Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Two BJJ guys caught raping woman on video...

I know, more than anyone, that you're innocent until proven guilty... but my husband just brought this awful story to my attention.

Apparently two Lloyd Irvin guys in DC raped a woman in a parking garage on New Years... and were caught on surveillance camera video....  She was so drunk, when they didn't adequately support her, she fell to the concrete and was knocked out.

Here's the article in the Washington Times.

And here's the ABC coverage.

She wasn't just any woman, either.  She was another jiu jitsu fighter.  A teammate.  She was their teammate!!!  She was too drunk to drive home, and they told her they'd give her a ride to her instructor's home.  (Presumably Lloyd's.)

I want to throw up.  Those assholes.  Apparently you can't necessarily trust even your own teammates.

Edited to add:  from what I can tell, Nick (one of the perps) is a Texas guy.  I think he fought my teammate Travis Orr at a Houston tourney a year or two ago.

10 comments:

Megan said...

80% of rape victims know their attacker. It wasn't her fault, and both of the criminals need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (which is likely too lax), but women need to start being honest about risk and how much of it we have within our hands to manage.

Unknown said...

Really sad story and definitely shocking in the BJJ community.

Verduranti said...

I really wonder what the defense will be in this case. Maybe everyone was really drunk. What I don't get though is that a lot of people seem to think that she could've prevented this/been less at risk by not being drunk. If she was sober and two men skilled in BJJ decide to attack her, does she realistically stand a chance? How many unarmed individuals could realistically defend against the skill level of these two? But she wasn't sober, fine, are we now arguing that she was only raped because she was drunk? That two otherwise fine, upstanding citizens can fully control their sexual urges up until they encounter truly helpless prey? I want to know how to prevent stuff like this from happening, but I really don't think the answer is drinking less alcohol, wearing different clothes, or associating with fewer men. I also hope this doesn't have resounding effects on the participation rate of women in BJJ.

Anonymous said...

I've started and stopped, over and over, trying to express my outrage and sorrow over this for most of the night. I don't have the words.

As Megan stated, most victims know their attackers. The fact that they were training partners, and probably had fostered that special kind of trust we all develop with each other on the mats, makes this crime all the more heinous in my perspective.

I can't imagine what that alone has done to this woman's psyche.

I just don't have the words...

Georgette said...

@Verduranti: I think it's not that her being drunk "caused" them to rape her. I think it's more that predators of any species go for the easiest victim. If she wasn't drunk, maybe she would have driven herself home and not been in a compromising position like being in a car with two very skilled jiu jitsu fighters. I'm ABSOLUTELY not blaming her (I'm a prosecutor AND a sexual assault survivor as well as a trained sexual assault crisis counselor) .. BUT I also suspect these two assholes are opportunistic criminals who take advantage of a weakness.. Most people wouldn't rob a bank, but if they walked by and saw the vault door open and no one around, they might consider pinching a handful of bills. Bad analogy but you know what I mean.

By the way, rape isn't about uncontrolled/uncontrollable sexual urges. It's about power and domination. Nick and Matt weren't just too horny to bear it-- they used sex as a form of inflicting their power on that poor teammate.

Verduranti said...

@Georgette: I just think to these two almost everyone must look like easy prey and I wish I could understand at what point it goes from being "too much trouble" to being the perfect moment for criminal mayhem.

Also, I understand that rape is about power, let me rephrase: "Two otherwise fine, upstanding citizens can fully control their urge to assert their dominance on others up until they encounter truly helpless prey?" My point is that if they could do something like this, and they're not criminally insane, they probably would have eventually done something like this eventually even if there were never any more drunk girls out partying alone.

Maybe they were drunk too, maybe that's more of the problem. I wonder if more details will emerge.

Anonymous said...

I wrote about this too (http://leaahh.com/2013/01/09/its-a-sad-day-for-a-young-woman-who-trains-bjj/). What's really irritating me is that people are throwing around BS about how talented these guys were and how they threw their lives away. This incident is not a tragedy for them. It's a tragedy for the woman they raped.


Alex J Kennedy said...

Apparently Lloyd was involved in a similar situation 20 or so years ago.

Alex J Kennedy said...

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/1/10/3856994/team-lloyd-irvin-rape-case

Here is a link to the Irvin case back in 1989

Neil said...

I honestly don't understand how a person can do something like this. I don't understand how they can do it to a stranger and I sure don't understand how they can do it to a teammate who trusted them. Flat out disgusting.

For Leahh: I read what you wrote and I agree fully. People should care more about the girl who was wronged, not the guys. I do think it's easy to make it a story about them though, they're the ones who are named, they're the ones people know things about. The girl is basically anonymous (as it should be, she needs her privacy) and so the only thing people can see to focus on is the guys.

And Lloyd Irvin who looks like he's getting dragged into the mess because of a 20 year old case. While that's bad and I likely wouldn't train at his gym knowing it people need to separate the two things.

This is not Lloyd Irvin's fault and people shouldn't try to make it that way. It's a disservice to the victim.