Pity the poor Kevin Mullin, Senator from Rutland, and Tim Corcoran, Representative from Bennington. They had the misfortune to share a rental house with disgraced Sen. Norm McAllister (R-Siberia). And in that house, McAllister is accused of repeatedly raping a young woman who he presented to his colleagues as his “intern.” And now, Mullin and Corcoran find themselves on a hot seat of sorts. Or they ought to, anyway.
For his part, Mullin has claimed that the woman, 43 years McAllister’s junior, slept in the basement. Corcoran, however, seems to have a different recollection:
… Corcoran said Monday afternoon that, “as far as I know,” 63-year-old McAllister and the young woman he employed as a sort of legislative assistant were spending nights in the same room, on the occasions the woman stayed in the capital.
The young woman has said that McAllister raped her “just about” every time she stayed in the house.
Both Mullin and Corcoran seem to have adopted a relentlessly aggressive incuriosity about their roomie and his (cough) intern. Corcoran’s “as far as I know” is matched by Mullin’s “I assume [the basement is] where she slept.”
in an interview with VPR’s Peter Hirschfeld, Corcoran also expressed an almost comical ignorance of McAllister’s arrangements:
Asked if they shared the same bed, Corcoran said he didn’t know.
“I don’t know if there was a sleeping bag in there or a sofa or what,” Corcoran said.
Never once peeked in the door, Tim?
But wait, there’s more. Corcoran claims to have hardly known the woman at all:
“People that know me, I’m pretty low key and keep to myself, so I never really engaged,” Corcoran said. “I might have said ‘Hi’ to her once or twice.”
Yeah, well, there’s “low key” and there’s “See no evil, hear no evil.” I mean, really: a 20-year-old woman is, as far as Corcoran can tell, sharing a bedroom with a 63-year-old Senator — and his mind was absolutely bereft of questions or concern?
On top of that, several lawmakers have noted that the woman appeared younger than her age. Sen Peg Flory told Seven Days that the woman “looked like she was 12.” Speaking with VTDigger, Mullin himself described her “as a ‘young girl’ who was ‘really small.’” And yet seeing this woman/girl of uncertain age sharing a domicile with Norm McAllister didn’t prompt any questions in Mullin’s mind? And Corcoran, seeing her enter McAllister’s bedroom every night, didn’t wonder what the hell might be going on? That is, frankly, hard to believe.
Dudes better get their stories straight. And try to make ’em a little bit more believable next time.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
Truly disgusting, at least from what little I know of the story at this point. But what should strike anyone of common sense, is this woman’s comments that “he raped me just about every time I slept there.” HUH?! How many times does this sort of thing have to happen to you, if you were in fact actually raped, TO NOT GO BACK AND CALL THE POLICE??!! It reminds me of the navy women a few years back that filed sexual harassment charges in what came to be known as the “Tailhook” scandal. After all sorts of debauchery that is only equalled by the secret Service, Homeland Security, and other disgraced mismanagement of the Obama administration, one female Navy officer filing charges commented about the goings-on at the OPTIONAL annual party, “you should have seen last year, as it was even worse!”
There is a power dynamic at work in cases like this, which is very difficult to understand if you haven’t been in the situation. People (yes, it happens to men, too) feel powerless to resist, complain or flee even when they have chances to do so. I’m planning to write more about this today if I get the chance; if you want more information, VTDigger’s Morgan True has an excellent piece on the subject.
Ugh.. Brett’s comment illustrates the problem of victim blaming- “She had the power to make it stop.. why didn’t she?” I’ve already heard several people I respect utter something like “she’s a legal adult (at least now she is) so what’s the problem?”
You’re correct JW, the feeling of powerlessness is very difficult to understand, but very real.
A teenage girl I know got a job at a ski area in windsor cty, her family was so proud of her. Her boss was like a friend little did she know what he was up to.
He had sex w/her but went too far on one occasion sodomizing her and causing internal injuries so severe she required hospitalization that’s when the story came out.
It’s pretty clear she didn’t want the muss or fuss plus wanted her job and most of all didn’t want to disappoint her family and dealing w/the abuse is often so much easier then the trauma of going through the messiness of going up against someone so powerful and perhaps not being believed or even facing retribution from the perp or even loved ones. Married women who have reason to believe children are being molested don’t want to deal with divorce or shame. And there is often another parent or family members who are aware of an abusive situation and choose for whatever f’ked up reason to ignore it even up to the death of said victim.
Pretty clear from some comments on the topic in general many, mostly men don’t understand women and simply are unaware of how fragile emotionally women in general and children in particular can be especially if already traumatized or emotionally disturbed. Dissociation is a learned behavior and survival mechanism which allows victim to operate in a level of consciousness to continue in abusive situations w/o reacting to what is taking place it is separated and buried.