Samantha Kelly was 14 years old when a popular high school student, Joe Tarnopolski, 18, allegedly forced her to have sex.
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“I told him, ‘You are hurting me. Stop. You’re hurting me’ and ‘I want to leave,” Kelly said she told the 18 year old when she appeared on WJBK Fox News Channel 2.
“There was a point where I squirmed and he pulled me back down by my legs, and I cried and he wiped my tears and told me everything would be okay.” Samantha continued. Except things were not O.K., they did not get better. While the “It gets better” campaign is directed to gay teens to prevent suicide, Samantha might have benefited from the moral support. She did not get it.
After the alleged rape, two stories about her sexual encounter surfaced. In the first, Samantha claimed Tarnopolski forced her to have sex. However, before Samantha went onto Fox News, the D.A. “coerced” a statement the affair was voluntary. That changes the crime from violent rape to statutory rape.
After the Fox 2 News interview, Samantha’s crisis turned into a nightmare. Tarnopolski claimed there was a “confidentiality agreement”. He sent a series of twitter messages.
For example, on October 3rd, Tarnopolski sent out a tweet, “You say I fucked your life up, but your the one who lies to everyone because your scared to get in trouble! You threw this upon me! Your idea.”
Meanwhile, many who had been Samantha’s friend turned against her, choosing to support the popular Tarnopolski. They threw food at her in the lunch room. There were taunts and jokes. There was a Joe Tarnopolski is innocent Face Book Page, a slap in the face for a little girl whose claim she had been violated was going un-believed.
From Samantha Facebook
Even the Assistant Wayne County D.A., Keisha Glenn, whose obligation it is to protect the victim, came down on Samantha. Glenn said she would tell the judge about the Samantha's first statement the sex was voluntary if she repeated the Fox 2 News version. It was a veiled threat to charge Samantha for perjury. This, according to a report on the Detroit News given by Matthew Evans, Tarnopolski's court appointed attorney.
Samantha’s mother, June Justice, tried to find another school for Samantha to take her out of her toxic environment. However, with no new school on the horizon, school administrators sent Justice a letter in which they said Samantha had to come back. The nearly 4.0 student, who had spoken of college, would be a truant.
They say those who commit suicide do so because they can’t see a way out of their situation. Samantha could not escape the jeers. The prosecutor was far from supportive. Samantha had to go back to school and face more ugly talk and see the man she claims raped her. There was no solution for a 14 year old in desperate trouble.
Samantha’s first effort at suicide, taking prescription drugs, was botched. That won her four days in a mental institution. She could not even escape her pain by killing herself. Then, the night before she was to testify, Samantha came home from school, shut the door to her room, wrote the date of the rape on her wall, September 26th, and hanged herself.
Even in death, things got worse. The charges against Tarnopolski were dropped since the key witness, Samantha, was dead. Tarnopolski's admission he had sex with a juvenile can't come into court without something more. Recently, pictures were posted to Samantha's face book page which contain additional taunts. The worst of the pictures have been deleted. Some of the least offensive have been posted here.
Courageous Samantha Kelly would feel good if she knew her bravery in bringing forth allegations of rape have given a second girl Tarnopolski allegedly violated the courage to come forward. Prosecutors say the criminal case will become public next week, presumably after Tarnopolski appears in court in flaming orange. There is now a second Face Book page Joe Tarnolpolski should be incarcerated.
Author's note: I included images I found on the Samantha Kelly R.I.P. Face Book Page with trepidation. On the one hand, they are plenty ugly. On the other, if we don't expose bullies then they continue their reign of terror against defenseless teens. Is this the way the teens who posted the pictures want to be treated when their time comes? Sad to say, there are images much more graphic and ugly than these.
Read more: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/it-didnt-get-better-for-samantha/page-2/#ixzz15Tq9Phwr
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Read more: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/it-didnt-get-better-for-samantha/#ixzz15TpxGOUz
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