Dave Yost Ignores Pleas of Alleged Rape Survivor
April 27, 2022
For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Dave Yost Ignores Pleas of Alleged Rape Survivor
Columbus, OH — This week, the Sandusky Register reported on Dave Yost’s refusal to respond to a woman who is trying to get her alleged rapist prosecuted. Yost used the woman’s alleged rapist as a key witness in a case in which Yost accused another woman of lying about being raped. Yost lost that case, and before trial, two other women accused Yost’s key witness of raping them. Yet, Yost has refused to answer questions about when he’ll take any action to investigate the manner and won’t respond to pleas from the alleged victims for legal action against the man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual violence.
From the Register: “Will you utilize the same amount of time and money seeking justice for me as you did my attacker?” she (the alleged victim) asked Yost.
As Yost continues to stonewall justice, his refusal to even respond to the alleged victim shows a unique brand of coldness that reflects how Yost has conducted himself as Ohio’s Attorney General.
Read more on the case from the Sandusky Register here and below:
- Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost won’t say whether he’ll respond to a woman who asked for his help in getting her alleged rapist prosecuted, a man Yost promoted as his chief witness last year in a felony trial of another woman he wrongly alleged lied about being raped.
- Yost has never explained why he sought felony charges against the other woman or how he could have misread that situation so poorly that a judge dismissed the charges after a two-day trial in December. The judge determined the woman never claimed she was raped, only that an unwanted sexual encounter occurred after a drinking party.
- It also was learned prior to the trial that two other women filed complaints against the same man, Yost’s chief witness. In a court motion, assistant attorney general Drew Wood, who works for Yost and was the special prosecutor, filed a motion seeking to bar the other women from testifying.
- In a court filing, Wood wrote that the other women who filed rape complaints might receive justice someday, but it was not clear if the Attorney General’s office would ever pursue it on their behalf.
- Yost has steadfastly refused to answer any questions for months about why he pursued the false rape case before it commenced and since the charges were dismissed. Before trial, he said it would be inappropriate since the case was pending. Since then, however, after the trial finished, he’s offered no response of any kind.
- Advocates contend Yost’s decision to prosecute a woman for making a false report will have a chilling effect on victims of sexual assault, who likely will be even more reluctant to come forward fearing that if a prosecutor doesn’t believe them they could get prosecuted.
- Carol O’Brien, Yost’s chief prosecutor who manages the prosecutions unit at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, also has ignored concerns about how the false rape case was handled, and about how Yost’s office treats the other women who filed complaints.
- It’s unclear what kind of training Wood, O’Brien and Yost have when it comes to cases involving violence against women.
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