Prosecutor drops sexual assault case

The State News article regarding this incident misquoted my statement. I stated that whoever informed the State News that sexual assault charges were going to be filed had ‘jumped the gun’, because the case was still under review at that point. It is always premature to speculate on the filing of charges during this review process: Charges can be issued, denied, or sent back to the police agency for further investigation.

I did not say, or imply, that the MSU Police ‘jumped the gun’ in their investigation of this incident. It is always appropriate for police to take a report of an alleged crime, so that the facts can be gathered and a decision on prosecution can be made. I believe that the MSU Police Officers who investigated this matter acted appropriately and professionally, and any intimation that I was critical of their conduct is incorrect.

Also responding to the State News “quote” from Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings, it is the responsibility of a reporter to provide accuracy and context regarding their articles. In this case, the prosecutor has an obligation to review a criminal investigation conducted by the police. At no time during this investigation did the prosecutor ever indicate that the police “jumped the gun” on taking a report. In fact it is the legal obligation of the police department to take reports, investigate them and refer them to the prosecutor for a decision on whether or not to authorize warrants.
The State News did a disservice to the community and victim by implying that the prosecutor thought that a report was unnecessary when in fact such was not the case.
When quoting a source it is not only important to accurately quote but to also place it in the proper context. What was done by the State News is chilling on the victims of sexual assault.
James Dunlap
Chief of Police
Michigan State University Police Department

I hope the SN does the right thing and publishes both of the statements above in tomorrow’s print issue.

Thank goodness that we have the ability to respond to stories, through our posts. Now that I have had the opportunity to read the above two posts, I see the error in this article. I think an apology or retraction should be written.

I applaud Mr. Dunnings and Chief Dunlap for making use of this online format for offering corrections and clarifications. I did the same thing a couple of months ago when quoted for an SN story.

It is high time these forums take on the role of letters to the editor, instead of being wasted on childish name calling. Sadly, journalism has deteriorated (some think bloggers are doing the job of a free press better than the main stream media), and fact checking by citizens is becoming more and more necessary to democracy.

However, as critical as I am of poor reporting (and the poor education of reporters—MSU does not have a course in investigative reporting), I do think we need to recognize that State News reporters are students, as are their editors. I’m sure my late father-in-law, a meticulous editor who could find numerous errors in my most polished writing, would have noticed Ms. Wilkins error, but in this day and age, we see these kind of mistakes all the time in the New York Times.

It is indeed sad MSU doesn’t offer a course on investigative journalism.

M.L. Elrick would be a good guest lecturer for a seminar that I’d love to attend.

“I hope the SN does the right thing and publishes both of the statements above in tomorrow’s print issue.”

Absolutely they should. They never have.

As a former ‘student leader’ who was quoted extensively in the State News, I was routinely misquoted, sometimes terribly so to the point of entirely changing the meaning of statements. This is unacceptable and the SN must do a better job.

If you’re at all serious about quality journalism, make a concerted effort at publically fixing misquotes to discourage their use.

Jim and Stuart, welcome to the State News. Incomplete and inaccurate reporting are just par for the course.

I second the comment above^!

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Dunnings and Chief Dunlap. I volunteer with MSU’s Sexual Assault Program, and I know that the prosecutors and the police do a great job of working with us. Two weeks ago, a police officer took the extra step of calling the duty phone to get advice on what he could recommend to someone reporting an assault.

The quotations from the article give the mistaken impression that people reporting sexual assault will only be helped if they have substantial evidence already in place. I hope that all survivors still know that they can talk to the police or anyone at the Sexual Assault Program at any time.

For anyone interested, confidential and free help is available 24-7 at the Sexual Assault Crisis Intervention hotline, 517-372-6666. Our website is here

I, too, am a volunteer with MSU’s sexual assault program and I concur with Bridget that the police and prosecution often do a wonderful job with survivors of sexual assault.
Whether or not Mr. Dunnings was misquoted in the article, I can’t say. I think the question here is: Why was this case dropped? I think MSU students, family members, and the community deserve to know why it was decided that a sexual assault case was not worth the effort of attempting a trial, whereas other violent crimes are. Mr. Dunnings was quoted as saying, “After we reviewed the case, we could not convict.” Since Mr. Dunnings’ webpage (http://www.stuartdunnings.com/) says his first priority is “Targeting serious, violent felons”, I wonder why he thinks that less than 44% of reported rapes are not “convictable” (see below for how I calculated that number). I would say that rapists are “serious, violent felons”, and I think most people would agree.
According to the Lansing Police Department’s 2008 Annual Report, which was the most recent report I could find (http://www.lansingmi.gov/Lansing/police/docs/annual/2008_annual_report.pdf), there were 95 rapes reported that year. According to the 2007 annual report, there were 183 rapes reported that year (http://www.lansingmi.gov/Lansing/police/docs/reports/LPDs_Annual_Report_for_2007_In_the_Spotlight.pdf), but the number changes to 97 on the 2008 report. In any case, keep in mind these categories do not include any other type of sexual assault, so the actual number of all types of reported sexual assaults is likely much higher.
In the 2008 Prosecutor’s Annual Report (http://www.ingham.org/PA/2008Prosecutor’sannualreport.pdf), it was reported that “There were a total of 43 cases issued by this unit in 2008.” In the report, the categories of “Child Abuse” and “Criminal Sexual Conduct” (CSC) are lumped together, so it seems that this number reflects child victims of CSC as well as adult victims of CSC. The 2007 Annual Report (http://www.ingham.org/PA/PDF/PA2007Annualrpt.pdf) states that there were 41 cases of adult and juvenile CSC charged that year.
Looking at these numbers, it seems to me that less than half of rapes reported to the police in our area in the last few years are being prosecuted. And since I could only find statistics on reported rapes for Lansing, not for all of Ingham County, it is evident that the percentage of reported rapes in Ingham County being prosecuted is much smaller than my estimate of 44%.
According to RAINN (http://www.rainn.org): “If a rape is reported, there is a 50.8% chance of an arrest. If an arrest is made, there is an 80% chance of prosecution. If there is a prosecution, there is a 58% chance of conviction. If there is a felony conviction, there is a 69% chance the convict will spend time in jail. So even in the 39% of attacks that are reported to the police, there is only a 16.3% chance the rapist will end up in prison. Factoring in unreported rapes, about 6% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. 15 of 16 walk free.” (These statistics were gathered by RAINN from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the National Center for Policy Analysis.)
If Ingham County is prosecuting less than 44% of reported rapes, we are not doing much to help improve the above statistics. I think we can do much better, and I hope more rape and sexual assault cases are prosecuted in the future.

Unfortunately in my comment above, quotation marks turned into this character: â. So whenever you see those, think quotation marks.

Also, all of my paragraph spacing somehow was deleted, so I apologize for it looking like a run-on sentence.

So, that is the end of this story. No follow up on two basketball players moving out of wonders during that night.