People v. Jovanovic

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People v. Jovanovic ("The People Against Jovanovic") is the title of a US court case from New York State which, among other things, shows significant legal risks for sadomasochists who practice consensual assault as part of the SSC . The US bestselling author Linda Fairstein played a controversial role in the trial in her role as prosecutor at the time. The trial raised significant questions in the evaluation of evidence under the Rape Shield Law provisions of the US Victim Protection Act and had exceptionally strong media coverage among the US public.

Oliver Jovanovic , born in 1966, was criminally accused in 1996 of subjecting Jamie Rzucek, born in 1976, to sadomasochistic torture after meeting her shortly before on the Internet. In 1998, Jovanovic was initially found guilty and convicted, but an appeal procedure in 1999 led to this judgment being rejected, as parts of the e-mail traffic between the two parties had been illegally excluded as evidence during the proceedings. Jamie Rzucek refused to testify in the retrial, so the case was eventually closed.

prehistory

In the summer of 1996, a student at Barnard College , Jamie Rzucek met the budding microbiologist Oliver Jovanovic, who was working at Columbia University , in an internet chat room . They exchanged several emails and called each other repeatedly. In the messages exchanged, Jovanovic mentioned photographs taken by controversial artist Joel-Peter Witkin that had corpses as subjects, and Rzucek described her interest in snuff films . On November 22, 1996, the two met for dinner together and then went to Jovanovic's apartment, where they watched a video of the film Meet the Feebles together .

Rzucek later claimed that she was then detained, handcuffed , gagged , sexually abused and tortured in various ways by him for 20 hours against her will . Jovanovic insisted that all actions were based on mutual consent .

After these events, the two exchanged further emails. In one of these e-mails, Rzucek described her condition in such a way that, although she was "... pretty bruised physically and mentally, she has never been so happy to be alive." She also wrote, using a quote from Burroughs' Naked Lunch : " The taste is so overwhelmingly delicious and at the same time quite nauseating. "

Shortly thereafter, Rzucek filed a complaint with the police after speaking to friends and family about the incident. Linda Fairstein, the man in charge of the sex crimes division in the Manhattan District Attorney's office , opened a criminal prosecution.

Judgment and Consequences

After a jury hearing in the New York County Supreme Court, chaired by William A. Wetzel, during which Rzucek testified for six days, Oliver Jovanovic was sentenced to "15 years to." On May 29, 1998 for kidnapping , sexual abuse and assault life sentence ”. Rzucek had testified, among other things, that she had never given Jovanovic any indication of her interest in sadomasochistic practices. Shortly before the jury's decision, Jovanovic refused to accept a plea bargain offered by the public prosecutor .

Because of its sadomasochistic background, but also because it dealt with the topic of electronic online dating in detail, the case received a great response in the American media. The New York Post headlined on its first page: "Cybersex Chess Torture" - The conviction in the courtroom of Judge William Wetzel is the worst miscarriage of justice since the abolition of lynching . Other media took up the massive criticism.

After 20 months in prison, Oliver Jovanovic was released in December 2000; during this time a fellow inmate attacked him and slit his throat. The responsible court of appeal , New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department , found that the original judge had incorrectly applied the rules for questioning rape victims about their sexual past (so-called rape shield law ). The court took the view that, in particular, excerpts from emails in which Rzucek described her sadomasochistic interests and experiences should not have been excluded from the collection of evidence. In one of those messages, Jamie Rzucek described himself as a “pushy bottom ” (a submissive person who urges her dominant partner to inflict her greater pain) in another email as BDSM - “slave” to her sadomasochistic friend.

Resumption

The prosecution appealed against this decision unsuccessfully and offered Oliver Jovanovic another deal, which he also refused. On the eve of the retrial, it became known that Rzucek was unwilling to testify again and the case was dismissed. Throughout the process, Jovanovic benefited from an extensive and very active network of supporters. He later stated that his defense costs exceeded $ 500,000.

In October 2004, Jovanovic filed a civil lawsuit against the City of New York City . He believes that the false allegations have damaged his reputation and that his accusers have been informed of allegations that Rzucek had previously made in a different context. In this context, the complaint expressly names the controversial former prosecutor Linda Fairstein, who became a millionaire as the author of autobiographical crime novels after leaving the public prosecutor's office. Jovanovic has been a lecturer in bioinformatics at Columbia University since late 2005 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The plaintiff is the New York County District Attorney's Office on behalf of the citizens of New York County
  2. ↑ literally “quite bruised mentally and physically, but never been so happy to be alive”
  3. ↑ "the taste is so overpoweringly delicious, and at the same time, quite nauseating."
  4. ^ New York Post: Cybersex Chess Torture "conviction in the courtroom of Judge William Wetzel is the worst miscarriage of justice since they abolished lynching."
  5. ↑ cf. Benjamin Smith, The Practitioner , Legal Affairs , September / October 2003
  6. ↑ Off. Institute website of Oliver Jovanovic (Dept. of Micro- and Immunobiology, Columbia University NYC)

literature

  • Charges Dismissed in Columbia Sexual Torture Case, in The New York Times , November 2, 2001
  • Metropolitan Desk; Following up , The New York Times, August 28, 2005

See also

Web links