it appears blumenthal IS going to do something

to help isabelle and women like her from being CONTINUALLY RAPED over and over and over not only by their assailants but by our court system. i posted the first story a couple of days ago. this is a continuation appearing in todays hartford courant


CONNECTICUT NEWS
Suit Brings Call For Victim Protection
September 17, 2005 By LYNNE TUOHY, Courant Staff Writer

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Friday called for legislation that would protect assault victims from being sued and harassed by their assailants. Blumenthal was responding to a Courant story Thursday about a woman who was abducted and raped by her estranged husband at knifepoint five years ago. Although Allen Adgers was sentenced to 13 years in prison, "Isabelle" cannot escape his grip. She has been required to appear in courts around the state in response to lawsuits he has filed against her or in which he has subpoenaed her as a witness.

Isabelle - not her real first name - spent much of Friday afternoon on the witness stand in Superior Court in Danbury being questioned by the man convicted of raping her. She was testifying during a hearing on his habeas corpus petition, in which he claims his public defenders were inadequate, depriving him of his right to effective representation. Most of Adgers' lawsuits against her involve variations on his claim that she somehow violated their marital "contract," and he has managed to weave this claim into his petition. Though he pleaded no contest to rape and kidnapping charges in May 2001, he now claims the sex between them was consensual.Attorney James Papillo, the state's top victim advocate, filed a motion to quash the subpoena for Isabelle's testimony before she took the stand Friday. He argued that the subpoena to compel her testimony runs contrary to Connecticut public policy to protect crime victims from court proceedings designed to "further harass, intimidate or torment them."When Judge Referee Stanley Axelrod asked Papillo if he had any case law supporting his motion to quash, Papillo had to concede he did not, highlighting the extraordinary nature of Isabelle's plight............