A woman was assaulted at her front door, raped at knife point in her living room, and left bound on the floor in her home in Casper, Wyoming. The man who attacked her, 26 year old Ty Oliver McDowell, claimed he was fulfilling a "rape fantasy" she posted on Craigslist.
However, McDowell is not the only man accused of this crime. Jebidiah James Stipe, 27, a Marine and the victim's ex-boyfriend, is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault. Prosecutors charge that McDowell was actually communicating via e-mail with Stipe. They say Stipe posted the ad to set the woman up to be attacked, without her knowledge.
The ad read, "Need a real aggressive man with no concern for women," authorities said. The Casper woman complained to the Natrona County Sheriff's Department that someone made a false Craigslist posting about her, including photographs and personal information, before her rape.
According to the Los Angeles Times, M. Ryan Calo, residential fellow at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, said "Federal law protects Internet sites from liability for their users' actions[...]Craigslist is like a hotel with millions of rooms, but it doesn't have the ability to figure out what's happening in those rooms."
As of now, if convicted, both men face a life imprisonment sentence. Craiglist has cooperated with this investigation.
More information can be found at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100206/ap_on_re_us/us_internet_assault and http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011000748_apusinternetassault.html?syndication=rss
---Mona Dalia
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