Grand Jury Declines to Indict Ryan Romo
The Dallas Morning News‘ Melissa Repko has the story, including reaction from the attorney for Ryan Romo and from his accuser’s stepfather.
By Dan Koller
Jan. 28, 2013 | 10:16 pm | 37 Comments | Comments RSS
37 comments to "Grand Jury Declines to Indict Ryan Romo"
What a joke our police system is that you can arrest anyone in Texas simply based on someone’s sworn statement or who their wealthy family is or for whatever rooted issue the cop has–instead of evidence. Evidence and due process. This is supposed to be the United States of America.
Ryan Romo IS innocent. He is also a great kid whose life has been ruined by this. He has not been allowed to attend school, he will not graduate with his class. He allegedly lost his ride to Duke. All because he stupidly agreed to have sex in the back of his car–after allegedly riding home, by the way, in a cab while making out and then transferring from the cab into his car and allegedly making out more with sex and then by the way allegedly walking her home.
Any comment from the UPPD, who made the arrest?
I doubt it was Keenan who made the call. UP is known for not taking the time to actually get evidence in these “he said she said” cases and or put complaining witnesses under a lie detector test before arresting, especially if the family has money or an attorney, or pulls an Oscar winning performance only to be seen laughing later that night on pics posted on FB about “getting away with it (not this case but another one.) Unfortunately the DA or ADA on the case many times will instruct the UP police to make an arrest and in those cases they follow the directive of the ADA on the case.
But, truth always comes out as it did in Ryan’s case. The problem is nothing happens to the complaining “victim” and nothing will happen to her or her mother and stepfather in this case.
“In Dallas, there’s another obstacle: a lack of hospitals staffed and equipped to receive victims and perform the required procedures to put rapists behind bars. Only two hospitals in Dallas County — Parkland Memorial and Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas — are qualified.”
Sounds like there were very few options and her mother wanted to spare her the trauma of the Parkland emergency room on a Friday night. This incident is clearly a tragedy for all concerned and I hope that both kids are able to move forwaed with their lives.
@hpgrad. How did news outlets trash this 18/19-year-old by covering the arrest? Comments to blogs may have, though I recall more comments trashing the accuser. Perhaps you want to lobby the TX Lege to raise the age when juveniles become adults?
Both admit to drinking and both admit to sex. I don’t think the rules for participating in extracurriculars and those middle school abstinence lectures are working. More useful lectures might be having police and DA’s explain how stupid high school mistakes–like drunk driving (not this case) and sex in backseats of cars–can ruin your life.
Unless you were in that back seat with them, you don’t know that “this girl is a liar.” She was a mere acquaintance of his, picked up at a concert, so isn’t he “promiscuous?”
I’m sorry it happened but it’s his CHOICES that got him in trouble. Have not seen any regret or responsibility taken on his part – lucky she did not get pregnant.
It’s shockingly sad to read the comments posted on here, and certainly clear that our students (and parents, obviously) need some real, come-to-Jesus meetings concerning the responsibilities of young men and young women. In particular young men.
I feel such sympathy for any woman or young lady who is sexually assaulted and has to deal with the neanderthal attitudes so prevalent in our community.
Otherwise, I can’t comment on the case since I know nothing about it and generally don’t trust the reporting, especially after the allegedly damning taped phone call seemed to evaporate into irrelevancy. But I think you stumbled onto a good point. Parents now routinely hold their kids back in kindergarten – especially boys – to give them a size and maturity advantage in later years. When you have a senior class full of 19 and 20 year old guys and a bunch of girls eager to please them, things like this are bound to happen, whether it’s rape, false accusations of rape, casual familiarity with the morning-after pill, or general hormonal stupidity. I know what I was like at ages 19 and 20, and someone like me at that age would have no business going to school and hanging around with 9th and 10th grade jailbait, however much I would have enjoyed it at the time. I graduated from HP before I turned 18, for what it’s worth.
Being an almost 19-year-old, he was playing with fire anyway by picking up a sophomore, a 15-year-old. Had his birthday come before hers, even consensual sex would be statutory rape and he could be in jail and on the sexual offender list. He came within a few days or weeks of being out of both school and a baseball career even if the girl had asked him to have sex. Another cautionary tale for old high school boys: check her ID.
@AD. You are not only a sexist, but you are hurting your buddy’s PR. At least his family is taking a higher road.
@Edward. Thank you. Acquaintance rape is not easy to prove. I think this child would have had enough of the repercussions and asked the police to drop the charges against this adult if she didn’t truly believe she had been assaulted. But only those two will ever know.
“Being falsely accused of sexual assault is horrible,” but being sexually assaulted and not believed is also horrible. No-billed does not mean innocent, but maybe it means they can both get on with their lives. I hope so.
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