Rape

The advertisement appeared on Craigslist in early December. "Need a real aggressive man with no concern for women," read the posting on the Internet classified advertising forum. Its purported author was a Casper, Wyo., woman, whose photo also was posted. One week later, a man accepted the offer, forcing his way into the woman's home, tying her up and raping her at knifepoint. "I'll show you aggressive," he allegedly said, according to court testimony. In fact, authorities say, the woman had nothing to do with the ad. Instead, they say, a former boyfriend had posted it, soliciting her assault.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has reversed the 2002 rape and kidnapping conviction of former Long Beach Poly football standout Brian Banks. Banks, now 26, was wrongly convicted of the charges based on the testimony of Wanetta Gibson, an acquaintance. Gibson testified that Banks raped her on the Poly campus. Banks said the encounter was consensual. Rather than face a prison term of from 41 years to life, Banks accepted a plea deal that destroyed his dream of playing college football.

In the days before he fled the country, rape suspect Andrew Luster wired money from a trust fund and placed long-distance calls that authorities now believe were part of a plan to skip town and avoid prosecution. According to search warrants released Tuesday, Luster tried to cover his tracks by removing the hard drive on his computer. After Luster fled, his friends told investigators they saw no indication that he planned to leave the country.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has reversed the 2002 rape and kidnapping conviction of former Long Beach Poly football standout Brian Banks. Banks, now 26, was wrongly convicted of the charges based on the testimony of Wanetta Gibson, an acquaintance. Gibson testified that Banks raped her on the Poly campus. Banks said the encounter was consensual. Rather than face a prison term of from 41 years to life, Banks accepted a plea deal that destroyed his dream of playing college football.

Nowadays, the difference in their ages is barely even noticed. Robin Abramo, 29, and Chad Abramo, 35, are like many happily married couples--in love, financially stable, and providing a safe and comfortable home for three young sons. But if some government officials had their way, and they include Gov. Pete Wilson and the director of the state's Department of Social Services, the Abramos say they would never have had a chance to become a family.

Fifteen Asian women, forced into sex slavery by the Japanese army during World War II, sued the government of Japan Monday, seeking unspecified but substantial damages for years of rape, beating, starvation and other forms of mistreatment that continue to haunt them into old age. Lawyers in the case said that it is the first suit filed in U.S. courts directly against the Japanese government for war crimes.

Paul House, a Tennessee death row inmate, was just one vote away from possible execution when a divided Supreme Court said three years ago that new DNA evidence called for reopening his case. The Tennessee Supreme Court already had rejected his appeals, as had the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

She lives behind a blue door decorated with a lace curtain embroidered with white roses. The door remains closed. The blinds on her windows are shut. Desiree Washington stays with her mother in a cramped, upstairs apartment in a working-class neighborhood in East Providence, R.I. Once, she and her family owned a cozy, ranch-style home with a swimming pool and a deck in a small town south of Providence.

Sometimes, it's the forbidden stories, the ones people are afraid to tell in full, the ones that emerge only in fragments, that reveal the truth about a place. This is such a story. It's being told now not because the complete truth is known, but because the story nags at those familiar with its outlines, and because it says as much about Iraq's progress as it does about Iraq's resistance to change.

Phillip Garrido, who was convicted in a 1976 kidnapping and rape, was arrested four years earlier for allegedly drugging and raping a 14-year-old girl near his hometown, police in Antioch, Calif., revealed Thursday for the first time. Garrido was arrested last week on suspicion of kidnapping and raping Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 when she was snatched from her street in South Lake Tahoe in 1991 and was allegedly kept in a hidden backyard warren of sheds and tents for 18 years.

Attorneys for a former Westminster police detective will try to persuade a jury that he was under the influence of the antidepressant Zoloft and not responsible for the kidnap and rape of a woman in 2010. Det. Anthony Nicholas Orban was so overwhelmed by the prescription drug that he was mentally "unconscious" and "totally unaware of his actions," attorney James Blatt said outside a Rancho Cucamonga courtroom where his client's trial began Monday. "But for the use of Zoloft, Mr. Orban would not have committed these acts," Blatt said.

NEW YORK - Director-choreographer Susan Stroman is standing with arms folded, watching a group of dancers run through a number. They have the great athleticism and some serious lung power, all of which is way too big for the rehearsal room. But it won't feel that way once they're onstage. "Make it a small step," Stroman says. "Make it nice and easy. Don't make a big deal out of it. " Facing a mirror, she demonstrates the Charleston. She doesn't make a big deal out of it, even though most 57-year-olds can't move that way. In fact, as she stops the dancers to tweak a position or deliver direction, she doesn't make a big deal out of anything.

When roll is called at Tuesday's Moreno Valley Board of Education meeting, chances are board member Mike Luis Rios won't be present. He is being held at a Riverside County jail. In his 16 months on the board, Rios has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of raping two women, pimping and using his position as a school board member to recruit would-be, and sometimes underage, prostitutes. The arrest continues a tumultuous period for the five-member board.

It was a crime that mystified police for decades and left a neighborhood in fear -- a woman who lived alone found raped, stabbed and beaten in her suburban New Jersey home. Now, police say they have arrested a 51-year-old man who was the victim's teenage neighbor at the time of the killing. Because the man was a juvenile when the crime was committed, he may not legally be named, the Star-Ledger reported Wednesday. But the paper quoted unidentified law enforcement sources as saying the suspect is a truck driver who had lived near Lena Triano and who had been released from prison in 1999 after serving nearly 20 years for kidnapping and robbery.

There were some questionable decisions made in the food and beverage industry last week and their consequences are still being felt Monday. Belvedere Vodka posted an ad that horrified customers with an implied rape scene while a Georgia steakhouse based a new burger on Chris Brown's 2009 attack on singer Rihanna. And Kraft Foods is discovering that its global snacks business' new name, Mondelez, has an unexpectedly vulgar connotation. Belvedere has removed a spot it posted on Facebook over the weekend depicting a shocked-looking woman trying to get away from the grip of a smiling man. “Unlike some people, Belvedere always goes down smoothly,” the ad crows.

During a pause in the shelling, Um Mahmood and her 9-year-old son ducked out of their house together in Baba Amr, the most contested neighborhood in the Syrian city of Homs. Their entire family of nine had been waiting for a chance to flee the government onslaught, and rebels had just sent word that they should use the lull to get out. But as Um Mahmood and her son hurried along a dirt road, several shells landed nearby, knocking them to the ground. Other family members scattered.

A novel that had raised concerns because its teen protagonist deals with the aftermath of rape will be added to the core literature list for Temecula's high schools, trustees decided. But school board members also decided to review later this year parents' ability to opt out of lessons and readings that deal with sensitive subjects. The Temecula Valley Unified School District board voted 4 to 1 on Tuesday to add "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson to the list of books that may be taught in high school English classes.

A Liberian man whose 8-year-old daughter allegedly was raped by four boys, then reportedly shunned by her family, must wait at least three months before possibly regaining custody of the girl. The father, who is not being named to protect the girl's identity, met with Child Protective Services on Monday. The girl was taken into state custody after officials said her parents blamed her for the assault and said they didn't want her anymore. But on Monday, the father denied the accusations.

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier on Wednesday castigated the U.S. militaryfor its policies in dealing with rape and sexual assault and repeated her call for legislation to fix a system she said was broken. In a floor speech, Speier (D-Hillsborough) called for passage of her legislation that would move rape and assault investigations out of the normal chain of command and put them in the hands of an impartial office. Her speech came in the same week that eight current and former members of the U.S. military filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging they had been raped, assaulted or harassed while serving, and that were targeted by superiors after reporting the attacks.

A Contra Costa County sex crimes prosecutor accused of raping a colleague during their lunch hour will not be recharged with the crime, a spokeswoman for Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris said Tuesday. A judge in October dismissed sexual assault charges against Contra Costa Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Gressett after determining that county and state prosecutors failed to inform a grand jury of potentially exculpatory evidence. The spokeswoman declined to comment on the decision. A junior prosecutor who worked with Gressett said he raped her in May 2008 in an assault that involved an ice pick, ice and handcuffs.