Thoughts on the Trump rape case... based on the cross examination and the defense arguments, you can hit anyone you want, or, in legalese, assault anyone you want, as many times as you want, as long as they don't scream. Interestingly enough, in the definition of assault:
"Assault is generally defined as an intentional act that puts another person in reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact," it is shocking that it does not require a person to scream who gets assaulted. Having tried my share of rape cases victims handle it in many different ways. I had one case where the victim told the story while testifying like she was reading a book report. I asked for a recess called her out into the hallway and asked, "did this affect you at all?" and she explained how horrible it was, I said then you have to explain that to the jury and I put her back on the stand and made her cry. People grieve differently, some people cry, some people don't. Especially in rape cases where there's such a stigma attached to crying out or reporting it. That's why it's so difficult to pick a jury in a rape case and I was surprised that there are six men on the jury. On the flip side, I've had women on juries tell me afterwards that the victim asked for it, or that they never would have put themselves in that position. Always a difficult case to try.