Unsilenced: How this mother fought to protect her daughter... and yours.
"Mom, I was raped."
The words hit Susan Russell like a fist to the stomach in late winter 2004, and she responded with a question to her 20-year-old daughter, Kathryn, who was home from UVA for the weekend.
"'Did you call the police?" Russell recalls asking, certain that law enforcement and school administrators would help her daughter through the ordeal and bring her attacker to justice.
That's not how things would go.
Prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence to take the case. UVA's Sexual Assault Board agreed, issuing a not guilty verdict after hearing from Kathryn and the man she accused. But Russell believed her daughter's account, and the idea that her child's assailant would get away without any punishment sparked within her a transformation from anguished mother into fearless victim's advocate. Since 2004, her efforts have brought rape victims at UVA out of the shadows and helped instigate change to UVA's sexual assault policy. Most recently, Russell has pushed for a change in state law regarding how rape and murder investigations are handled at all state universities.
"I will not back down," says Russell, who's boldly placed her daughter's alleged rapist's picture and name on the front page of her website even though, without a conviction against him, such a move could elicit legal action against her.
"Let him sue me," she says. "I have nothing to hide."
It's a no-holds barred attitude that's won her enemies and friends, but she says there's only one thing that will bring her peace: the arrest and conviction of Curtis Ofori.
It's peace she's unlikely to find.
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COVERUnsilencedSince 2004, when her daughter reported being raped at UVA and no charges were filed, Susan Russell has fought to make campuses safer for women. This week, he...
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Full Stories List for December 8th, 2011 issue #1049
4Better Or Worse
News
Unhappy New Year: Local Sperry HQ to shut down as layoffs loom
Arrest, foreclosure: As trial nears, woes swarm elder Huguely
Crossed over: Artist Mitchell dies four years after crosswalk incident
Art Features
Black and White
The Dish
Corrections
On Architecture
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Cover Stories
DR. HooK
Essays
Movie Reviews
Question of the Week
Real Estate Property auctions
Real Estate - $old
Real Estate - On the Block
Sports Doctor
Strange But True
The Brazen Careerist
