Topic: Prosecutor questions Christine Blasey Ford's credibility
no photo
Mon 10/01/18 03:07 PM
Here ya go, all but the first page of Rachel Mitchell's memorandum post-hearing of Ford.


In the legal context, here is my bottom line: A “he said, she said” case is incredibly difficult to prove. But this case is even weaker than that. Dr. Ford identified other witnesses to theevent, and those witnesses either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them. For
the reasons discussed below, I do not think that a reasonable prosecutor would bring thiscase based on the evidence before the Committee. Nor do I believe that this evidence issufficient to satisfy the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard.


Dr. Ford has not offered a consistent account of when the alleged assault happened.

• In a July 6 text to the Washington Post, she said it happened in the “mid 1980s.”
• In her July 30 letter to Senator Feinstein, she said it happened in the “early 80s.”
• Her August 7 statement to the polygrapher said that it happened one “high school
summer in early 80’s,” but she crossed out the word “early” for reasons she did not explain.
• A September 16 Washington Post article reported that Dr. Ford said it happened in the“summer of 1982.”
• Similarly, the September 16 article reported that notes from an individual therapy session in 2013 show her describing the assault as occurring in her “late teens.” But she told thePost and the Committee that she was 15 when the assault allegedly occurred. She has not
turned over her therapy records for the Committee to review.
• While it is common for victims to be uncertain about dates, Dr. Ford failed to explain how she was suddenly able to narrow the timeframe to a particular season and particular year.


Dr. Ford has struggled to identify Judge Kavanaugh as the assailant by name.

• No name was given in her 2012 marriage therapy notes.
• No name was given in her 2013 individual therapy notes.
• Dr. Ford’s husband claims to recall that she identified Judge Kavanaugh by name in 2012. At that point, Judge Kavanaugh’s name was widely reported in the press as a potential Supreme Court nominee if Governor Romney won the presidential election.
• In any event, it took Dr. Ford over thirty years to name her assailant. Delayed disclosure of abuse is common so this is not dispositive.


When speaking with her husband, Dr. Ford changed her description of the incident to become less specific.

• Dr. Ford testified that she told her husband about a “sexual assault” before they were married.
• But she told the Washington Post that she informed her husband that she was the victim of “physical abuse” at the beginning of their marriage.
• She testified that, both times, she was referring to the same incident.


Dr. Ford has no memory of key details of the night in question—details that could help corroborate her account.

• She does not remember who invited her to the party or how she heard about it.
• She does not remember how she got to the party.
• She does not remember in what house the assault allegedly took place or where that house was located with any specificity.
• Perhaps most importantly, she does not remember how she got from the party back to her house.
o Her inability to remember this detail raises significant questions.
o She told the Washington Post that the party took place near the Columbia Country Club. The Club is more than 7 miles from her childhood home as the crow flies, and she testified that it was a roughly 20-minute drive from her childhood home.
o She also agreed for the first time in her testimony that she was driven somewherethat night, either to the party or from the party or both.
o Dr. Ford was able to describe hiding in the bathroom, locking the door, and subsequently exiting the house. She also described wanting to make sure that she did not look like she had been attacked.
o But she has no memory of who drove her or when. Nor has anyone come forward to identify him or herself as the driver.
o Given that this all took place before cell phones, arranging a ride home would not have been easy. Indeed, she stated that she ran out of the house after coming downstairs and did not state that she made a phone call from the house before shedid, or that she called anyone else thereafter.

• She does, however, remember small, distinct details from the party unrelated to the assault. For example, she testified that she had exactly one beer at the party and was taking no medication at the time of the alleged assault.


Dr. Ford’s account of the alleged assault has not been corroborated by anyone she identified as having attended—including her lifelong friend.

• Dr. Ford has named three people other than Judge Kavanaugh who attended the party—Mark Judge, Patrick “PJ” Smyth, and her lifelong friend Leland Keyser (née Ingham).Dr. Ford testified to the Committee that another boy attended the party, but that she could not remember his name. No others have come forward.
• All three named eyewitnesses have submitted statements to the Committee denying any memory of the party whatsoever. Most relevantly, in her first statement to the Committee, Ms. Keyser stated through counsel that, “[s]imply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr.Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford.” In a subsequent statement to the Committee through counsel, Ms. Keyser said that “the simple and unchangeable truth is that she is unable to corroborate [Dr. Ford’s allegations] because she has no recollection of the incident inquestion.”
o Moreover, Dr. Ford testified that her friend Leland, apparently the only other girl at the party, did not follow up with Dr. Ford after the party to ask why she had suddenly disappeared.


Dr. Ford has not offered a consistent account of the alleged assault.

• According to her letter to Senator Feinstein, Dr. Ford heard Judge Kavanaugh and Mark Judge talking to other party goers downstairs while she was hiding in the bathroom after the alleged assault. But according to her testimony, she could not hear them talking to anyone.

o In her letter, she stated, “I locked the door behind me. Both loudly stumbled downthe stairwell, at which point other persons at the house were talking
o She testified that Judge Kavanaugh or Mark Judge turned up the music in the bedroom so that the people downstairs could not hear her scream. She testified that, after the incident, she ran into the bathroom, locked the door, and heard them going downstairs. But she maintained that she could not hear their conversation with others when they got downstairs. Instead, she testified that she “assum[ed]” a
conversation took place.

• Her account of who was at the party has been inconsistent.
o According to the Washington Post’s account of her therapy notes, there were four boys in the bedroom in which she was assaulted.
o She told the Washington Post that the notes were erroneous because there were four boys at the party, but only two in the bedroom.
o In her letter to Senator Feinstein, she said “me and 4 others” were present at the party.
o In her testimony, she said there were four boys in addition to Leland Keyser and herself. She could not remember the name of the fourth boy, and no one has come forward.
o Dr. Ford listed Patrick “PJ” Smyth as a “bystander” in her statement to the polygrapher and in her July 6 text to the Washington Post, although she testified that it was inaccurate to call him a bystander. She did not list Leland Keyser even though they are good memorable than PJ Smyth’s.


Dr. Ford has struggled to recall important recent events relating to her allegations, and her
testimony regarding recent events raises further questions about her memory.


• Dr. Ford struggled to remember her interactions with the Washington Post.
o Dr. Ford could not remember if she showed a full or partial set of therapy notes to the Washington Post reporter.
+ She does not remember whether she showed the Post reporter the therapist’s notes or her own summary of those notes. The Washington Post article said that “portions” of her “therapist’s notes” were “provided by Ford and reviewed by” the Post. But in her testimony, Dr. Ford could not recall whether she summarized the notes for the reporter or showed her the actual records.

o She does not remember if she actually had a copy of the notes when she texted the Washington Post WhatsApp account on July 6.
+ Dr. Ford said in her first WhatsApp message to the Post that she “ha[d] therapy notes talking about” the incident when she contacted the Post’sipline. She testified that she had reviewed her therapy notes before contacting the Post to determine whether the the alleged incident, but could not remember if she had a copy of those
notes, as she said in her WhatsApp message, or merely reviewed them in
her therapist’s office.
• Dr. Ford refused to provide any of her therapy notes to the Committee.
• Dr. Ford’s explanation of why she disclosed her allegations the way she did raises questions.
o She claimed originally that she wished for her story to remain confidential, but the person operating the tipline at the Washington Post was the first person other than her therapist or husband to whom she disclosed the identity of her alleged attacker. She testified that she had a “sense of urgency to relay the information to the Senate and the president.” She did not contact the Senate, however, because
she claims she “did not know how to do that.” She does not explain why she knew how to contact her Congresswoman but not her Senator.
• Dr. Ford could not remember if she was being audio- or video-recorded when she took the polygraph. And she could not remember whether the polygraph occurred the same day as her grandmother’s funeral or the day after her grandmother’s funeral.
o It would also have been inappropriate to administer a polygraph to someone who
was grieving.


Dr. Ford’s description of the psychological impact of the event raises questions.

• She maintains that she suffers from anxiety, claustrophobia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
o The date of the hearing was delayed because the Committee was informed that her symptoms prevent her from flying. But she agreed during her testimony that she flies “fairly frequently for [her] hobbies and ... work.” She flies to the mid-Atlantic at least once a year to visit her family. She has flown to Hawaii, French Polynesia, and Costa Rica. She also flew to Washington, D.C. for the hearing.
o Note too that her attorneys refused a private hearing or interview. Dr. Ford testified that she was not “clear” on whether investigators were willing to travel to California to interview her. It therefore is not clear that her attorneys ever communicated Chairman Grassley’s offer to send investigators to meet her in California or wherever she wanted to meet to conduct the interview.
• She alleges that she struggled academically in college, but she has never made any similar claim about her last two years of high school.
• It is significant that she used the word “contributed” when she described the psychological impact of the incident to the Washington Post. Use of the word “contributed” rather than “caused” suggests that other life events may have contributed to her symptoms. And when questioned on that point, said that she could think of “nothing as striking as” the alleged assault. The activities of congressional Democrats and Dr. Ford’s attorneys likely affected Dr. Ford’s
account.
• See the included timeline for details.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-hired-prosecutor-rachel-mitchell-questions-credibility-of-kavanaugh-accuser-christine-blasey-ford/

Argo's photo
Mon 10/01/18 03:33 PM
no criminal charges were sought or suggested...
all he need do was maintain his composure, admit nothing
and that would have been the end of it..

his bizarre behavior, gulping water, crying and his referring
to conspiracy theories by democrats clearly shows he is
unfit to serve on the supreme court....he blew it Bigly

#ILikeBeerToo

I_love_bluegrass's photo
Mon 10/01/18 04:09 PM
Edited by I_love_bluegrass on Mon 10/01/18 04:15 PM
As someone who was date raped in 1979....I can vouch for why someone wouldn't report it.

I was date raped when i was 17 or 18..don't remember if it was before or after my birthday (which is in the middle of summer).
I did a naive thing which probably would have made it look like "my fault".
I had a horse, and a guy I knew asked me if I want to go for a drive one night.
I said yes....
As we were driving, one of the dirt roads i rode my horse down came up, and I said "this is a really cool road...if you want to go down there"..

I was making an innocent suggestion...I honestly (naively) meant nothing else other than what i said..
I wasn't hinting at parking...or subtley heading to a "secluded" place, and had up to this point had no reason to think this 24 year old was in any way an aggressor.

So he turns down the road..we drive a bit, then he parks....
I'll skip the details other than to say he said:
There was something wrong with me if I didn't want to fool around...I just needed to relax...enjoy it..
That if I reported him he'd get several of his buddies to say I had had sex with them, and was "wild"...and the charge would be dropped.
That they would laugh at me, because I obviously wanted to fool around, why else would I have suggested driving back here?

I told no one...but..I can tell you had he ever run for public office, I sure as heck WOULD....because someone putting themselves forth as an upstanding citizen, a decent person....people would need to know he wasn't..
But, he never did, and....as i remembered his name and his half brother's name (one of the guys he said he would get to say they had had sex with me)
all these years later (it sticks with you)....I found the half brother on Facebook (my attacker wasn't on there), and occasionaly perused his profile to see what this guy was up to (because, had he been elected for anything...)...and saw something about his half brother being in ill health with not much longer to live.
That was a couple years ago....I imagine he is dead now.

P.S.
To this day that's the reason I will not ride in a car with a guy I don't know (like, on a date), or even guys I *know*..because I sort of knew that guy..and had had NO indication he was an aggressor.
I either drive, and they ride with me....or I will meet them wherever we are going.

P.P.S...Then there is the story of about the guy that attempted togive me some kind of pill to "help me relax" at his house..
But that's another story altogether.

olivepit's photo
Mon 10/01/18 05:50 PM
Ford has a problem alright, and the Judge ain't it!

Workin4it's photo
Mon 10/01/18 06:20 PM
It doesn't matter what any report says or how many lies she told . These heartless hell bound low life's will deny and deflect all truthfully facts. It's in their George Soros liberal play book. And they follow it to a T. But it does my heart good to know he will be confirmed and the high court will be able to stop the vile disgusting road they would have us going down in the event of another liberal administration.

Lpdon's photo
Mon 10/01/18 10:38 PM
Already a thread on this....

https://mingle2.com/topic/563383

msharmony's photo
Tue 10/02/18 02:14 AM
Thank you for sharing your survivor story, people want to make all assault a one size fits all impact for everyone when it is absolutely not.


Toodygirl5's photo
Tue 10/02/18 05:32 AM
Edited by Toodygirl5 on Tue 10/02/18 05:34 AM
No one the democrats had in mind for a judge would ever hold a candle to Kavanaugh !

Democrats strategy for their deceitfulness is disgusting.

Ford had no credibility from what I watched on TV.




no photo
Tue 10/02/18 09:28 AM

Thank you for sharing your survivor story, people want to make all assault a one size fits all impact for everyone when it is absolutely not.



I am not a "survivor". Why are you talking to someone who isn't posting?

msharmony's photo
Tue 10/02/18 09:35 AM
It is clear that bluegrass is the only one who shared such a story, evident in context when one reads. I am not able to quote, so I can end up responding to a post after other posts have been submitted.



no photo
Tue 10/02/18 09:36 AM
Edited by GalaxyStarz on Tue 10/02/18 09:36 AM
Do you stutter? You can mention their screen name if you're addressing someone.

I_love_bluegrass's photo
Thu 10/04/18 08:28 AM

Do you stutter? You can mention their screen name if you're addressing someone.


1. *I* have had posts show up twice, and there is no way to delete the errant one..apparently you have to request an admin to do that.

2. Not everyone knows how to work this site as well as others (re: "Quote")

3. I don't remember the date of my rape..I just know it was in the summer of 1979.
I could find the place again..if they haven't built it all up with developments...At the time, it wasn't a developed area...

Does that mean it didn't happen?
No.


Easttowest72's photo
Thu 10/04/18 09:15 AM
People aren't saying not having an exact date means it isn't true. Not knowing how you got to a place that you don't know and how you got home and what year it was....is extreme. But she remembers she only had 1 beer and it was definitely k. Cosby's drugged victims have more info than Ford. :disappointed:

I_love_bluegrass's photo
Thu 10/04/18 09:36 AM
Edited by I_love_bluegrass on Thu 10/04/18 09:42 AM

People aren't saying not having an exact date means it isn't true. Not knowing how you got to a place that you don't know and how you got home and what year it was....is extreme. But she remembers she only had 1 beer and it was definitely k. Cosby's drugged victims have more info than Ford. :disappointed:


I don't want to argue, but..even if she'd had enough to drink (it *was* a frat/ college party) that she blacked out (and just doesn't want to admit, because judgey people)..that doesn't make it Ok for someone to take advantage of anyone.
Decent people would either take the person home, or put them in a room away from everyone else until they came around.

In my case, i had had nothing to drink..i was just naive, and too trusting.

I heard a very interesting program yesterday..
It talked about how many women never told their parents, because their dad had once said had anyone tried to hurt ":his little girl, he'd kill them"...and therefore they didn't want their dad to go to jail for assault, or worse, attempted murder.

or, they said..they knew it would sadden him..one woman said she was afraid it would make her dad cry...and she couldn;t bear that...
Hooey?
Whatever.
We knew our parents, and if we chose not to tell them...we had a good reason.

Like the countless number of women who were sexually abused by their dad/ mom's BF/ family member..
How many stories have we read of those where the mom doesn't believe the daughter, or tells her not to say/ do anything about it?

There's a really good pic/ meme i wanted to post..but can't figure out how to... frown

msharmony's photo
Thu 10/04/18 09:39 AM

People aren't saying not having an exact date means it isn't true. Not knowing how you got to a place that you don't know and how you got home and what year it was....is extreme. But she remembers she only had 1 beer and it was definitely k. Cosby's drugged victims have more info than Ford. :disappointed:


Cosby's accusers never had to verify any of the alleged 'information' they provided. but thats another story. THEY were believed, so its done.

as far as Ford, no one except one EX boyfriend has contested her credibility that actually knew her, unlike Kavanaughs classmates and ROOMMATE, who have described him as a falling down drunk.

Most likely, he was the same that day and thought it was just fun, and didnt remember or care who it was, if he even remembered it.

I believe he lied through is combative hysterical teeth through most of that commission hearing rather than admit he was ever an obnoxious drunk (his words when preparing beach week in school, not mine). I believe he regularly threw up, not because of sensitivity to spicy foods ... lol.

I believe he was not asking his friend if they had 'farted' yet, when he wrote 'have you boofed yet', that makes no sense.


But none of it on either side will ever be "proven" true or false, so all people will have is their conjecture and he will be pushed through by his majority colleagues. Although I personally think he lied under oath, as even those coming to his 'defense' are describing a different kind of drunk than he was trying paint. And although is DEMEANOR under questioning was not what I would think fit for a SUPREME COURT JUDGE. It was all to give the appearance of giving a damn because the women's movement is so strong right now.

But they knew how they would vote, regardless of what happened. As one said, you are SUPPOSED to be Bill Cosby during those years. But Bill Cosby went to JAIL because of an alleged crime, but I guess crime in certain years is expected in the SCOTUS world, should be interesting to see if and how they rule on cases with young people going forward ....ohwell ohwell

I_love_bluegrass's photo
Thu 10/04/18 09:44 AM
msharmony...
When something double posts (I have that hapen quite often)..
Go into the second one, do "Edit, and just delete the words...
Then it just shows up as a balnk post.

Easttowest72's photo
Thu 10/04/18 11:12 AM
From what I've seen nobody says k was ever sexually aggressive with anyone. That give the ex bf more credibility