Ex-boyfriend used Craigslist to arrange woman's rape, police say

[MrsCat 6]

A Wyoming man is accused of posing as his ex and soliciting someone to act out a rough sexual fantasy. Craigslist has had a year full of legal troubles.

"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 local man accepted the offer, forcing his way into the woman's home, tying her up and raping her at knifepoint.

. . . . .

In fact, authorities say, the woman had nothing to do with the ad. An ex-boyfriend posted it, they say, soliciting her assault.

Such an incident would have been impossible -- or at least much less likely -- 20 years ago, Natrona County District Atty. Mike Blonigen said. "It's probably only possible in our modern age," he said.

For Craigslist, the San Francisco-based website used by millions to sell and barter goods and services, the incident comes after a year punctuated by legal battles over its adult advertisements, as well as the highly publicized Boston slaying of a woman who advertised erotic services on the site.

Last year, Thomas Dart, the sheriff in Cook County, Ill., filed a federal lawsuit accusing the site of facilitating prostitution and urging the court to view the site as a public nuisance. State attorneys general also pressured the company to eliminate what they called a "blatant Internet brothel."

Though Craigslist prevailed in the Illinois lawsuit, the site eliminated its erotic services section, replacing it with "adult services" and pledging to review every ad posted there to prevent flagrant prostitution and pornography.

. . . .

The Wyoming case began to unfold Dec. 5. Jebidiah James Stipe, 27, a Carbon, Wyo., native and Marine stationed at Twentynine Palms, Calif., allegedly posed as his ex-girlfriend and placed the ad seeking an aggressive man.

Two days later, she spotted it and contacted the Natrona County Sheriff's Office, as well as Craigslist, which took down the ad. But Ty Oliver McDowell, 26, of a town called Bar Nunn, allegedly already had seen it.

McDowell -- an employee of the Wyoming Medical Center's radiology department -- e-mailed the address listed in the ad, according to the affidavit.

McDowell later told authorities that he and the "woman" exchanged instant messages, and "she" described what she wanted -- "humiliation, physical abuse, sexual abuse," according to investigators -- and gave him her home address.

In fact, authorities say, he was communicating with Stipe.

On Dec. 11, McDowell allegedly went to the woman's home and forced his way inside. He bound, blindfolded and gagged the 25-year-old woman, then raped her as he pressed a knife to her throat, according to the affidavit.

He thought he was fulfilling her rape fantasy, he later told detectives.

McDowell was arrested and charged with first-degree sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated burglary. Stipe was also arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault.

A maintenance mechanic who enlisted with the Marines in 2001, Stipe was being processed for administrative separation due to an undisclosed pattern of misconduct at the time of his arrest, according to a Marine Corps spokeswoman.

Documents related to Stipe's arrest have been sealed. But as for the alleged rapist, Blonigen said his state of mind will be central to the case. While jurors must weigh what McDowell believed to be true, they also must consider how a reasonable, objective person would view the situation, he said.

. . . .

Federal law protects Internet sites from liability for their users' actions, said M. Ryan Calo, residential fellow at the Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.

"The idea was that these website platforms were truly communities assembled of random users, with no editorial control over what users were doing. Craigslist is like a hotel with millions of rooms, but it doesn't have the ability to figure out what's happening in those rooms," Calo said.

A crime committed through a social networking site is no different than one perpetrated through a newspaper's printed classifieds, he said. Yet Internet-based crimes do make it easier for police to track down suspects because they leave a cyber-trail, Calo said.

But Steve Patterson, a spokesman for the Cook County sheriff who sued Craigslist, said the site isn't blameless. By hosting an adult services forum, "they create this specific place for criminal activity to take place," he said.

As a "good corporate citizen," Craigslist should not involve itself in such business, he said.

Authorities have not revealed which section of the site published the posting, but Patterson noted that Craigslist had pledged to monitor adult ads. It's unclear whether or how thoroughly it is doing so, he said, adding that the Wyoming incident suggests a lack of monitoring.

"If a woman is putting an ad online saying she'd like to be raped, I'd hope it would be stopped."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...05.story?page=1

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

It has always mattered what kind of people you associate yourself with.

Today, it matters more than ever.

People... there is nothing wrong with being judgmental. Your very survival may depend on it.

[SuperDuper! 230]

I thought they were gonna try to change the infamous name of Craigslist...

[MrsCat 6]

People... there is nothing wrong with being judgmental. Your very survival may depend on it.

You are so correct brother AJ.

I wonder at what point (if any) the rapist thought either she's a really good actress or perhaps this really isn't consensual.

[slim 1,533]

Craigslist baffles me. It's perfectly acceptable to find someone to fulfill your rape fantasies - but not to sell a gun. Guns are bad. It would be wrong for them to allow people to list firearms for sale in perfect compliance with the law, but it's OK to find a same sex NSA partner for discreet affairs.

Way to take the moral high ground, Craigslist!

I wonder at what point (if any) the rapist thought either she's a really good actress or perhaps this really isn't consensual.

If the accused rapist had several contacts with the woman prior to the event then wouldn't he assume whatever he was doing was actually at her request?

In rape fantasies there's usually a "safe word" that's pre-established to end the incident if it gets too violent or if the "victim" has had enough. If the accused didn't hear that safe word (or if one was never established) it's likely he kept going on what he assumed was the "victim's" fantasy.

In the end here, I think we'll see the accused rapist getting some community service and Stipe getting a few rape fantasies of his own fulfilled in jail. "Owww. I said the safe word. OOOOWWWWWWWW. SAFE WORD! OWWWWWWW."

[SMR 368]

Craigslist baffles me. It's perfectly acceptable to find someone to fulfill your rape fantasies - but not to sell a gun. Guns are bad. It would be wrong for them to allow people to list firearms for sale in perfect compliance with the law, but it's OK to find a same sex NSA partner for discreet affairs.

Way to take the moral high ground, Craigslist!

If the accused rapist had several contacts with the woman prior to the event then wouldn't he assume whatever he was doing was actually at her request?

In rape fantasies there's usually a "safe word" that's pre-established to end the incident if it gets too violent or if the "victim" has had enough. If the accused didn't hear that safe word (or if one was never established) it's likely he kept going on what he assumed was the "victim's" fantasy.

In the end here, I think we'll see the accused rapist getting some community service and Stipe getting a few rape fantasies of his own fulfilled in jail. "Owww. I said the safe word. OOOOWWWWWWWW. SAFE WORD! OWWWWWWW."

How do you know so much about rape fantasies?