Library Sexual Assault Trial Starts TuesdayDAYNA WORCHEL
Staff Writer
The 17-year-old who said she was sexually assaulted last summer in the men's restroom of the Troup Municipal Library told a Smith County jury on Tuesday that following a Tyler man there at his request "was not a smart thing to do."
Brandon Deonteri Prestidge, 25, who is charged with sexual assault of a child under 16, is accused of fondling and then raping the young girl, who was 16 at the time, after he asked her to follow him into the restroom. The sexual assault allegedly happened inside of a locked stall where the girl said Prestidge, who was then 23, took her after he heard a noise outside of the restroom door.
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The teenager, who was volunteering at the library on July 31, described the sexual assault in detail to the jury, saying she knew that what was happening to her was "inappropriate" and "wrong" and that she did not want the assault to happen.
After the incident, the girl testified that she went into the women's restroom to clean herself and left the library without telling anyone there what happened.
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Under cross examination, Haley asked the girl why she did not tell anyone at the library or the police what had happened to her.
"I wasn't thinking about that, I just wanted to get away," she responded.
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The girl said she knew it was wrong, but she didn't know why she didn't tell Prestidge to stop. "When I left the men's room, I felt like it was my fault," she testified.
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I am still investigating whether this library rape is related to library policy and/or computer usage. The media reports I have seen make no mention one way or another. And the library's web site is sparse. Only the following is of possible relevance: "The library will not restrict a patron's access to library materials due to age." That is a sure sign the library follows American Library Association [ALA] diktat and may be an anything-goes library, though it does not have to be that way.
In the meantime, the above story caught my attention, and I am aware of potentially significant background information that I simply cannot source at the moment, so I will not publish it now.
I am certain the ALA will do absolutely nothing to assist the teenage library volunteer rape victim or others similarly situated. Neither will it even bother to write about it anywhere. The ALA has not responded to a call to start tracking library crime—tracking parents who try to keep children from inappropriate material is what's important to the ALA. See "Banned Books Week Versus Library Crime; Call for the ALA to Track Library Crime," 17 August 2009.
And let Texas try to correct an imbalance in public education, then suddenly the ALA comes alive, even using plagiarism to get involved in a non-library matter. See "ALA Double Standard on Accuracy in Texas State Board of Education Proposal on School Book Content; ALA President Plagiarizes to Promote Matter Outside ALA Purview," 18 May 2010.
In contrast, a teen library volunteer raped in a library bathroom? ALA says: "Yawn." Please. The ALA even tried to cover up another library child rape. See, "ALA Whitewashes Rape and Blames Child; Removes Discussion of ALA's Possible Culpability for Rape," 4 April 2009.
Troup, Texas? You are on your own.
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