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Former Baylor frat president plea deal: Jacob Anderson serves no jail time in sex assault case


"As I did when this plea agreement was offered, I believe today’s sentencing by Judge Strother was the best outcome given the facts of this case. Conflicting evidence and statements exist in this case making the original allegation difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt," LaBorde said. "As a prosecutor, my goal is no more victims. I believe that is best accomplished when there is a consequence rather than an acquittal. This offender is now on felony probation and will receive sex offender treatment, a result which was not guaranteed, nor likely, had we gone to trial."

LaBorde, in her statement, said she understands why the public is upset and urged those who are bothered by the outcome to "consider their source of information."

"Any lawyer can issue a statement, but taking a statement and proving the truth of its contents beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury, when a complaining witness is subject to cross-examination is a different task entirely," LaBorde said.
 
Sounds to me like the prosecutor (a woman) felt there was a lack of hard evidence and there was a possibility that he was fully acquitted if it went to trial.

Also I didn't really understand the comment about "a complaining witness" but it sounds like the one witness they had was not reliable and probably could have been a liability on the stand.
 
UCFWayne said:
i think i read somewhere this judge has been done this kind of thing a few times. not cool.
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Unless my legal understanding is wrong, it's not the judge who offered this plea deal, it's the Prosecutor and whatever local or state agency they work for. The judge merely moderates the plea deal offer which is between the prosecutor and the defense attorney.
 
bluechip12 said:
Why is this even national news?
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To highlight the underlying attitude that led to the verdict.

Believe it or not, there are still some people in this country who hear about a convicted rapist getting a slap-on-the-wrist and ask, "What's the big deal?"
 
UCFKnight85 said:
Sounds to me like the prosecutor (a woman) felt there was a lack of hard evidence and there was a possibility that he was fully acquitted if it went to trial.

Also I didn't really understand the comment about "a complaining witness" but it sounds like the one witness they had was not reliable and probably could have been a liability on the stand.
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This is more along the discussion I was interested in, one that people won't take the time to have. What's the duty of the prosecutor here? I understand the victims POV and her desire to press forward. I also see the concern of not getting a desired outcome if you have a weak case. Shitty all around.

And then yes, there's the element of a judge that people blame like he agreed to the plea.
 
DaShuckster said:
To highlight the underlying attitude that led to the verdict.

Believe it or not, there are still some people in this country who hear about a convicted rapist getting a slap-on-the-wrist and ask, "What's the big deal?"
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But he’s not a convicted rapist. The prosecutor thought the “case” against him was so weak and full of so much questionable material that she thought it wise that it didn’t even go to trial.
 
bluechip12 said:
But he’s not a convicted rapist.
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True, which answers your question why it's national news.

This frat boy President was accused of raping a woman and leaving her unconscious at a party in February 2015. The victim was upset with the decision to allow her rapist to go free.

After the verdict, the DA spoke to the 'shakiness' of the case. However, the victim said this description flies in the face of what she was told by the DA's office from Day One. She was told there was enough evidence that a conviction was almost a foregone conclusion.

Before you assume that this is just the groundless lies of an alleged victim, it should be noted that the DA didn't let the victim know she was considering a plea deal until after the fact--and then did it through a letter. In part, the letter said, "I realize this is not the outcome we had hoped for or that I had originally offered, but I tried a very similar case to this one last month, and lost."

In that case, the DA wrote, she thought the jury "was looking for any excuse not to find an innocent looking young defendant guilty. They engaged in a lot of victim blaming -- and the behavior of that victim and [this victim's] is very similar. It's my opinion that our jurors aren't ready to blame rapists and not victims."

Wow. Just wow.
 
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It seems as though you’re using the fact that he was a “frat boy President” against him. Just because he was a frat guy doesn’t mean he’s guilty of rape. The district attorney knows more about the case than we do and she determined that it was highly unlikely he would be convicted of rape. The “victim’s” story was also apparently full of holes and maybe even lies. Heck, the girl even told reporters she was “left to die”. To DIE? This girl could certainly have some screws loose and have a history of grossly exaggerating things. We definitely don’t know, so it seems silly to get up in arms about it.
 
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bluechip12 said:
It seems as though you’re using the fact that he was a “frat boy President” against him. Just because he was a frat doesn’t mean he’s guilty of rape.
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He didn't plead not guilty. He plead 'no contest' to get his sweetheart plea deal.

With the exact, same details (which are on the internet in explicit detail if you are interested), do you think the DA would have taken her case to a Waco jury if it had been one of Baylor's Black football players instead of one of Baylor's white, 'nice-looking' frat boys?
 
DaShuckster said:
He didn't plead not guilty. He plead 'no contest' to get his sweetheart plea deal.

With the exact, same details (which are on the internet in explicit detail if you are interested), do you think the DA would have taken her case to a Waco jury if it had been one of Baylor's Black football players instead of one of Baylor's white, 'nice-looking' frat boys?
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How would I know? I don’t know the information the attorney and judge have that’s hasn’t been made available to the public. I have no reason to think his race or fraternity status had anything to do with it. The attorney said/implied that the girl’s case was no good...so yeah...I’d say that a case that was no good wouldn’t go forward even if the accused was a black football player. Wait, aren’t football players “protected” as well anyway?
 
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bluechip12 said:
How would I know? I don’t know the information the attorney and judge have that’s hasn’t been made available to the public. I have no reason to think his race or fraternity status had anything to do with it. The attorney said/implied that the girl’s case wasn’t no good...
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Then why did the DA tell a different story to the victim for the two years leading up to the trial? Heck, if it was weak, why was it scheduled for trial in the first place?

I realize the DA is a woman so pardon the expression, but why in the hell didn't she have the balls to tell this victim that she was considering a plea deal?

This case smacks of a DA who got eleventh hour cold feet and was afraid of losing another jury trial because the defendant was a handsome and charming boy who would be hard for a jury to convict.
 
DaShuckster said:
Then why did the DA tell a different story to the victim for the two years leading up to the trial? Heck, if it was weak, why was it scheduled for trial in the first place?

I realize the DA is a woman so pardon the expression, but why in the hell didn't she have the balls to tell this victim that she was considering a plea deal?

This case smacks of a DA who got eleventh hour cold feet and was afraid of losing another jury trial because the defendant was a handsome and charming boy who would be hard for a jury to convict.
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The attorney who dealt with this girl for all that time might have come to realize that the girl is a pathological liar whose story was constantly changing. She may have talked with others who had evidence that she was full of shit. I don’t know why you find this difficult to believe.
 
bluechip12 said:
The attorney who dealt with this girl for all that time might have come to realize that the girl is is a pathological liar whose story comes suavely changed. I don’t know why you find this difficult to believe.
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Yeah, it's too hard to believe that after the public backlash that the DA was attempting to protect her own ass.
 
DaShuckster said:
Yeah, it's too hard to believe that after the public backlash that the DA was attempting to protect her own ass.
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If there’s “public backlash”, it’s likely because it’s a public who doesn’t know the specifics of the case. There was public backlash in the Duke case as well and look how that turned out.
 
bluechip12 said:
If there’s “public backlash”, it’s likely because it’s a public who doesn’t know the specifics of the case.
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For an eleventh-hour plea agreement, the evidence in the case that is available to the public seems pretty doggone compelling:

  • Evidence they were seen at the frat party together. Evidence that the defendant led the victim outside for a "breath of fresh air."
  • The victim's sworn testamony that the defendant threw her to the ground, violently raped her multiple times and then choked her until she blacked out.
  • Evidence that the victim had bruises on her neck from being choked
  • Evidence from the Baylor hospital following the assault that confirmed the victim had been raped.
  • The former DA told reporters the plea deal made absolutely no sense. “I’ve never seen a sweetheart of a deal like this in my history here,” he said.
  • The victim learned about the plea deal from the local newspaper for crying out loud!
  • The victim and her family had to reach out to the DA to find out what was going on and why she had gone from saying a conviction was inevitable to going for a plea deal.
  • Eventually, after the judge's ruling, the DA emailed the victim to apologize for blindsiding her.
As with most things, we'll never know with 100% certainty what happened. But the evidence certainly points to this decision being a travesty of justice.

bluechip12 said:
There was public backlash in the Duke case as well and look how that turned out.
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Did the Duke lacrosse players accept a plea deal in exchange for a lesser charge? I must have missed that.
 
I don’t believe what you just typed is necessarily true. I read the she claimed she was drugged but no drugs were found in her system. Read that there was no bruising on her neck that was consistent with the forms of choking she described. Read nothing about the results of the rape kit administered at the hospital, which would lead one to believe there was no clear sign of rape there either.

As for accepting a lesser charge of a small fine, who on earth wouldn’t accept that deal? Why would he rather pay many thousands to lawyers in a long court case and put his life in the hands of some random jurors rather than taking a deal?
 
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bluechip12 said:
I don’t believe what you just typed is necessarily true. I read the she claimed she was drugged but no drugs were found in her system. Read that there was no bruising on her neck that was consistent with the forms of choking she described. Read nothing about the results of the rape kit administered at the hospital, which would lead one to believe there was no clear sign of rape there either.
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What DA in her right mind would have issued a sexual assault charge at all if all of your evidence claims were true?

Why take it to trial if the evidence was so flimsy from the start. Why tell the victim that a conviction was inevitable? The only one of your evidence claims above that I read was shaky was the drugging. Drugged or not drugged, a rape is still a rape.

Most plea deals are cut early on to avoid the hassle of setting up a trial in the first place. How did the evidence suddenly change in the eleventh-hour after the first trial date had been postponed to make a plea deal the way to go?
 
DaShuckster said:
What DA in her right mind would have issued a sexual assault charge at all if all of your evidence claims were true?

Why take it to trial if the evidence was so flimsy from the start. Why tell the victim that a conviction was inevitable? The only one of your evidence claims above that I read was shaky was the drugging. Drugged or not drugged, a rape is still a rape.

Most plea deals are cut early on to avoid the hassle of setting up a trial in the first place. How did the evidence suddenly change in the eleventh-hour after the first trial date had been postponed to make a plea deal the way to go?
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People described her as being all over him and seeing them making out constantly. She then walked outside and went around the corner with him and got “raped” and “left for dead”? Does this seem consistent or logical to you? Where did she think she was going with him? Why did she say she was drugged if she wasn’t drugged? I’d love to hear all of the evidence.
 
bluechip12 said:
People described her as being all over him and seeing them making out constantly. She then walked outside and went around the corner with him and got “raped” and “left for dead”?
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Reports are there were bruises on the neck that were compatible with choking. The hospital report verified there were physical signs she'd been raped.

Like I said earlier, if these evidence reports are false, this case wouldn't have been filed by a DA in the first place.

Guess you and I aren't going to become amateur Perry Masons tonight and 'solve' this case. But I believe there were certainly a host of reasons why this case went national.
 
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It's 2018. The only thing bitches love more than saying daddy is getting choked.
 
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