have a voice,â€Â  Beck said, “that case right there shows you that you have a voice.â€
FOOTNOTE: Victoria Ratliff is a reporter with TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Is she as concerned also with the millions of pre-born female babies that are murdered by their own Mothers?
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