HAGER CITY, WI – Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel posted a story regarding Kind’s failure to pursue justice while he was a prosecutor saying the victim was not credible enough.
Derrick Van Orden highlighted this as an example of Kind’s self-serving attitude, protecting his prosecutorial record in advance of a run for Congress instead of pursuing justice for the victim.
See excerpts from the Journal Sentinel’s story below and read the full story here.
…”Are these the ‘Wisconsin values’ Ron Kind claims to represent?” Van Orden said in a statement about the Kind’s decision to not bring charges against the football players.
“Choosing to protect his prosecutorial record in the buildup to his first Congressional campaign instead of pursuing justice for the victim? This further proves what so many in the 3rd District feel about Ron Kind: he isn’t working for them, he’s working for himself and will stop at nothing for personal power and enrichment,” Van Orden said.
…Van Orden said the district should be outraged by the decision.
“Ron is quoted as saying that the victim of this horrible sexual assault was not credible enough to prosecute her attackers. This is shameful,” Van Orden said.
Kind and other investigators did not pursue charges because they believed that they would not be able to convince a jury of the players’ guilt, according to an Aug. 18, 1995, article in the La Crosse Tribune.
…”I believe that the credibility of the woman who reported the assaults would be insufficient to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the sexual contact she had with numerous Saints players was not consensual,” Kind was quoted in the Tribune as saying at the time….
