Rape Survivor Speaks Out On Recent MN Supreme Court Ruling

MOORHEAD, Minn. (Valley News Live) - Minnesota Supreme Court’s recent reversal of a rape conviction is rubbing some people the wrong way.

“When I first heard about it I was outraged,” said Sara Scott, a rape survivor.

The court’s ruling states a person who voluntarily drinks alcohol before being sexually assaulted is not considered “mentally incapacitated.”

“It shouldn’t matter whether a person has a drink at all. It shouldn’t matter if someone has given them alcohol or they decided to overdo it one night and made a poor decision” said Scott.

Scott is no stranger to the conversation of rape. She says she was sexually assaulted back in 2012 in Moorhead.

“No one deserves to be raped. No one deserves to have something like that taken from them without their consent,” she said.

There is now worry the ruling could be sending the wrong message.

“I’m hopeful it’s not sending a message that if you’re voluntarily intoxicated you deserve to be raped. That’s certainly not the message we want to send. I don’t think that’s the message the Supreme Court wanted to send,” said Pamela Foss, the chief assistant attorney for Clay County.

Foss says these types of cases should be prosecuted, but understands why the decision was made.

“They have to go by how it’s written. When you have one comma that maybe should have been placed elsewhere, that affects the whole reading of the statute,” she said.

Foss also says this doesn’t mean sexual assault cases involving alcohol can’t be prosecuted.

The cases could be argued under physical helplessness as the reasoning for being unable to give consent.

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