Set to Testify in Rape Case, Woman Texts Suicide Threat from Court Roof; Should Law Be Changed?
Corrected: Apparently unglued by the prospect of being questioned directly by the pro se defendant in a child-rape case, his now-adult alleged victim fled to the roof of the King County Courthouse in Seattle last week and texted a suicide threat to the prosecutor.
The unidentified woman was finally talked down by authorities three hours later, after dangling her legs over the side and leaning out as a crowd below shouted for her not to jump, the Seattle Times reported. Although Superior Court Judge Douglass North didn’t inform jurors of the situation, they exited the building as emergency vehicles sat at a number of entrances, the reported. Nonetheless, the judge yesterday denied a motion for a mistrial by Salvador Cruz, 40, based on the incident, finding that they could still be impartial.
After a 2009 trial in which Sankarandi Skanda, a defendant accused of rape, represented himself and cross-examined his accuser, state Rep. Brendan Williams this year proposed a bill to change the law of evidence in Washington to protect accusers in those situations, KCPQ reported. “The prosecutor representing the victim called [Skanda’s] the most offensive line of questioning she had heard in 10 years of practice,” KCPQ reported. Skanda committed suicide in jail before the case was over.
Williams is not running for re-election, but state Rep. Roger Goodman has agreed to reintroduce the bill next session, the Seattle Times reported in a separate story.
An earlier Seattle Times article provides additional details.
Updated at 12:50 p.m. to correctly indicate that a 2009 trial prompted Williams to introduce the legislation earlier this year.
