Dear Editor:
In the early '80s I was an assistant basketball coach at a university. Our point guard, a junior, was a great young man: good student on track to graduate on time, good leader, well groomed and dressed, likable and popular in addition to being a talented and hard-working basketball player.
In the spring after the season a young lady alleged that he had raped her. The school immediately rescinded his scholarship and expelled him from school. After the initial legal proceedings, which included his steadfast denial, he had no resources and no choice but to return to his inner city home.
It took just over a year for the case to go to trial. On the night before the trial was to begin the young lady called her attorney and admitted that she had made up the whole thing. There was no rape, she said, adding that she had a crush on him and when he did not show similar interest she decided to retaliate by making up the story. The charges were dropped, but it was too late. He had missed three semesters of school, obviously including the one in which he would have graduated, and the basketball season.
He returned to his new life in the inner city and the next I heard was a year or two later when he was killed in a drug deal gone bad.
I know nothing about state Sen. LeVota or his accuser, and if guilty he deserves everything he is currently going through. However, at this point this is an allegation and the senator is being crucified in the media and by anyone whom the media can get to talk. His career and reputation, even if it is proven that he is being truthful and the allegations are false, are ruined.
Innocent until proven guilty is a farce when the media, especially in the case of alleged sexual misconduct, establishes itself as the judge and jury and decides to destroy someone before the justice process even begins.
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