Women who was Raped is arrested on old Warrant

[deerayfan072]

On Saturday, the woman told police she was walking north on the east side of South Howard Avenue about 1:30 p.m. that day when a man grabbed her arm, dragged her behind a building and bushes near West Swann Avenue, and raped her. She described the building as peach or pink with a red-tile roof, which describes a diagnostic center at that intersection.

The woman continued walking about two miles to the University of Tampa, where she had parked her car, and called police about 3:40 p.m. Police took her to be examined by a nurse, then tried to return with her to the scene of the rape. In the process, they learned she was wanted and arrested her.
The warrant is related to about $4,500 in unpaid restitution a Sarasota County court said the woman owes in a 2003 case, police said. She posted the restitution amount as bail Monday.

The woman's mother said the warrant is a "big paperwork mix-up" with the court system; they thought the case was resolved.

[stomperrob]

It is somewhat odd that in a crime as serious as a rape, the officers would be checking the victim to see if she had a record or was wanted - normally the only reason for doing so would be if they doubted her story regarding the rape - they would check to see if she had filed phoney rape complaints in the past or had a criminal record (including any outstanding warrants) - that's not to say her rape complaint isn't genuine, but maybe something didn't make sense about it so the officers did some digging.

[dgan]

Keep in mind it said, "change in their policies". It is hard to fault the officers if they were going by the book. If their policy is to hold a person, then that's it. I think maybe the argument here is defending the actual officers on duty for doing their job, while also agreeing that the policy makers in the department didn't have their head on straight if they didn't already have some type of victim sensitivity rule in place.