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More women claiming they were raped by Tijuana cops
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20031219-9999_1n19...
By Sandra Dibble
December 19, 2003
TIJUANA ? In three separate incidents over the past 15 months, American women said they were raped near the U.S.-Mexican border by uniformed Tijuana
police officers.
Although only one of the victims has returned to Tijuana to press charges, two others reported the attacks to San Diego law enforcement agencies.
Dianna Murray, 42, wept this week as she recounted the events from her home in Fort Collins, Colo. "This broke me," she said, her voice barely
audible. "I still see the gold badge with the letter P."
Murray decided to speak out, using her name, after reading a newspaper account of a similar incident involving an Iowa woman who said a Tijuana
officer raped her Oct. 7.
"It's very difficult for me ? it needs to get out," Murray said. "This has consumed my life for the past five months."
Murray said that on July 16, she and a friend, who doesn't want to be identified, were stopped by a Tijuana patrol car and raped on the street by two
officers.
A fourth woman was allegedly attacked Sept. 22, 2002. The victim couldn't be reached, but details of her story appear in a report she filed with the
La Mesa Police Department.
In the report, she and her boyfriend had been eating and drinking at Buckets, a bar on Avenida Revolucion, when they complained about their bill. A
waiter called police, who separated her from her companion and drove her to a hotel. She said she was handcuffed to a bed and raped by four officers.
Mart?n Dom?nguez Rocha, Tijuana's secretary of public safety, said the women's assailants must be punished.
"No matter how painful, we want these cases to come to light, so that we can cure this evil," he said.
Mexican prosecutors say they can't investigate such allegations without a formal complaint filed with Mexican officials, like the one made by the Iowa
woman. Victims must return to Mexico to testify and face their attackers; then a Mexican judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to try the
case.
"If we had known about these other two incidents, perhaps we could have prevented the third one from taking place," said Victor Fern?ndez Cordova, a
top prosecutor with the Baja California Attorney General's Office in Tijuana. "At this point, all we have legally is one isolated incident."
La Mesa police reported the 2002 incident to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana and to the San Diego Police Department's border liaison office. The
consulate contacted the victim, but "she didn't want to testify," said Al Anzaldua, head of American Citizen Services.
Consulate officials said yesterday that they hadn't been informed of Murray's allegations.
The Iowa woman's case moved forward last month, when a Baja California judge ruled that there is enough evidence to bring four Tijuana police officers
to trial.
The victim, who had been visiting Tijuana with her husband and 9-year-old son, was stopped after buying a drug used for narcolepsy, a neurological
sleep disorder, from a Tijuana pharmacy. She said she had a prescription from a U.S. doctor, but the officers said she needed one from a Mexican
doctor and ordered the family to a police station near the San Ysidro border crossing.
Only one of the officers, H?ctor Manuel Arias Campos, a supervisor in a division of Tijuana's municipal police that specializes in assisting tourists,
was charged with rape. Two were charged with extortion and abuse of authority, while the fourth was charged with failing to report a crime.
Arias and one of the other officers are in prison awaiting trial. Two are out on bail.
Murray, the most recent victim to come forward, was in San Diego on a business trip when she crossed to Tijuana with a friend about 7:30 p.m. July 15,
a Tuesday. They headed for People's, a bar and restaurant on Avenida Revolucion, then headed back toward the border in her friend's truck about
midnight.
Murray said a car suddenly swerved in front of them. "We didn't have a choice but to hit it," she said.
A patrol car immediately pulled up, and two officers asked for the women's Mexican car insurance, which they didn't have.
The other vehicle was only slightly damaged, but the officers, speaking in broken English, "told us we had to pay for damages before we could leave,"
Murray said. The officers took her ATM card and personal identification number and withdrew $800 from her account, she said.
Back at the scene of the accident, the man whose car they had hit was waiting, but Murray said the officers didn't give him any money. Then, within
sight of the lights of the San Ysidro crossing and "right on the street," she said she and her friend were raped.
Murray said both officers raped her.
"They laughed a lot," she said. "They told us that we wouldn't be able to pass through Customs until we finished paying for the damages, and then they
left."
Murray said she and her friend sat on the curb, stunned and bleeding, until her friend's husband arrived. He knew they'd had an accident, but they
didn't tell him about the attack.
The husband dropped Murray off at her car in a San Ysidro parking lot. She drove to her hotel off Carmel Valley Road and called San Diego police.
The officer who responded offered to take Murray to University Community Medical Center but told her she wouldn't get a full rape examination because
the assault occurred in Mexico, she said.
Instead, Murray went to a clinic on her own. She said she was given 16 stitches in her rectum, an injection to protect her from sexually transmitted
diseases and a "morning after" pill.
Although police routinely take DNA samples from rape victims in California in an effort to identify the assailant, they rarely order the test if the
rape occurred south of the border, said Sgt. Janet Wright of the San Diego Police Department's sex-crimes unit.
"Because we have no jurisdiction, we . . . have no use for that exam," Wright said. "It happened in another country. It would be of no value."
Fern?ndez, the Baja California prosecutor, said his agency can use DNA evidence collected in San Diego in rape cases. But Wright said the head of the
Baja California sex-crimes unit in Tijuana turned down an offer last year for rape-testing equipment from San Diego police, saying they didn't have
the facilities to process the evidence.
The U.S. Consulate can help victims navigate the Mexican justice system, but it is up to the victims to make the initial call, spokeswoman Liza Davis
said.
Murray said she has the consulate's telephone number and is preparing to report the crime.
"I thought I was strong enough to take this on," she said. "I don't know if I am."
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Stephanie Jackter
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When one woman files charges, it's almost always the tip of the iceberg.
I remember thinking that when I saw the first rape story. For every one that complains about what was done to her, there are usually eight or ten out
there trying (usually unsuccessfully), to just forget about it and go on with her life. And those are just the statistics gleaned from rape crisis
centers on this side of the border! Since the lesson we learn from all the trials that wind up in the media is that if we proceed with charges, we
will be the ones whose names wind up in the mud instead of the rapist.
Case in point: Anybody following the Kobe Bryant trial? Just yesterday the decision was made by the judge that following up on the leaks of the
woman's name was "a waste of court time".
The victims will just be victimized over again in both of these cases. Watch and see. - Stephanie
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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Anonymous
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I wonder if these evil Tijuana officers are even more aggressive towards the female Mexican nacionals?
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Anonymous
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Get ready for more...
The Sec. of Tourism for Baja CA (Norte) will be on tape on a major TV network news show, blaming 'the Americans' for tourist problems in TJ.
The interview, conducted three weeks ago will go onair in '04.
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Stephanie Jackter
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I've always avoided Tijuana like the plague, except for passing through on my way someplace else.
Sending an economic chill pill to that city is truly the only recourse we have in these matters. And if a govt. rep. from Baja really does come on TV
and blame the Americans for these acts of terror, maybe it will do more toward that end than all the comments I could make on the matter.
Oh, Gee, what am I saying? Has my economic chill pill ever made a difference in what goes on there? Probably not a drop of difference. Why?
because Amercans are the prime supporters of all that is bad about Tijuana. So why be so shocked that it has come to this?
To a great degree, Americans are to blame for this. In terms of supply and demand, it is us who have made Tijuana into one of the most debaucherous
cities in the world. We buy into that drunken, prostitute filled world, with our hard earned dollars. So why should we be surprised that
disrespecting women should extend right to the top of those in charge of protecting us when most of us go there specifically to behave badly.
It goes back to the "consentual porn ain't bad stuff" idea. It may not be, but as I've argued before, much of it is based more on force and coersion
than consent. Should any of us be surprised that the spillover goes to a lot of people who want nothing to do with it, people who just crossed the
border to buy trinkets and had their lives changed forever? - Stephanie
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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marla
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It is not the fault of Americans that a gang of rapist criminal police officers is operating in Tijuana. That is completely ridiculous and insulting
assumption. It is the fault of the government that hires thugs and allows them to continue their ways. This is not exclusively Mexico's problem but
exists anywhere police are not properlly background checked and allowed to operate with too much power. Including the U.S.
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Stephanie Jackter
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Now Seriously, Marla
You really don't see any link between men who are exposed regularly to sexual violence and degredation against women through the porn industry, and
those who would feel confident enough to commit that violence themselves???
Growing up in Tijuana comes with a level of exposure to the seamier side of life that one is not gonna get in many other cities on the planet. And it
is a business funded in major part, by Americans.
What do you think those cops did with their free time if they were doing this kind of thing on the job? Not just going home to the family. You can
bet on that. I'd love to see a psychological profile of these creeps. You would probably see that they were exposed to images of violence against
women and images of sexual objectification at an early age.
It's just like the drug trade. We demand it, and we get the violence that comes along with it. Feel free to take insult. I'm personally way more
insulted by the fact that women and children are forced into the sex trade and the rest of us have to watch out for predators as well because of it.
Make no mistake about it. Sex is as inherently un-evil as apple pie. But what has grown up around the sex industry is a kind of scum that can't be
pealed away from its corrosive effect on the rest of society without revealing open wounds that will never heal. - Stephanie
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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Nikon
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As I see it, the truth lies somewhere in between...attitudes towards women by (the majority of) males in Mexico could be described many ways, all of
them negative, I don't even have that many disparaging words at my command. It's been addressed by their own Carlos Fuentes, in the irony that exists
because of the strong love sons have for their mothers, and their mothers for sons. Outside of that circle, it gets medieval, which by the way has
always been my theory, that it is behavior handed down by the Spanish who in turn got it from the Moors' seven hundred years of occupation of Spain.
Pornography didn't start this, but it can't have helped either. TJ cops aren't the only rapists in Mexico. Amazing it's not more commonplace, given
males' attitudes toward women.
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generubin
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Stephanie makes some valid points. But I would like to remind you all of when Mitsubishi and Mexico had plans to mine the salt out of Laguna San
Ignacio. So many of us did our part in letter writing and boycotting. I never thought it would have an effect until the morning I woke up and my
father called on the phone to say that the Mexican president and the pres of Mitsubishi had just announced abbandonment of the project due to public
sentiment. I know it is a bit of apples and oranges but it does good for us all to remember the battles we have won.
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Anonymous
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Stephanie Jackter
Sending an economic chill pill to that city is truly the only recourse we have in these matters. And if a govt. rep. from Baja really does come on TV
and blame the Americans for these acts of terror, maybe it will do more toward that end than all the comments I could make on the matter.
Here Stephanie is saying this guy would harm tourism by coming out and saying this.
To a great degree, Americans are to blame for this. In terms of supply and demand, it is us who have made Tijuana into one of the most debaucherous
cities in the world. We buy into that drunken, prostitute filled world, with our hard earned dollars. So why should we be surprised that
disrespecting women should extend right to the top of those in charge of protecting us when most of us go there specifically to behave badly.
Here she is saying he is right. Way to go.
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The fact is Mexico is a Male dominated society. Women are repressed and things like beating your wife are not a crime. Even further is the way the
police see themselves as above common people and beyond/or actually, the maker of law themselves.
Case in point. I know a girl from a small town in Sonora. At the age 14 she was walking home from school and a police car pulls up next to her. The
officer asks her a few questions and is fairly nice and offers her a ride home. This goes on for a couple of days. Then he informs her she is to be
his girlfriend and takes her to a remote spot and rapes her. She doesn't know what to do, who can she turn to? She tries to convince herself that
the man loves her and that one day they will marry. He even tells her this, but their whole relationship consists of him picking her up after school
taking somewhere in his car and having sex with her. One day her friends see her getting into the car with him and one recognizes him as a neighbor,
who is married. When the girl confronts him about it he drags her into the car takes her to a remote spot beats her and leaves her for dead. When
the cop sees her in town again he cooly drives up to her and informs her that her little sister is going to be his next girlfriend. The family had to
move, there was absolutely nothing they could do legally to prosecute this beast. Can you imagine the mentality that is at play there? The fear those
people and young girls in particular must be in all over Mexico. So if you think for one second that tourists have nothing to fear when travelling in
Mexico think again, if they treat their own citizens like this. It's funny when you read all the posts about not paying mordida and DEMANDING to be
taken to the police station to pay the fine. Si como no. You try pulling that one on two unfreindly TJ cops who have you pulled over to a side
street, and you a liable to end up DEAD! Thats like telling a robbery victim hes better off to resist the robber.
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capn.sharky
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Tijuana--The armpit of the world
I can't believe how the Mexican system can tolorate this. If the Dir. of Tourism comes on TV down there and blames this on the Americans, he should be
shot. Tijuana reminds me of Subic Bay in the old days of the early 60's--except it is more dangerous. I think Americans should avoid TJ like the
pondscum it is. Any of the men on this board that would blame a woman for this should move to Mexico. That is like blaming a child for being
molested. Just ain't so.
If there is no fishing in heaven, I am not going
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Tim_Price
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We don't spend any time in Tijuana, but I do know that even San Felipe is getting to be a spookier place for American female tourists. My wife used
to jog on San Felipe streets unmolested by anyone except stray dogs, but it just got worse and worse. Truck loads of locals would swerve towards
her, nearly runningn into her, shouting all kinds of crap. And not just once in a while. She'd come back from a run with stories that sounded like
she'd just narrowly avoided being assaulted. While in Baja towns she and I go everywhere together. Sad. She can go for a run in our home town
without being hassled but in Baja it's too dangerous.
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