CNN Guest Argues UVA Rape Story May Still Be True

BALDWIN: “There is no evidence and they’re careful not to say they’re not closing the case, they’re suspending the case. She could have been sexually assaulted. He’s careful to use those words. But so far no evidence, correct?”
GANIM: “That’s the consistent theme here I think is something — going back to when this article — shortly after this article was first published. Even her friends came out and said her story has changed a lot over time. And you heard Chief Longo talk about inconsistencies. Not just in the rape that she reported, but now we’re learning something new today, which is, this second physical assault by four men that she says happened to her also on campus in April of 2014 and again he said that they just couldn’t corroborate her story. There were too many inconsistencies. Now, I think that what the other side of this, Brooke, is that rape victims often do change their stories. They often remember things over time. Advocates have told me this is very common. This isn’t something that automatically shows that you’re lying. And so I think that’s why you heard Chief Longo say they’re going to keep this case open. The key here being that she’s not cooperating –“
BALDWIN: “That was — and that was my question to you.”
GANIM: “Hoping that she’ll cooperate and they can move forward.” 
BALDWIN: “And let’s — let’s just — you know, rape and sex assault is — that is a problem on college campuses nationwide. I just want to italicize that, bold that for everyone right now. But in this conversation, my question to you would be, if she finally shows up at the Charlottesville Police Department, this young woman who’s had allegedly these horrendous, horrendous things happen to her, she’s there with the dean of the student, she’s there with a lawyer, she doesn’t want to give a statement, she never gives a statement. Initially she didn’t even want to go into any sort of criminal justice system, didn’t want to deal with it. My question to you would be, why?” 
HOSTIN: “You know, and I want to be very careful here.” 
BALDWIN: “We have to be very careful.”
HOSTIN: “We have to be very careful here. I want to be very careful because it is not unusual for a sexual assault victim to pull out of the criminal process, to recant, because of a lot of reasons. Sometimes they can’t deal with the probing that occurs. They don’t want to submit to a rape kit. They’re embarrassed. They know that they will be scrutinized quite frankly. And so that in and of itself, as Sara said, doesn’t make this young woman a liar.” 
BALDWIN: “Right.”
HOSTIN: “But — and I think if you look at the statistics, and some of these statistics of false reports of rape are a bit squishy. But if you look at the FBI statistics, only about 2 percent of rapes that are reported are false. And only about 40 percent of rapes that occur are even reported. And so the suggestion that she just sort of made this entire thing up flies in the face of statistics. Women generally do not falsely report rape. That being said, I think it’s pretty clear that, one, she is not cooperated, sort of withdrew from the system. And I think it’s also very clear from this chief’s comment that it appears that so much time was lost after this alleged rape that the police could not corroborate what happened.”
BALDWIN: “Right.”
HOSTIN: “And that really is the bigger issue here.” 
BALDWIN: “Right.”
HOSTIN: “Because rape victims are reluctant to cooperate with police and report these things, schools, college campuses, should not be taking the lead when it comes to sexual assault. Once someone on a college campus, an administrator, sort of gets this kind of report, my sense is, Brooke, and, Sara, I want to know what you think, that the university should immediately bring the police into it.” 
GANIM: “It’s part of a larger issues –“
BALDWIN: “And that was the point, right.”
GANIM: “That people are talking about and it’s two-fold. At UVA specifically, I’ve talked to advocates there in, you know, in the wake of this scandal have said, that is scary to them because women may not come forward. That statistic that you just mentioned of the amount of women who don’t ever report could actually rise if they know they absolutely have to go through the criminal process every time they talk to someone about a rape.”
HOSTIN: “Yes, that’s the chilling effect.”
GANIM: That’s the chilling effect.”
HOSTIN: “That’s true.”
GANIM: “But this is only one part of three investigations into this Rolling Stone piece that are coming out today and there is an investigation by the State of North Virginia, and we will look at how university has handled this. It's not just Jackie went forward to the school, then she begin talking about her alleged rape publicly and a lot of people on that campus knew what she was alleging months and months and months. And it wasn't reported to police until it became a national story. So the look is -- the state investigation is did they handled her story properly and did they also handed a lot of other reports on sexual assault properly."