Posted on 06/21/2004 11:48:26 AM PDT by presidio9
On the eve of what would have been his third trial date in Bucks County court, Douglas Aster pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually assaulting a woman during "thong night" at a Bensalem tavern.
As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors did not drop any of the charges against Aster, 32, but agreed to seek a sentence of 111/2 to 23 months, with possible work release privileges. Aster had been facing at least three years behind bars.
Assistant District Attorney Anastasia Filopoulos said the deal was offered, in part, to spare the victim the trauma of taking the stand again. During three prior hearings, the 24-year-old Levittown woman was visibly distraught as she testified about the attack.
"It was just grueling for her," Filopoulos said. "She didn't want to have to relive what was a very difficult time for her again."
Aster pleaded guilty before county Judge Mitchell Goldberg to charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault and indecent exposure. He'll be sentenced in about 60 days, following a Megan's Law evaluation, and remains free on bail.
He did not testify during the hearing Tuesday in Doylestown but answered "yes" when Goldberg asked him if he understood what he was pleading guilty to. Aster was arrested shortly after the May 30, 2003, incident at the Street Road Bar and Grill. The victim said that Aster, whom she believed to be an employee, approached her and told her that the manager of the tavern wanted to see her.
She said Aster then led her to a secluded bathroom where he forced her to perform a sex act.
The woman escaped and told her friends in the bar immediately about the alleged assault. They called police.
Aster had been set to stand trial in March but the case was delayed after Goldberg ruled that the woman's participation in the thong contest - where female patrons strip down to their underwear and compete for prizes - was not protected under rape shield laws and could be told to the jury.
His trial began in May but was quickly halted when the victim testified that she overheard Aster talking on his cell phone, trying to concoct an alibi. Defense attorneys cried foul, saying the prosecution hadn't warned them that she would say that. As a convicted sex offender, Aster will have to register his address with the state police for at least 10 years after he's released from prison. Goldberg ordered him to have no contact with the victim while he's awaiting sentencing.
But they are tame when compared to the Clinton White House.
From a woman, thank you for that.
Now then, what is the statute that covers stupidity? Stripping to one's underwear in a public place does not excuse rape, but it is incredibly dumb.
I guess she didn't like her prize.
I didn't say it was. I described him as a pervert and predator, which he is.
I said I have no sympathy for stupid cheap whores who get plucked off Bourbon street or who QUITE WILLINGLY go to "see the manager" on Thong Night.
I'm sick to the death of women who are so brainwashed by the Revolution's mores that they think male sexuality is some kind of benign, mallaeble thing they can turn off and on as they please ... everyon's porn star one moment, indignant individual the next.
I think his culpability ought to be mitigated by her catalyzing the crime. If she wants to flash her body to strangers for cash and prizes, she should do what the Empowered Grrrls do and work out of a strip bar where there are bouncers to protect the girls.
=== So, was she just "asking for it" then? I guess we could just jump to the next leve and say "all women want it..." then, too, right?
Do all women strip down to their underwear in public for some cheesy prizes, a moment's fame on a Girls Gone Wild video?
All women may be interested in sex, but some send a different message -- to all and sundry -- than others.
I'd have no problems with her indignation had she appeared in her thong on the stand as if to underscore how Perfectly Innocent she was ... no culupability whatsoever for endangering herself or responsibility for blythely following to some dead end the first guy who told her "the manager wants to see you, baby"
=== Stripping to one's underwear in a public place does not excuse rape, but it is incredibly dumb.
There is no such thing as rape anymore. Women are the equal of men, remember?
If women can be fireman, jet pilots (despite their being even shorter than men rejected for the job), lobby for combat duty and enjoy the same Freedom From procreation than men enjoy ... it's a little late to be crying rape.
I'm sick of the he/she atheist culture's falling back on antiquated notions of Male and Female, as if there were substantive differences in their persons (despite their utterly equal dignity and worth).
Women who enjoy the "equality" that is dressing like a man in the locker room best make certain they can handle their own business like one of the boys.
The defense is entitled to all the evidence the prosecution is going to use, including the substance of the testimony of all their witnesses.
"I'm sick to the death of women who are so brainwashed by the Revolution's mores that they think male sexuality is some kind of benign, mallaeble thing they can turn off and on as they please ... everyon's porn star one moment, indignant individual the next."
I'm sick of dumb cluless broads too but I am even sicker of men "promoting" these events to their admitted and willingly "mallaeble brain dud men... HELLO Lifes a two way street. Babies walk around in diapers, does that mean mallaeble pedophiles were enticed to rape them too! Animals wear no clothes, are mallaeble beastiality pervs enticed as well?
Perverts have NO RIGHT to rape anyone or anything under any circumstances.
Granted, she was a stupid woman, but being stupid doesn't excuse or deserve rape. Period.
So, why don't you go down to Florida, test out your concept and then let me know how it goes???
Too add to the visual. Monica is getting in her car to go bowling..
Rape statutes have been re-written in most states to be gender-neutral. Since that is the case, the rest of your argument is moot.
I'm NOT saying it EXCUSES rape.
I'm saying it EXPLAINS rape.
It's not just this phenomenonally self-deluded young woman, it's the entire society. There is something really wrong when some chick attending "Thong Night" who willing separates herself from the crowd to follow some strange man Lord knows where has the gall to cry "rape!" and rely on the same defenses as some woman, fully-clothed, who was getting into her car in a well-lighted parking lot or who made the mistake of failing to get out of an elevator or who was awakened by some predator in her bedroom.
Get real.
In an age where women are "empowered" such they can enjoy "equality" at work, be respected porn stars or walk down the street dressed like hookers, I think the whole notion of "rape" needs to be rethought.
I think a case like this denigrates and muddies the whole notion of rape since the notion of female modesty or virtue as something to be protected, respected and cherished is utterly missing from the picture thanks to the young woman herself.
I'd have more sympathy for a working prostitute who was attacked by a former john than I do for this woman.
And unfortunately what's happening today, with this kind of very sanctimonious and sermonizing talk about sex that's coming out of the rape counselors and so on, people do not realize, with all their good intentions, how oppressive this is to sex, what a disaster this is to the mind, what a disaster this is to the spirit, to allow the rape counselors to take over the cultural stage. Now the work that they do is good, and it's wonderful that they're there. But we cannot have this scenario being projected of male rapaciousness and brutality and female victimage.We have got to make women realize they are responsible, that sexuality is something that belongs to them. They have an enormous power in their sexuality. It's up to them to use it correctly and to be wise about where they go and what they do. And I'm accused of being "anti-woman" because of this attitude? Because I'm bringing common sense back to the rape discourse?
Today these women want the freedom that we won, but they don't want to acknowledge the risk. The minute you meet a man, the minute you go out wiht a man, the minute you go to a bar to have a drink, there is a risk. You have to accept that part of the sizzle of sex come from the danger of sex. You can be overpowered.
I mean, wake up to reality. This is male sex. There's an attraction between the sexes that we're not totally in control of. The idea that we can regulate it by passing campus grivance committee rules is madness. My kind of feminism stresses personal responsibility. I've never been raped but I've been very vigilant -- I'm constantly reading the signals.
Sex, Art and American Culture, Camille Paglia
Dartmouth Porn Shocker
Clearly women have bought the Big Lie of Sexual Revolution hook, line and sinker. I see no reason they shouldn't sink or swim on those terms, then ... without recourse to antiquated notions of Male and Female utterly absent from 99.9% of court rulings re: workplace, family, procreation, reproduction, etc. etc. SAVE where RAPE is concerned.
All very handy for perpetually painting increasingly emasculated men as predators as a rule ... whose wives, children, girlfriends, etc. are in need of protection from them.
=== Rape statutes have been re-written in most states to be gender-neutral.
Which is pretty absurd, no? I find it extremely hard to believe an erect penis does not signal "consent".
Lose:Lose for men.
I know well that there is such a thing as rape. I just don't think those who broadcast their Empowerment such should have recourse to pretense they were sending a "No Consent" sort of message.
Except, she takes her clothes off in public and its entertainment and she wins prizes. He takes his clothes off in public and is charged with indecent exposure, registered as a sex offender and has him mug posted on the internet for extra humilation.
No it doesn't, and by saying that it does you make it into the fault of the person who was raped. Rape is about power and control, and if it hadn't been her it would have been some other woman - possibly even some woman who was dressed far more conservatively...
you look like a whore, act like a whore, speak like a whore - then you can't understand when someone treats you like a whore?
Time to throw the lawyers and judges in jail for being assinine idiots!
And there is where you err. Your indignation on behalf of your own fair gender has blinded you to the concept by which I hereby refute you:
Individual Responsibility.
Catalysis is for chemicals. Men have volition. That is what distinguishes them.
Wearing a thong in a club with drunken male patrons is like a little old lady stopping outside a crackhouse at midnight to count the bills from her newly-cashed SSI check.
Is the crackhead right to thump her on the head and take her money? Of course not. He should be in prison or strapped to a gurney.
But should she be at all surprised that it happened? No way. She willingly put herself in harm's way.
She acted like a cheap whore and, surprise!!! some lowlife in the club decided to act like her pimp.
Who would have seen that one coming?
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