Prosecuting rape cases a long, arduous process

Dianne Granlund is tougher than most cops. Granlund, who heads the District Attorney's Rape Prosecution Unit, drinks from a Women Organized Against Rape mug and chain smokes as she speaks with a mixture of street-wise humor and no-nonsense sensitivity about rape. It is obviously an issue she takes seriously. Behind the jokes is a woman whose office wins convictions in 72 percent of the cases it takes to court. And Granlund's sensitivity does not stay hidden for long. Though her closely cropped blond hair and stern blue suit seem austere, she speaks about the women she fights for with sympathy and compassion. To the men she is trying to convict, she would not seem kind or caring. Granlund pulls no punches. She sounds bitter, offering sarcastic jokes about the system she says is often harder on the victim than the rapist. Particularly in acquaintance rape cases, Granlund said she feels the system is harder for the woman than for the man. Much of this, she said, stems from the defense which is used -- which is almost always consent. "[Defense attorneys act like,] 'It was consent and you are a slut,' " Granlund said. "It is absolutely harder for the victim. She is almost on trial." But she admits that the system is still not easy on the men. Granlund said last week that a college student charged with rape would probably find the system time-consuming and sometimes frightening. Thurgood Matthews, an attorney with the Public Defenders Association who defends men accused of rape, said he couldn't judge how the system seems for a complainant, but agreed his clients face hardship, too. "You are used to freedoms and all of a sudden you are in a jail cell, usually an overcrowded cell," Matthews said this week. "I think the average student would think it was horrible." And, Matthews said, people with criminal records often have a difficult time escaping the stigma of a rape arrest and have trouble finding jobs. "The stigma of being arrested weighs very, very heavily on a person that is being accused of rape," Matthews said. If a man cannot make bail, he will spend a minimum of four months in jail awaiting trial. Most of the time, Granlund said, the wait is much longer. The system is plagued by crowded courtrooms, overburdened attorneys and long delays. For the accused, the criminal justice system begins with an arrest. If a complainant can identify her assailant and he can be located, he will be arrested by the Philadelphia Police, handcuffed and taken in a paddywagon to the Sex Crimes Division at 17th Street and Pattison Avenue. While he remains handcuffed to a chair, the accused will be asked basic questions including name, address and birthdate while an officer makes notes about his physical appearance. At Sex Crimes, the man will also be read his Miranda Rights and he can choose to make a statement or to wait until he consults with an attorney. The activities at Sex Crimes take between one and two hours, Granlund said. Then, the accused is transported with his paperwork to Police Headquarters at 8th and Race streets for arraignment. Rape suspects wait in a holding tank with others waiting for their arraignments on charges ranging from simple assault to murder. Granlund said that in the eyes of the criminal justice system, everyone who is awaiting arraignment is treated essentially the same way by officers and attorneys. "Am I going to throw this clean-cut college kid in jail with convicted criminals? You bet I am," Granlund said. "He's not anything special." There is a place where suspects awaiting arraignment could sleep, but Granlund said she doubted college students facing charges would, considering his cellmates. "These guys have lived tough lives on the streets. He is just a pretty college boy," Granlund said. "He can't afford to fall asleep." After waiting up to 18 or 20 hours in the holding cell, the accused will be told his charges and given a subpoena for his preliminary hearing. For a rape charge to be brought, there must be both force -- or threat of force -- and intercourse. Rape is therefore never the only charge. Granlund said usually indecent assault and simple assault accompany rape charges. The court will also determine if the defendant can afford an attorney or if one should be appointed. Granlund said for students over 18, parental income is not considered. Finally, bail will be set. Matthews said the bail commissioner generally sets bail between $10,000 and $50,000. Granlund said judges frequently give lower bail for college students who have no prior criminal record. "Frankly they look at the kid and they think, 'This is a nice kid. He is a college boy,' " Granlund said. If he cannot, he will be sent to a county detention facility where he will remain in a cell with other prisoners until the hearing. Men accused of rape are near the bottom of the social status ladder in jail, Granlund said. Men who hurt the elderly or children are the lowest, but sexual offenders are generally disliked, regardless. Students might face particular distaste from others in their detention block. "This college kid comes in here [to the jail] looking all preppy . . . Jesus. . . . " Granlund said, shaking her head as she trailed off, imagining the reaction of street-wise men to their college student cellmate. Before the preliminary hearing, accused rapists will be interviewed by either court-appointed or private attorneys who will use the information to help prepare their case. The preliminary hearing, which is held before the Municipal Court Bench three to 10 days following arraignment, is simply "a matter of law," Granlund said. The woman is questioned and cross-examined, but her credibility is not challenged. Granlund said that unless the woman recants her previous statements, charges are not dropped at the preliminary hearing. About three weeks later, there will then be a second arraignment where the defendant is also read his final charges and is given subpoenas for both the pretrial conference and the trial itself. The district attorney's office then has three weeks to re-read the records and consult sentence range charts -- which combines a number based on the person's previous record and the offense gravity score -- for the current charges to give a range of recommended sentences. Rape is the second highest offense gravity score -- a nine. Only murder has a higher score. Granlund will send the man's attorney an offer in writing which stipulates the sentence she is willing to offer in exchange for a guilty plea from the defendant prior to the trial. It does not matter to Granlund whether the defendant accepts the offer or not, she said. "You take it -- fine. You leave it -- I'll try it," Granlund said. "I don't care." But Granlund said from the district attorney's point of view, it is often good for a plea bargain to be accepted because the woman will not have to face a jury trial and the possibility of an innocent verdict. "That's pretty crushing," she said. "You want something for her. If you get something, you've saved her a little piece of herself." At the pretrial conference, the attorneys receive full police reports on the case and tell the judge if the district attorney's offer will be accepted or not. The accused rapist can expect at least another five- or six-week delay before the start of his trial. He will have to be in court each day that action on his case is scheduled. The complainant and the other witnesses are on call and will be given several hours notice if they need to appear. Philadelphia's clogged judicial system often results in cases being continued two, three or four times, Granlund said. This could mean a defendant could spend several wasted days sitting in court rooms awaiting some action on their cases. Once the trial begins, most of the three to four days of action continues the same way other criminal cases do. The jury hears testimony from boths sides and character witnesses for the man including "the local priest and mom and dad," Granlund said. Choosing a jury for a rape case is tricky, Granlund said. She looks mainly for men around the same age who will think the defendant was "a toad" for raping her. Granlund said the attitude of men is often "she wouldn't put out and so you took her. You little prick." But she said, she tries to avoid choosing women for the jury because, "women are their own worst enemies." "She [the juror] is going to sit on that panel and she's going to Monday morning quarterback the woman's [the victim's] decisions," Granlund said. Granlund and University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich both say that a woman's demeanor and personality play a role in how cases go at the trial. And, though Kuprevich said it is unfortunate, the woman's attitude and strength during testimony can make or break a case. He said he dealt with one woman whose case he was sure would not go far because she was so nervous and frightened that she never made eye contact with anyone. "I knew from the moment I saw and heard her that a judge would never prosecute [the defendent] for that crime," Kuprevich said earlier this month. The problem with rape cases, Kuprevich said, is that often "the only evidence is someone saying yes or no." A state shield law prevents the presentation of information about a woman's previous sexual history. This law is important, Granlund said, because it has nothing to do with the incident being prosecuted. "Who cares if she slept with six other guys?" Granlund said. "The issue is, maybe she didn't want to sleep with you." After hearing all of the testimony, the jury will then deliberate for several days and either determine a verdict or, if they are hopelessly deadlocked, they will be declared a hung jury. Granlund said her office frequently does not retry these cases because the stress on the woman is too much. "We can retry him until hell freezes over," she said. "Will we? Probably not." The sentences for rape vary widely -- from probation to 20 or more years in prison, but Kuprevich said these are very different from the punishment for acquaintance rape years ago. In the past at some universities, Kuprevich said, if an administrator heard a rumor about a rape, the dean would take the male student aside and "have a talk with him." Now, men accused of rape in Philadelphia face Dianne Granlund and her colleagues.

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