More than the money: E. Jean Carroll's legal fight
Today, in the window, imagine neither coats nor pearls, but 83.3 million US dollars, the award resulting from E. Jean Carroll's January 26 trial for her most recent lawsuit against Donald Trump. Of that sum, $18.3 million is for compensatory damages: $11 million for repairing her reputation and $7.3 million for emotional harm. The remaining $63 million is for punitive damages. (The amount, eight times more than Carroll asked for, was intended to deter his future comments; however, law professor RonNell Andersen Jones wrote in a sobering New York Times piece on Jan. 28 thinks it may not.
If even a fraction (and $5 million awarded in May 2023, when Trump was found guilty of sexual abuse and defamation under New York's 2022 Adult Survivors Act) is ever collected, it financially compensates Carroll, but also removes the requirement to use "allegedly" and "accused" about the defamatory comments Trump made about Carroll.
Asked why she did not speak up earlier, Carroll testified about her shame; doubt that police would take her seriously; social conditioning ("Women like me were taught to keep their chins up and not complain."); and Trump's immense power.
Though younger, I had some conditioning too; Mom made it clear that the phrase "she has a reputation" was not a compliment. You did not want talk. A girl would be seen as 'easy' even if she had been, in Mom's circumspect phrase, "taken advantage of".
Sixty years after my mother's counsel, sexual assault is still all too common. The defamation, though, is remarkable, because of its years-long attempt to destroy this woman's personal and professional reputation.
Twenty-three years later, Carroll spoke in court, to prove that she was damaged by her abuser's continual, malicious stream of calumny. Rather than being discounted, she was believed. I savour that validation more than the millions; it's priceless.
Comments
Like most women I know, I have been harassed, bullied, and worse by more men than I care to count. Most, if not all, probably had no recollection of their words/actions shortly thereafter (I think of Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Trump and more, not to mention my own tormentors).
Good for her!! E back in NOLA
PS. She looks great in the photo - I love the shoes.
Like Carroll, I did not contact police or press charges. I was certain that my parents would take me out of that university and I'd have to finish my education in my home town. (I was a minor so they would have found out about it.)
We look at this case though our own eyes and therefore, biases, I think he is guilty but what is important is that the jury in the first trial did. (The jury in the second trial addressed only the defamation.)
If I wanted to read a political blog there are many others that I choose. I don’t care to know what your politics , are as I don’t know you and didn’t ask you. Your thoughts on Trump(and any other) US political figure are no interest to me. Way to turn off readers!
My comments are about the American justice system; the violence of sexual abuse and of defamation; and cultural conditioning.
That the defendant is a former US President is a factor, but it's not a post about "politics", it's about the effort to provide justice to persons of all backgrounds (and both deserve that), as well as to the cultural changes that the plaintiff says encouraged her to finally speak of what happened. I am vitally interested in that topic, LN, and I write about what engages me. I never worry about "turning off readers" as that's being false to myself, and to readers who wonder about these things, too.
There are thousands of blogs about fashion, so you should be well-served.
As far as why she didn't come forth sooner....There is something about trauma that puts up a wall around one. It is there to protect you, I suspect, and that contributes to the silence. Don't ask me how I know this.
The wall can pertain to an individual, group or even community. as the 2022 film "Women Talking" (based on an actual incident) showed. The director, Sarah Polley, has spoken. about her own inability to report the alleged violent sexual encounter she had with a well-known Canadian performer and broadcaster when she was 16, until after 25 years had passed.
Assaults are far more common than many persons realize, because of that silence. I once sat around a dinner table of nine women and every one of them had experienced sexual or physical assault from a man known to her. For four of theml, that evening was the first time they had told anyone.