‘Slut’
Painted on Cass rape victim’s house


RENSSELAERVILLE — "Slut" was spray-painted in large capital letters on the house of a rape victim Friday night.
"After all I’ve been through, this was too much," she told The Enterprise on Saturday.

She said she had reported the vandalism to the Albany County Sheriff’s Department.

The middle-aged woman was a kitchen worker at the Cass Residential facility, a detention center for youthful offenders. Two years ago, she was raped at knifepoint by one of the residents and kidnapped. She has since become an activist, petitioning to have the facility closed.

The Enterprise withholds the names of sex crime victims.

After the state-run all-male juvenile detention center was changed to a training facility for state employees a month ago, Cass employees spoke out this week, saying they want to return to working with youth. (See related story.)

The rape survivor’s husband said he respects their thoughts and their rights to put up signs and to petition.
When the Office of Children and Family Services, which runs the facility, said it would be a training center, "It was absolutely acceptable," he said. The survivor’s husband said he doesn’t want anyone to lose their jobs. He said he wants the facility to remain open as a training center but doesn’t want inmates to be housed at the facility.
The rape survivor’s husband said someone last week wrote "slut" on a "Keep Camp Cass Closed" sign in his front yard. Two days later, he said, someone wrote "slut" on his house.
He said he didn’t tell his wife about the first incident, because he wanted "to shield her."
"I won’t tolerate anyone victimizing her again," he said. His wife, he said, was raped 15 feet from a guard. After the recent acts of vandalism at their home, "10 feet from where she sleeps," he said, "It’s like it’s happening again to her."

The rape survivor’s husband said he and his wife want accountability for the rape that happened two years ago.
"OCFS made this atmosphere by saying it would be a training facility and then that it wouldn’t," he said.
"I have not, and will not, accuse anyone personally," he said of the vandalism. "I’d like to think that [Cass employees] are the types of human beings that would notify the authorities if they knew who did," he said.
Living in the community since the December, 2004 incident, he said, has been "just horrible" for his family. His wife, he said, is afraid to go anywhere on her own. She doesn’t have a job, insurance, or retirement benefits, he said.
"She’s been sentenced for life," he said. "Where’s she going to go"" he asked.
"There’s just a constant fear that they’re going to escape," he said. A fence, he said, would have only caused more division in the community.

Asked if he and his wife have considered leaving the community, he said they will not leave.
"I’ll make peace, but I’ll never surrender," he said.
No "us and them"

Cass workers who talked to The Enterprise Monday were aware of the acts of vandalism last week at the rape survivor’s home.
"There is no reason in the world anybody at our facility would want to do that because we’re trying to keep the place open," said Ron Pullmain, a child-care worker. "It wouldn’t make any sense"We have no hard feelings," he said.
"She shouldn’t have gone through what she went through, and everybody’s heart goes out to her," said Britta Lovegrove, a nurse.
Lovegrove said she’s talked to many members of the community. "We’ve put it right out there — unacceptable," she said. "This is not what we’re about. This is not what we’re here for.
"This woman needs to be compensated for what she went through"As far as we’re concerned, we would love to be able to have her back, if she would ever come back, or even have a conversation with us, but it’s to the point where she’s just absolved herself from the facility," Lovegrove said.
The rape survivor’s husband responded, saying that the staff at the facility the night she was raped "failed her" and "didn’t do their jobs." His wife, he said, was raped 15 feet from a guard. "It’s absurd to even suggest that," he said of her returning to Cass.
"There are some who are good employees up there, but, the night this happened," he said, "some of them did not do their jobs."
"We need to go on," Lovegrove said. "She needs to go on. We all need to go on. What happened to her is horrible, and what’s continued to happen, with [the vandalism], is just appalling," she said.
"What happened was: We had one victim. All of a sudden, now there’s a lot of victims," Pullmain said. "We’re victims, too. We’re victims of what’s going on, and our families are victims," he said.
"Certainly not to the extent of what she endured, but now our [lives are] in uncertainty," Lovegrove added.

The rape survivor’s husband said Cass employees and their families aren’t victims to the extent he and his family are. His children, grandchildren, and family have to live with what happened forever, he said.
"[The workers]," he said, "can get on with their lives. She can’t. She’ll never be able to get on with her life."
Christine Mickelsen, a teacher, speculated about the collective thought of the community. "I think there’s a reason why the community was quiet for so long, and why the people who wanted to close the place were the only ones that were saying anything," Mickelsen said.
"I think, because they felt that, if they were going to speak out for keeping Cass open, that they would be"insensitive to the experience of this woman. And they didn’t want to be seen that way," she said. Mickelsen said some people are starting to think about the security measures added to the facility and they are thinking the facility should remain open.
"Nobody wants to deny the tragedy, and no one wants to be insensitive, but I think people are saying"maybe there’s another solution. It doesn’t have to be closed outright," she said.
Lovegrove said that, since the rape victim’s home was vandalized last week, "My name has been used in a couple of derogatory manners"even being connected with this word that was put on her house — that I was a part of it.
"No way in my wildest dreams would I even think of doing something as horrific as that," she said.

Lovegrove said she is afraid of speaking out because people might retaliate against her.
"Do I have a fear" Absolutely. Is the mentality up there getting a little bit more vigilante" Absolutely. Does that bother me" Absolutely," she said.
"It’s not what we’re about," Lovegrove said. "We’re a community."
"There isn’t any ‘us and them,’" Mickelsen said. "It’s all a ‘we.’ We are in this community. We’re all together in this," she said. "It’s disturbing to see it splintered off into an ‘us and them.’"