What is the background of this story out of Silsbee, Texas concerning a high school cheerleader ordered by Superintendent Richard Bain to cheer for her accused rapist?
In evaluating the details, I have determined that the Silsbee Independent School District, the criminal justice system and the Silsbee community have failed this victim massively, disgracefully and irredeemably.
The media refers to the victim as H.S. Obviously, people in Silsbee know who she is. Put on your thinking cap and you can find photographs of her online. Lovely young lady. With her eyeglasses on, perhaps a little charmingly “bookish” looking. Incadescent smile. Not just a cheerleader; a cheerleading captain.
At about 2:40a.m., October 19, 2008, police were called to a Silsbee home where a party had been held. Police found her under a pool table, half naked and sobbing. H.S., then 16, alleged that three Silsbee High football players had cornered her in the room, locked the door and raped her. She started screaming for help. “Stop! Seriously, stop it. No!” When other people began pounding at the door, the football players jumped out a window. At least one had left his clothing behind. Witnesses from that night say that outside, a bare naked suspect, Rahkeem Bolton, was verbally abusive, yelling blood-curdling insults about the victim and threatening harm to the house owner if she refused to give him his clothes.
I want the reader to have some idea of how important football is to Silsbee, Texas and then how important Rahkeem Bolton was to Silsbee, Texas high school football. The Silsbee Tigers play in Tiger Stadium. With its latest seating expansion, that stadium fits 10,000 spectators. Tickets, sold onsite or in the school administration building, are $5 for adults, $3 for students ahead of time but $5 at the door. On a good day, the box office could be $35,000, maybe $40K or more.
Now for Bolton and his importance as a football hero. One local chat thread had a sports enthusiast saying “Bolton will be a stud on defense, will be the leading tackler all season.” That same commentator said “I want you to keep an eye on Rakheem Bolton because his name will be on this forum in the Silsbee topics all season long.” Friday, November 3, 2009; The Silsbee Bee ran a story titled “Silsbee Tigers are undefeated district champs.” You just absolutely have to read all the mentions of Rahkeem Bolton in this article. 1) “Silsbee opened the game in typical fashion with senior Rahkeem Bolton taking the kickoff 32 yards to set up the line of scrimmage at the Hardin-Jefferson 42. 2) “Scrambling out of the backfield, Johnson went 18 yards to the H-J 9 with Bolton picking up two more yards to the 7.” 3) On the next play, Bolton found an opening and went the distance for the touchdown, pushing the Tigers up by a score of 21-12 just nine seconds into the second quarter. 4) The Tigers went back to its ground attack, starting with a 16-yard run by Bolton to get things started on the next Silsbee drive. Between Bolton and Johnson, the Tigers moved down the field with Johnston taking a third-down run at the goal line from the 1 yard line.” 5) “Hardin-Jefferson fumbled on the ensuing kickoff, giving the Tigers the ball at the H-J 20. Bolton ran three times for Silsbee, his third try a 3-yard touchdown jaunt.” 6) “Set up at the H-J 43, the Tigers scored again. Bolton again did the largest part of the work finally crossing the goal line after breaking tackle after tackle on his way to another score, this one from the 25.” 7) “Two plays later, Bolton did it again, scoring from the 5 for a 56-26 advantage for the Tigers.” 8; “Bolton paced the ground game with 16 carries for 157 yards and four touchdowns,”
And now, dear readers, cheer it out with me: “Rah rah sis boom bah for Rakheem Bolton!” Right?
A first grand jury returned a “no bill” decision, meaning there would be no case against the three defendants. No rape charges, no assault charges; nothin’. Did Hardin County District Attorney David Sheffield do a good job there? The victim and her parents thought not. Neither do I. Neither should you. The victim was told that preliminary results from the rape kit showed some DNA evidence that could inculpate the defendants. Yet the victim kept hearing that due to case backlogs, the full rape kit analysis results wouldn’t be ready for four months, five months, one year – depends which report you read. There is an appearance that the can kept getting kicked down the road for the date the victim was being given for when the rape kit results would be ready. The victim now says she wants to study forensic science, motivated in part by the delay in the processing of her rape kit.
Does it sound right, that a community taking in $35K, $40K per home game football match can’t get a rape kit processed any faster than that? I called the public information department of the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory DNA Section. I asked “Is it possible for somebody to get expedited rape kit results from the DNA Section of your Crime Lab?” They told me “Yes. If a prosecutor or investigator says they have a case coming up and need results promptly, we can have the complete rape kit results for them within three weeks.”
Silsbee took the “no bill” decision from the first grand jury as a complete exoneration of the defendants. D.A. David Sheffield said the grand jury could not determine if there was lack of consent. He also said this: “The case has deeply divided the community of Silsbee and especially Silsbee High School.” Sheffield stated that any retribution, threats or harassment of the victim could result in 3rd degree felony Retaliation charges being filed. That little word “could,” is in there, in place of “will result;” did you notice? Sheffield also told local station KFDM that “Because everyone had been drinking, it would have made it difficult to prove the allegations raised in this case.” Have you got that, reader? Have you quite got it? The same D.A. who didn’t bother to get expedited rape kit results told the Silsbee community that the victim was drunk at the time of the crime and that therefore, it would have been difficult to prove the allegations she made. This prosecutor, assigned to this case, discredited the victim to the entire community.
Totally ignoring Sheffield’s warning that retaliation against the victim could result in felony prosecutions, the Silsbee schools community started retaliating against the victim for daring to make an accusation against a football hero. If there was any effort to educate the school community about Retaliation, how serious it is, and how it would not be tolerated, there is no documentation of such an effort available online. Online, in fact, you can find the most outrageous, vicious and ugly gossip, spread by members of the Silsbee community against the victim, seeking in every possible way to undermine her account of the crime, to drag her name through the mud. Much of that gossip centered on how drunk she allegedly had been. The vicious gossips should remember to send D.A. David Sheffield a tip at Christmas for tacitly authorizing them to demean the victim on that basis. At the school, fellow students would yell “Slut!” and “Bitch!” at her, but nobody would report them to school administration. She was repeatedly harassed in the school cafeteria — but instead of disciplining those who were retaliating against her, the school administration told her to stay away from the cafeteria. For good measure, they told her not to attend homecoming. (She had apparently received threats saying that if she attended the homecoming, she would be shot with a gun). This is to say, the school administration itself retaliated against her but was never held legally accountable, despite that previous statement from David Sheffield, the prize-winning District Attorney who didn’t bother to get an expedited rape kit result. Various students claim Bolton threatened to shoot them. The implication is that if they as witnesses said anything to incriminate him, they would be killed. Silsbee schools never investigated these allegations.
The victim, H.S. started rape counseling with a therapist who told her she hadn’t done anything wrong, had nothing to be ashamed of and so should hold her head high and try to live her normal life. The therapist even advised her to return to cheerleading. This led to a shocking, ghastly instance of retaliation against the victim by the school administration. And of course, that retaliation has never been prosecuted.
Returned to cheerleading, the victim on several occasions refrained from cheering her accused attacker individually, without incident. But then at a February, 2009 basketball game, Bolton went to the foul line to shoot a free throw. H.S. folded her arms and remained silent. It seems apparent from what followed that the school administration had noted her previous silences and so strategized over a way to get revenge on her. They did not offer to talk with her about the matter in a private setting or to offer to let her therapist or some other advocate sit in on that session. Bain, Bain’s assistant and the then Principal, Gaye Lokey, piled on the victim, telling her that she either had to cheer for her attacker individually or be permanently expelled from the cheerleading team. The Cheerleading Squad Sponsor Sissy McInnis joined in the retaliation. The victim was in tears, humiliated in front of a school community that had been viciously gossiping about her for months. Only the victim’s father came to her defense. Turns out that during the cheerleading practice session when the girls were admonished that they had to cheer for every player, the victim had been in one of her rape counseling sessions.
With persistence, the family by June, 2009 got the criminal justice system to convene a second grand jury. Attorney David Barlow was named special prosecutor. The jury indicted Rakheem Bolton on a charge of sexual assault of a child. A second football player, Christian Rountree was indicted as well. A third football player originally charged in the case was left out on the second go-round. Barlow said that the grand jury didn’t have jurisdiction over him.
Reverend Billy Ray Robinson, President of the Jasper, Texas branch of the NAACP, protested the indictment in the NAACP’s name. Reverend Robinson is, according to one local source, Rakheem Bolton’s great uncle. The video of the Reverend’s criticism of the indictment ends with appeals to God and Jesus.
Reporter Charles Michael Pough alleges that special prosecutor David Barlow and the Judge in the case, Joe Bob Golden, are supporters of local athletics. Be that as it may, they worked out a plea bargain for Bolton, wherein he pleaded guilty to a Class A Assault in September, 2010. Bolton was given a sentence of two years probation, including anger management counseling and community service. According to his current Facebook profile, he is married and living in Miami. His Attorney Stella Morrison had told the media that he was going to be accepting one of the football scholarships offered to him and going off to college. The question of how a Texas probation officer is enforcing the terms of Bolton’s probation with Bolton living in Florida remains to be reported to the public.
The victim told a reporter that she had acquiesced to the plea bargain offer after being told that a trial would be at least a year off. Remember, this victim had survived having her District Attorney tell all of Silsbee that she was drunk for the attack and so could not provide legally-valid testimony. She had then been extensively retaliated against by students and teachers alike, and viciously maligned on the internet by local community members. “All I wanted,” she said, of the plea bargain “was for somebody to come forward and say, ‘Yes, it happened.‘
KFDM news orchestrated a perfectly revolting bit of post-sentencing propaganda, a video segment, to make Silsbee feel it had no reason to examine its collective conscience. Special Prosecutor Barlow alleged on television that the victim and her family were happy with the “resolution.” In about ten seconds, you can learn on the internet that the victim’s father is not happy at all.
Too bad there aren’t any transcripts of what Barlow told the victim she would likely face from the prosecution and the community if they went ahead to trial. Class A Assault in the Texas penal code is a misdemeanor, unless the crime is committed against a public servant, in which case it is a felony. Superintendent Richard Bain, his salary paid with tax dollars, is a public servant. Had Bolton pleaded guilty to Class A Assault against him, he would have been guilty of a felony. As he had instead assaulted a female student, however, the crime is considered a misdemeanor, and therefore punished only as a misdemeanor.
To what exactly did Bolton plead guilty? Here is the Texas penal code definition of Class A Assault; “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another, including the person’s spouse.” What bodily injury has Bolton admitted causing the victim? It’s not as if the KFDM news team thought to ask that question. Bolton told them that he has “no hard feelings” towards the victim. “It was all a misunderstanding,” he said. Is this a man, or a worm inhabiting a man’s body? Bolton expressed no regret about the assault to which he had just pleaded guilty.
He did not apologize to his community for the way his criminal behavior had disrupted its peace of mind. Forget about ever hearing him apologize to his assault victim. Barlow said that the state was happy Bolton had admitted his guilt, without clarifying exactly what Bolton pleaded guilty to having done. Barlow also said that if only one knew the facts of the case, one would understand why no other outcome was possible.
The most widely-reported of the cases involving this victim centered on student free speech issues. Did she or did she not have the right to refuse to cheer her assailant individually? Over recent decades, even as the Supreme Court has decided that corporations are “individuals” with the same free speech rights as individual citizens, courts have increasingly sided against students’ free speech rights in favor of schools. You will look pretty much in vain for this victim’s U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady to say a word in favor of women’s rights. And, Brady voted against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Conservative-stacked courts decided against this victim in her free speech case and appeals. They stuck her with the Silsbee Independent School District’s Attorneys’ fees of $45K, or about the amount the district takes in at a home football game. Superintendent Richard Bain has yet to apologize to the victim, for ganging up with other Silsbee School employee thugs to give her an ultimatum after she refused to cheer individually the student thug who had assaulted her. He also has yet to announce that the district wouldn’t think of having the victim or her family pay those attorney fees. Like Rakheem Bolton, Superintendent Richard Bain is not a man, but rather a worm in a man’s body. Just how lacking in compassion does somebody have to be to humiliate a teenage cheerleader in front of the community instead of speaking with her in private with an advocate present? A team of psychiatrists has done work with brain scans trying to determine whether psychopaths are physiologically different from normal people. One thing they note about psychopaths is that they understand right from wrong but have no empathy for their victims. Forget about Silsbee or the Hardin County criminal justice system ever holding any of the people who retaliated against the victim accountable.
I had an exchange with a reporter for The Silsbee Bee in which he was vigorously defensive about how the outside world had, in his view, so unfairly criticized Silsbee. He claimed to have seen the case file in its entirety, and also claimed that anybody who saw that file would stop criticizing Silsbee. I told him to publish the whole file on The Silsbee Bee site. He stopped responding. Do not hold your breath expecting residents of Silsbee to examine their consciences and then to clean out the stinking cesspools that make up their collective moral sense. Ain’t gonna happen. Just as I was putting the finishing touches on this article, I received this message in an e-mail: “Can you give me H.S.’s e-mail address? I’m 72 years old and just lost a dear friend, also a former cheerleader who also was abused. I’d like to donate to HS in my friend’s memory.”
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The message this town has sent out to its young men and women is clear.
Its ok to rape someone if your a football star.
Sick people in that town…
SHAME ON YOU PEOPLE!!
I hope the young lady can move away from there and find a town that has some honor.
It’s no different than any zealot, whether Republican or religious. Everything they do, they do it with a clear conscience … they feel their cause is what matters, and individuals don’t.
So sad, but we’re seeing this in every aspect of life. People forget that we are all connected. What hurts one of us, hurts all of us.
What an incredibly repugnant state Texas is in with its conservative Christian behaviour.
There is nothing conservative or Christian about that behavior. What planet are you from?
How is your comment even slightly relevant? What does conservative Christian behavior have anything to do with allowing 3 boys to get away with raping a fellow student? That is neither conservative nor Christian?!?!
Unbelievable! I am from Texas, and while this doesn’t surprise me, it makes me sick at the same time. Texas high school football is like no other. I think it is a disgrace that the adults in this entire situation can live their day to day lives, sleep at night, and continue to work where they do after the way they treated this young woman. This is a terrible display of bullying, not to mention “no tolerance” with killing threats. This is a terrible display of living Gods words and I think every adult in this story (other than the author & the girls father) should be fired from their job and be forced to relive their actions every day. Congratulations to the author for sharing this story and Oh My God you poor young lady…my heart goes out to you & I pray you will recover from these terrible acts of human “kindness”. God Bless you & give you strength. We don’t know each other but you, my dear, will always be my friend!
Every person in this story including the therapist delighted in humiliating her. Its like a boxing trainer that secretly wants to see his boxer get knocked out.
What a horrible story. Sports over rape. Sports over life. Money over humanity
See also: Texas Tech, where they are gutting the education budget, laying off staff, and raising fees while simultaneously giving their football coach a $500,000 raise. I think that Texas is being very blatant in demonstrating that their priorities are seriously out of calibration.
There’s something horribly wrong with the entire picture in that state. They already have a problem with trying to revise history to fit a reactionary ideology.
Sickening. The people who hurt and harassed her are scum. Is there any way we can help by either donating or perhaps starting a petition against forcing her to pay those fees?
Wow. I cannot believe the insincerity of it all. She was treated as an outcast by Everyone! How horrible, and degrading. WTF?? Those people at the party who witnessed this, should all be ashamed. All that she needed was one person to come to her defense, and say that it did happen. She was indeed raped. You all should be ashamed of yourselves for not having the courage to do so. I am a Texas resident, and this puts me to shame. I could care less if you are the mayor of the town, a celebrity, the chief of police, or a sports star, especially a football player. You have no right to take advantage of a person like that. No right!
This is more evidence that psychopaths recognize other psychopaths from the power structure, the bench, the jury box, the press, and protect and enable them, even when they don’t know them and nothing’s in it for them. When it relates to sports, war, or empire, this is also an example of the bait dog principle: when you want to breed a “titan” or a “champion” you give him a designated victim to bully, who is disabled from fighting back (just as actual bait dogs have their teeth pulled). In the world of sports and the military, the bait dogs are generally women. Politically and financially, they are the non- rich and the non-connected. And increasingly, the courts are putting their imprimature on the bait- dog system. I wonder how many victims are being made now that they have been taught they dare not squeak.
This girl deserves a medal for standing up for herself when literally everyone around her was being the definition of a miserable human being. I’d donate some money to help her pay those fees. I’m hoping she can turn this horrific event into a positive – like her completing her degree in forensic science or maybe starting an organization to help out girls in a similar position. I’m behind her 100%.
I wish that this article didn’t exist. I wish rape didn’t exist, but if someone had to write about this case, I’m glad you did, because it makes me angrier than the first accounting of it I read a few days ago, meaning incisive and extremely well-written. I almost posted on Author Anne Rice’s Facebook (who linked your report) that Mr. Bolton has a Facebook page. I don’t think he’s been there since approximately June 2010, and probably a good thing too because I’d sure like to ask him how he sleeps at night and what it feels like to be a filthy rapist/small-time sports hero, much like this revolting TV interview show that followed O.J. Simpson around L.A. some time after he’d been acquitted for murder. A woman walks up to him, shakes his hand (he think it’s another fan) and she says, in quietly ironic tones, “I always wanted to shake hands with a murderer”, and walked away. I’ve never forgotten it. Being the sociopath that he is, Simpson merely laughed it off.
As a member of Equality Now, I don’t know how you stop rape other than through education and stiffer laws. But what do you do about this tangled web where there are many, many underlying factors involved. Damned if I know. It’s sickening.
Texas, like most states, requires a defendant to recount the event he/she is making an admission of guilt for.
This will be in the trial transcript – the hearing where the defendants pleaded guilty. A copy can be obtained by requesting it from the court clerk for the judge hearing the case.
This can be also be used in a civil trial – and since no justice was had by the victim in criminal court, perhaps a lifetime of making monetary payments to the victim would give her a sense that justice is also available in civil court.
Just ask the family of Nicole Simpson and the Goldberg family.
I’m stuck back on “they were all drunk- she was too drunk to give testimony” — if she is too drunk for her testimony to be worth much, she was too drunk to give consent.
As for the school and community, SHAME on them. I’m really proud of this young lady and her family for sticking up for what’s right no matter how they were treated.
Sarah – you should not fail to notice – the court ordered the assailant to pay a $2,500 fine. His victim got raped, kicked off the cheerleading squad and then had to wait two years to be ordered to pay $45,000.
Sadly, I am not shocked by this one bit. This is typical of the sort of treatment rape and abuse victims get in this country. It is outrageous; and it is common.
The courts, the laws, the enforcers of the laws are predominantly male and the victims predominantly female (rape, domestic assault). The crime is “silent” and often not reported. When it is reported, if the alleged abuser has any stature in the community, the outcry against the girl will stun a normal person. So, the hierarchy is quite clear in this country. Rape and assault victims are to be denigrated, questioned, and the burden for coping put on them. They are assumed to be liars quite often. They are kicked out of the society they belong to for speaking up because it makes others uncomfortable or causes a loss to the community to admit that said hero might have harmed this one girl. They figure it’s best to sacrifice the girl and keep the hero, because there is a “lot at stake”.
This is how we ended up with staggeringly high assault rates in this country – along with death by an intimate partner being one of the top killers of young women.
@MR. Ejercito. What point are you trying to make? Do you think that a single case in which a woman behaved inappropriately nullifies all evidence involving male rapes of females? You look both narrow-minded and idiotic . . (not precisely the same condition, btw) with your comments. Yes, each case must be examined on its own merits. No, the case you are mentioning does not invalidate documented truths about sexual assault statistics.
I’ve lived in Texas most of my life, and before tonight had never heard of Silsbee, and honestly wish I hadn’t in a way. But to be honest, like the responder above it sickens, but doesn’t surprise me. In small Texas towns any sports teams are revered so long as they contribute to the town’s financial stability, however mentally unstable the town may be! These people are bored, ignorant rednecks who probably believe that if a girl is raped, she did something to deserve it! The best thing this family can do is to leave this horrible place behind and warn everyone they meet to never even consider visiting there! I want to also wish the girl in question all the best in the future and I hope she is able to achieve her goal to become a forensic scientist! To me this would be the best way to show that town that you can’t keep an intelligent, strong woman down, no matter how hard they may try!!!
Maybe I missed something but…why in Heaven’s name does this poor girl have to pay the school’s attorney fees?!
The case for which she has been ordered to pay the school district’s attorney fees is the one that she brought against the school for violation of her free speech rights. The courts that heard the case ruled against her, and awarded the defendants’ attorneys their fees from the plaintiff, the girl.
Where does the school district’s umbrella policy, that which covers potential legal costs, fit into this equation?
I’d like to see a huge legal defense fund set up so that this girl can hire the best lawyers she can find and appeal the lower court’s decision in her suit against the school district.
Agreed, I would love to kick in some money. But I can’t find anywhere to do so.
Fucking monsters, these people.
have activated a State Bar IOLTA Trust From the victim’s attorney Larry Watts: “I have set up an Account at Bank of Texas to receive donations to HS and her parents for court assessed costs, her legal fees and expenses. Contributions should be sent to Watts Associates IOLTA Routing Number 111014325, Account No. 2902216304.”
Angela, it’s sickening, isn’t it? Victims are being revictimized, not just throughout the so-called “pre-trial” (typically there is no trial; harassment cases usually are summarily dismissed) interrogatory and discovery phases, but then again through summary judgement and the awarding of “costs” by the judges to the defendants. It’s become endemic throughout the courts in America – mostly (so it seems, anyway … courts are not required to retain any records whatsoever in cases that have been dismissed) in its backlash against women.
I would like to donate to this badly, badly wronged girl and her family to help defray some tiny bit of the vindictive saddling of her family with the $45k legal bill. Whenever someone asks me why I hate Texas, I will point at this story as one very good example.
Watts & Associates(281) 431-1500
P.O. Box 2214
Missouri City, TX 77459
wattstrial@gmail.com
Just to put this out there… I do think that you should take the time to understand that Texas is, well, a very big place before you decide that you hate absolutely everything about it. I’m from Houston, and everything I read in this article shocked and disgusted me. The treatment of this young woman was appalling. But I think you should also know that this is not anything like a usual or accepted occurrence.
some how I knew that the clergy would end up saying Jesus was on the side of the rapist.
If you know Texas you know not to expect much else from Deep East Texas and Silsbee is nothing if not Deep East Texas. I’m not at all surprised at this. Football is king in Texas. You don’t touch a star football player, no matter what color he is.
What happened to this young lady is outrageous but you’re right, Kevin Brady will never say anything in her favor. The Republican Party of TX is totally against women and their rights.
This will happen again and again in this state. I certainly hope H.S. is able to move far from TX or at least far from Silsbee. That’s not a place I’d want to live if I were a young lady.
[...] Politics USA: I want the reader to have some idea of how important football is to Silsbee, Texas and then how [...]
This story is a sickeningly graphic demonstration of how far entire communities will go to punish a woman for being raped–and to protect her rapist. If there’s a fund to pay the fine, count me in. The amount could be raised many times over if every woman who was raped in the course of a single year in the U.S., and every person who was negatively affected by those rapes, sent in $1.
These rapists are going to hurt other girls or women because they have been allowed to get away with this. Is there any way to contribute to legal assistance for this girl, who has been treated so atrociously by other human beings who are supposed to be educated? What I also find sickening is that this Rev. Robinson, who is Bolton’s great-uncle and involved with the NAACP, is aiding and abetting an injustice in the name of an organization that’s about fighting racial injustices. Regardless of race, Bolton is dead wrong and should be held accountable along with his fellow assailants, especially after threatening others against testifying against him. One of the gross injustices the NAACP addressed was the rape of black women in the South under Jim Crow. Regardless of the outcome of her case, this girl needs to leave that town which has more than its share of male AND female Neanderthals and seems stuck in the 15th century in its views of women, especially rape victims.
Silsbee, Texas is the prime example of what the Republicans want to do to the entire nation. They view themselves as Rahkeem Bolton, deemed superior and thus above the law, while the rest of us are H. S., subject to any whim or urge the Boltons of the GOP care to inflict upon us.
And yet we can’t get those who vote Republican to see that this until it is happening to them personally. Then they are mad at us for not warning them in time. Rot in hell, you rat bastards!
@Realist –
Please stop using this horrifying case as an excuse to bash Republicans. Its pathetic. I am a Republican. I also happen to be the mother of the captain of the football cheerleaders at our high school. I do not support what happened to this girl, nor do I support politicians “raping” the nation. This was a really inappropriate analogy, and you should be ashamed of yourself for making it.
Thank you.
This is so typical of this backward state. Let them seceed from the Union, good riddance to the “don’t mess with texas” mentailty.
This is an example of what has become the pattern of how success has been obtained in America since its birth. Total disregard for the well-being of others, for its own personal gain. This is how you win, and if you don’t want to get on board, step aside. That is the message that we have passed down from generation to generation, and unfortunately but especially in the world of athletics. We have to do something different in order to change the way people think and react when involved in a tragedy like this one. We have to speak up each time it happens, or no one wins. But then again, that’s my point. Because incidents like this one have been looked over for years and years, it has given power to the people that can benefit from doing it over and over again. The athlete, the supporters of the athlete, the reverend (who did not properly represent the NAACP), the D.A.’s involved, the counselors and school administration, the cheer-leading coach (who should have been the biggest advocate for the victim due to the fact that she works with young ladies, how do the other girls on the squad feel now that they now they have ZERO protection against rape or “assault”). The one sure thing will be that God will get ultimate glory out of this situation, and the young lady WILL come out on better than ever! Share your story, as I will, to any player, coach, parent, teacher, and anyone that will listen, so that it never happens in my radius or on my watch. We can all make a difference.
God bless you young lady. The HORROR of it all. I can’t even imagine. The sense of INJUSTICE is almost overwhelming. How will she cope? Please go on with your studies and become a GREAT success. That is your best revenge and be a happy wonderful young lady. The values of today’s society sicken me. As the french say C’est dégueulasse. DISGUSTING!
How can people be so petty?!
This is abhorrent, and no excuse for it happening, period. With that being said, this is not a strictly “Texas” problem. This happens all over the country, in every state with every sport. Having been the parent of two Texas high school football players, I know this “our players are untouchable” attitude and have been vocal in my disgust with it, to the point of some colorful words with the father of the quarterback one evening during a game. Not everyone in Texas are like the people of this one small time town that lacks the measure of one complete brain to pass between them. The people from Silsbee are breeding the future Kobe Bryant’s of the nation and should be ashamed of themselves. Unfortunately, they will all have some actions to answer for when Bolton strikes again and more violently, if he truly is “married” now, I hope for the protection of their daughter, his wife’s parents are informed of his background, before they have to identify their daughter’s body. Good job Silsbee, keep up the good work and determination to prove every Texas stereotype right, mouth breathing blockheads!
It’s time for people to recognize that it is the culture of Texas and the culture of the United States justice system that allowed this atrocity to happen. This young woman did nothing wrong. Those young “men” – and I put that word in scare quotes deliberately – should never be allowed to play in any sport again, ever, whether high school, college, or professional, and they should have to make restitution to the victim. They should also spend ten to fifteen years in prison, where they will find out what it’s like to be on the receiving end of such treatment. Perhaps that would open their eyes to what they did, although I doubt it. As long as they live in the culture that condones and supports what they did, they’ll never learn.
Just so you know, this is NOT “the culture of Texas.” There are many, many people in Texas that support legal justice and women’s rights and vote that way and I’m one of them. Making broad defamatory statements about an entire region is not the way to effectively criticize injustice.
If HS was so affected by alcohol that she could not be a witness to her own rape then she should, by law, be incapable of giving consent.. which brings it back again to rape…
What happened is sickening but we live in a world where a somebody is worth more than a person just going about their life..
This whole thing is premised on the idea that anything can be done to mere girls, because they are powerless, harmless, and relatively valueless. The idea that someon as outraged as this girl was might get a repeating shotgun, say, and do a Dylan Kliebold on their precious football players never occurs to them. I’d like to see their faces when it happens.
Everywhere I have seen this latest development reported I have also seen commentators ask where they can donate to a fund for the victim, but I haven’t seen any answer. I don’t live in the U.S., so I don’t think there’s any way I can set something up myself. Is there someone who could take on the task of creating a donation site? There would obviously be a huge response.
My idea, if the Silsbee Schools won’t waive the $45K attorney fee now being charged to the victim, is to organize the necessary number of donors to send one penny each towards payment of the $45K. Additionally and separately, the victim’s attorney Larry Watts is setting up a trust fund for her, as she now has in mind that after graduate school she would like to get a law degree. The trust fund should begin in operation and be open for contributions in about a month. The penny-sending campaign should be initiated much sooner than that. Check back for details. Thank you for your concern for the victim.
H.S’s lawyer, Larry Watts has set up a fund. Contributions should be sent to Watts Associates IOLTA Routing Number 111014325, Account No. 2902216304.
I am amazed at the forbearance & humanity of this young lady & her family: if this were me, or my daughter, someone would be dead. At least 3 someones.
Amen.
I live in a town near Silsbee. What saddens me is that I haven’t heard ANYTHING on the local news since this case broke. I heard rumors about the victim from people that lived in Silsbee, and I saw the local coverage that was so “fair” that it was obvious they didn’t believe the victim. Beyond that… nothing. We definitely didn’t hear that she had to pay attorney fees. I’m so embarrassed that I only live 10 minutes from these “people”. As much as it saddened me to admit, the “football is king” culture is prevalent here. However, this is not a “Texas” problem. The US has a strong history of degrading women for the benefit of men. What is even worse is that we have more equality here than in most countries.
You’re right, it isn’t just in East Texas. I just recently graduated from a football-oriented college in West North Carolina. My friend worked in the Housing Department, and over the summer, during the summer camps, football players and regular students would share dorms. When making up the room issues, she was told to be sure not to put more than 3 football players each on one floor.
Apparently, in the past, when there were more than 3 football players to a floor, they’d “hunt” the women on the floor, and end up gang-raping several of the girls. No charges were made. In fact, the only charge that was made was by a girl who was immediately expelled from the school for drugs.
It wasn’t in the newspaper. It wasn’t on any online forums. The only reason I knew about it, was because she was my neighbor during this period and I caught her crying on her back porch about it. There was absolutely no coverage.
She wasn’t on drugs. She even went immediately to the infirmary to take several drug tests (including hair and blood) to prove that she had never touched it in her life; she had no idea how that bag of weed ended up on top of her wardrobe. She was 18.
She moved three years ago, and I can’t tell you she’s okay. I can’t tell you where she is. I certainly can’t tell you that the men responsible were brought to justice.
Conservatives love nothing more than the opportunity to harm a rape victim.
This is ridiculously offensive.
I see a lot of people asking for a fund to contribute to the legal costs. Has this been set up?
From Larry Watts, the victim’s attorney; “I have activated a State Bar IOLTA Trust Account at Bank of Texas to receive donations to HS and her parents for court assessed costs, her legal fees and expenses. Contributions should be sent to Watts Associates IOLTA Routing Number 111014325, Account No. 2902216304.
[...] report on the Silsbee, Texas cheerleader assaulted by a high school sports hero and then extensively revictimized by the Hardin County community has occasioned a huge outpouring [...]
I have been seeing news about this travesty for a while now. It is really sad when something like this becomes fuel for race or political affiliation. I’m not talking just on here, but on many wesites it becomes a race war or conservatives or liberals or some other garbage like that. Bottom line this is the result of 3 people that had terrible upbringing and no sense of morals.
I too have seen Bolton’s profile on Facebook. I see no remorse on that page whatsoever. In fact I see more of the ghetto fabulous attitude.
I’m very proud of HS for standing up for herself. Not that I ever wish that sort of thing on any person, but I hope that any other woman could use her as an inspiration.
As for the rest of that crappy little town, I’m hoping for high radiation levels and low birth rates. Maybe the town will cease to exist.
Intellectual bankruptcy at it’s finest. What a sad excuse for people you lot are for letting this happen.
Such mixed feelings reading this article.
Silsbee, Texas was and has always been a redneck community that years ago which grew fast due to major “white flight” from neighboring Beaumont.
Silsbee’s school district handled this in the most awful way I could ever imagine. Unconscionable. Shame on them and for the students/parents gang mentality bullying towards the cheerleader.
What a total moron the preacher man from Jasper is to announce a decision as he did for the NAACP. (Someone should subtitle his announcement he is impossible to understand!) What a total idiot.
I also am sure there are false accusations all the time when alcohol and sex are mixed which makes this more difficult to stomach, so it would be great to see all the public records on this case online somewhere.
One thing also is that I’d have to add that Judge Joe Bob Golden is a man with a great reputation and integrity as a judge in East Texas, and I wonder what all he knew that we don’t. In a community of yeehaw politicans, pathetic county government leadership, and drama galore within city politics in tiny little cities, he is very much a leader. He was the guy who put the murderers of James Byrd on death row in Texas –
Great article – tragic story. Thank God I got out of East Texas.
“I also am sure there are false accusations all the time when alcohol and sex are mixed”
WTF is this supposed to mean?? I can’t think of a more inappropriate place to try to sneak in a rape apologist line.
Did you notice that the victim was heard screaming “No!” Did you notice that when her rescuers started pounding on the door, the attacker jumped out the window naked? As for Judge Golden’s integrity, it was in his discretion to put the assailant in jail for a year after he pleaded guilty to assault. The Judge instead suspended the sentence. To exactly which form of assault do you believe the convicted person pleaded guilty?
Did you notice that the victim was heard screaming “No!” Did you notice that when her rescuers started pounding on the door, the attacker jumped out the window naked?
Yeah, there’s no way to explain away those facts. It’s rape.
There is a legal fund to help H.S. and her family defray the court costs. It has been set up by her lawyer, Larry Watts. Contributions should be sent to Watts Associates IOLTA Routing Number 111014325, Account No. 2902216304.
[...] in how it handled the case. (For one blogger’s assessment of just how wrong they were, read this.) Whether by dropping her assailant from the team or suspending the practice of sideline cheers or [...]
Texas, an embarrassment to every American, your state flag, and every military family who fights for your rights and freedoms. Your behavior is a disgrace to humanity. You will wrong anyone you can as long as you win a ball game! Criminals.
As I said above, making broad defamatory statements about an entire region is not the way to effectively criticize injustice. Yes, there are a great many things wrong in the state of Texas. There are also a great many things wrong in communities all across the United States. Demonizing Texas as a whole isn’t going to right these wrongs.
I strongly suggest your state stop voting republican. Until then……………
It would be really great if that could happen. No one feels more strongly about that than me and many other Texas liberals.
Did anyone check one of the cheers for his b-ball game? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silsbee_Independent_School_District
For those not bothering to click the link.. the cheer she refused to say for the boy who raped her goes like this..
“Two, four, six, eight, ten, come on, Rakheem, put it in”
PUT IT IN??? She was forced to tell the boy who raped her to PUT IT IN? That alone makes me want to go to Texas and commit mayhem on that prinicpal and anyone else who forced that girl to shout those words to the boy who “put it in” without her consent. Im appalled.
Were Texans of whatever political affiliation adequately engaged in the struggle for social justice within their own state, then a Texan, not I would have researched, written and published this article.
How dare you imply that no one in the state of Texas gives a damn about this? Of course it’s important to be more engaged in the pursuit of social justice and yes, I strongly believe that we all should be. But wow, it sure must be comfortable where you live, assuming that everyone in this state is the embodiment of everything you hate.
Someone needs to find this down and burn it to the fucking ground.
I appreciate the dissection of this case very much. I am happy to find documentation online of people advocating for this brave girl. However, I find the description of her appearance a little off-putting. I didn’t read a description of the appearance of any of the other people mentioned in this case, and including subjective description of the girls “bookish” looks and “incandescent” smile is pretty distasteful.
?? ?????? ? ???? ????
How is that distasteful?
This is just awful. My hope is that people will learn from this terribly unfortunate incidence…my fear is that they will not.
Sending good vibes out to the author and the victim.
That girl should move to Oregon. That football player would have been tanked! Star or not. I hope she gets everything she wants out of life, she most certainly deserves it.
[...] Texas Cheerleader Who Was Assaulted Never Had A Chance. The dark side of “Friday Night Lights.” [...]