Dallas News by Sharon Grigsby 10/22/2018
More than two years after a Baylor University student survived what medical personnel confirmed was sexual assault, the McLennan County district attorney's office continues to put her through hell.
I'm adding my voice to that of the victim and her many supporters who are calling on state District Judge Ralph Strother to reject the generous plea deal that outgoing DA Abel Reyna has made with former Baylor fraternity president and Garland resident Jacob Walter Anderson.
The original tragedy made big headlines, occurring amid the Pepper Hamilton investigation into sexual assault at Baylor. But the troubling disposition of the Anderson case has gone almost unnoticed outside of Waco.
Here's how police detailed the Feb. 21, 2016, assault at an off-campus Phi Delta Theta party: Anderson escorted the woman to a secluded area behind a tent after she drank a glass of punch and became disoriented. Anderson forced her to the ground and sexually assaulted her, according to the documents.
The victim told police that at some point she was unable to breathe and lost consciousness, then woke up alone outside, lying face down in her own vomit.
Friends took her to a nearby hospital, where a sexual assault nurse examined her and called Waco police.
Anderson, 20 years old at the time and a graduate of Naaman Forest High School in Garland, withdrew from Baylor about two weeks after the incident. Later that year, a grand jury indicted him on four sexual assault charges.
Most recently, the wheels of justice seem to have careened off the tracks. Inexplicably, the DA's office cut a deal with Anderson without even giving the victim and her family so much as a heads up. They say the first they learned of any plea discussion was when they read an Aug. 23 article in the Waco Tribune Herald.
The agreement presented last week allows Anderson to plead no contest to a charge of unlawful restraint, which would ensure that he doesn't go to prison or have to register as a sex offender.
More:
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/10/22/behind-sweet-deal-sexual-assault-case-former-baylor-frat-president-garland
