Harvey Weinstein scandal: New claim alleges sex trafficking, When Sexual Assault Victims Are Charged With Lying, Chinese capital probe into alleged child abuse

- Harvey Weinstein scandal: New claim alleges sex trafficking
"According to the complaint, Weinstein called an unnamed Weinstein Company producer, who told the actress that she needed to be “a good girl and do whatever (Weinstein) wished,” and if she did, “they would work” with her further. Weinstein then began groping her, pulled her into a bathroom, and forced her to fondle him."

- When Sexual Assault Victims Are Charged With Lying
"In all three instances, the women were charged with lying. In all three instances, their reports turned out to be true. The men who raped them were later identified and convicted."

- Chinese Kindergarten Principal Fired, Teacher Detained Amid Child Abuse Scandal
"Staff were found to have “used needles and intimidation tactics to abuse many of the children under their care on multiple occasions" 

Harvey Weinstein scandal: New claim alleges sex trafficking
Erin Jensen, USA TODAY Nov. 27, 2017

The Harvey Weinstein scandal continues to unfold.

The Hollywood producer, who stands accused of sexual assault and harassment by dozens of women, also faces a growing number of lawsuits. 

The latest updates:

A civil claim of sex trafficking filed in New York

British actress Kadian Noble filed a civil suit on Monday in New York alleging that Harvey Weinstein forced her into sexual acts while abroad in 2014. Even more damning: The suit, obtained by USA TODAY, claims The Weinstein Company violated federal sex trafficking law "by benefiting from, and knowingly facilitating" Weinstein's foreign business travels in which he would "recruit or entice female actors into forced or coerced sexual encounters on the promise of roles in films or entertainment projects."

Noble says she was summoned to the producer's hotel room at Cannes Film Festival in 2014 to talk about a role. He began massaging her shoulders and told her to "relax." According to the complaint, Weinstein called an unnamed Weinstein Company producer, who told the actress that she needed to be “a good girl and do whatever (Weinstein) wished,” and if she did, “they would work” with her further. Weinstein then began groping her, pulled her into a bathroom, and forced her to fondle him.

The suit says Bob Weinstein and The Weinstein Company "knowingly participated in Weinstein's" trips to foreign countries for such purposes.

“I filed under the Federal sex trafficking law because I believe the facts as alleged in the complaint fit squarely within the statute," Jeff Herman, Noble’s lawyer, told USA TODAY in a statement. "The benefit of filing under this Federal law is that it allows us to bring a claim in the United States for an assault that occurred overseas and it has a 10 year statute of limitations.”

Noble and her lawyer will hold a news conference in New York on Tuesday.

Weinstein repeated his denial that anything non-consensual occurred. “Mr. Weinstein denies allegations of non-consensual sex," his representative Holly K. Baird told USA TODAY in a statement. "Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”

Weinstein resigns from Directors Guild

Facing disciplinary action from the Directors Guild of America, Weinstein has announced that he's resigning from the entertainment guild....
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/11/27/harvey-weinstein-civil-claim-uk-lodged-accusers-news/896904001/


When Sexual Assault Victims Are Charged With Lying
By KEN ARMSTRONG and T. CHRISTIAN MILLER NOV. 24, 2017

The women accusing the Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct have faced doubt and derision. Other women, who have alleged sexual assault or harassment by powerful men in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and elsewhere, have become targets for online abuse or had their careers threatened. Harvey Weinstein went so far as to hire ex-Mossad operatives to investigate the personal history of the actress Rose McGowan, to discourage her from publicly accusing him of rape.

There are many reasons for women to think twice about reporting sexual assault. But one potential consequence looms especially large: They may also be prosecuted.

This month, a retired police lieutenant in Memphis, Tenn., Cody Wilkerson, testified, as part of a lawsuit against the city, not only that police detectives sometimes neglected to investigate cases of sexual assault but also that he overheard the head of investigative services in the city’s police department say, on his first day in charge: “The first thing we need to do is start locking up more victims for false reporting.” It’s an alarming choice of priorities — and one that can backfire.

In 2015 we wrote an article for ProPublica and the Marshall Project about Marie, an 18-year-old who reported being raped in Lynnwood, Wash., by a man who broke into her apartment. (Marie is her middle name.) Police detectives treated small inconsistencies in her account — common among trauma victims — as major discrepancies. Instead of interviewing her as a victim, they interrogated her as a suspect. Under pressure, Marie eventually recanted — and was charged with false reporting, punishable by up to a year in jail. The court ordered her to pay $500 in court costs, get mental health counseling for her lying and go on supervised probation for one year. More than two years later, the police in Colorado arrested a serial rapist — and discovered a photograph proving he had raped Marie.

What happened to Marie seemed unthinkable. She was victimized twice — first raped, then prosecuted. But cases like hers can be found around the country. In 1997, a legally blind woman reported being raped at knife point in Madison, Wis. That same year, a pregnant 16-year-old reported being raped in New York City. In 2004, a 19-year-old reported being sexually assaulted at gunpoint in Cranberry Township, Pa.

In all three instances, the women were charged with lying. In all three instances, their reports turned out to be true. The men who raped them were later identified and convicted.

In 2001, a 13-year-old in White Bear Lake, Minn., reported being abducted and molested. “You keep lying and lying and lying and lying,” a police detective told her. In 2015, a physical therapist in Vallejo, Calif., reported being kidnapped and sexually assaulted. The police called her story a hoax. One lieutenant said that she “owes this community an apology.” In both instances, video footage later surfaced affirming the victims’ reports....
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/opinion/sunday/sexual-assault-victims-lying.html 


Chinese Kindergarten Principal Fired, Teacher Detained Amid Child Abuse Scandal
2017-11-27

A kindergarten in the Chinese capital has fired its principal amid a probe into alleged child abuse of children and toddlers that has rocked the nation.

New York-listed RYB Education said it had removed the principal of its New World kindergarten in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, and also fired a 22-year-old teacher surnamed Liu, who is now being detained by district police on suspicion of abuse.

Chaoyang authorities said they have ordered an immediate safety review of all childcare facilities operating in the district.

Police last week confiscated surveillance footage and carried out forensic tests, amid reports from parents that their children had been sexually abused, while others said pupils had been “pierced by needles and given unidentified pills,” it said.

Several teachers at the kindergarten have been suspended, amid reports from parents that children as young as three said a naked adult male had conducted "medical check-ups" on unclothed pupils, Reuters cited media reports as saying.

But Chinese lawyer Zhang Tingyuan said the police had only made very vague statements about the allegations so far.

“There has been no transparency, for example about whether they were raped, or sexually assaulted, or physically abused or deliberately harmed,” Zhang said. “They should let people know exactly what kind of abuse was involved.”

“And yet, we’ve only had one incidence of abuse detailed by the police,” he said. “People should be told, and the more bitty the information, the more people will suspect it.”

In 2015, a court in Jilin province found two teachers guilty of physically abusing children at another RYB kindergarten in Siping city.

Staff were found to have “used needles and intimidation tactics to abuse many of the children under their care on multiple occasions," it found.

Investigation at second facility

Meanwhile, further abuse allegations are being investigated at a second childcare facility in Beijing, media reports indicate.

Staff at the Huanyu Kindergarten, also in Chaoyang district, confirmed to RFA on Monday that they are “in the process of trying find out” about allegations that children there were also pricked with needles.

But the staff member said those teachers accused by parents were currently still working at the kindergarten, which has 300-400 pupils....
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/chinese-kindergarten-principal-fired-teacher-detained-amid-child-abuse-scandal-11272017144608.html