Time to have another dialogue about campus rape.
Via The Daily Mail:
A Rutgers University professor testified in her own defense Thursday, insisting that she did not rape a disabled man suffering from cerebral palsy, and that the two were ‘in love.’
During cross-examination, philosophy professor Anna Stubblefield, 45, insisted she and the victim – a 34-year-old African-American man who is unable to speak or eat on his own – were in a consensual relationship.
Under questioning from her lawyer Wednesday, Stubblefield explained the man could express himself through a technique known as facilitated communication in which she used her hands to help him type on a keyboard.
But the prosecution Thursday questioned the method and how the man could communicate if he wanted to stop having sex in her Newark office in 2011.
Stubblefield said he could bang on the floor.
The judge has barred expert testimony on facilitated communication because she determined it’s ‘not a recognized science.’
Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Eric Plant questioned Stubblefield about her sexual encounters with the man, identified in court only as D.J., and the time she ‘had him on the floor’ of her office and ‘raped’ him on a yoga mat, reported NJ.com.
The Rutgers educator denied the allegations, stating, ‘I did not rape [D.J.].’
The 45-year-old resident of West Orange is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault stemming from two encounters with the alleged victim in her Newark office in 2011.
According to D.J.’s mother, the 34-year-old suffers from cerebral palsy, wears diapers and requires assistance with common everyday tasks like bathing, eating and walking.
His brother said other than making the occasional noise, the man is non-verbal.
Stubblefield’s daughter, Zoe Stubblefield, told DailyMail.com today that the victim’s family, who are black, were targeting her mother because she was white and they were ‘money-hungry idiots’.
Speaking at her mother’s home in West Orange, New Jersey, Friday, the younger Ms Stubblefield told DailyMail.com that D.J.’s relatives were ‘huge a**holes’.
She said: ‘They have done this because my mom is white and we used to have a lot of money and they’re poor.’