Harrassment? Much more than that for one of the Kennedy losers

[Skillet]

More Women Allege Harassment By William Kennedy Smith

VIDEO: CBS 2 News reports.

Aug 26, 2004 5:05 pm US/Central
CHICAGO (CBS 2) Audra Soulias, 28, filed a civil suit against William Kennedy Smith on Tuesday, five years after she says he forced her into his home, and sexually assaulted her. Audra Soulias isn't the only woman who's making allegations against Smith.

The 2 Investigators have obtained confidential information involving sexual harassment allegations by a number of women who worked for Smith and traveled with him to foreign countries.

"I think he is a person who has a lot of problems. He is obviously very sick," said Soulias.

Audra Soulias is talking about her former boss William Kennedy Smith. She said Smith raped her, and she says he victimized other women that worked for him at the Center for International Rehabilitation.

"I was raped. I know what happened to me. These other people are talking about inappropriate behavior sexual advances," she said.

CBS 2 has learned several woman at CIR complained William Kennedy Smith sexually harassed and inappropriately touched them.

Women who worked there say he was relentless, and aggressive towards women who rejected his advances.

"He got so upset, he got up and threw her against the wall."

At least two of Audra's coworkers filed complaints last year with the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"I've heard stories about things that have happened on trips overseas. I've heard stories about people here in the office."

According to our confidential source, women who went on business trips reported Smith getting out of line with them sexually.

One woman reportedly went on a business trip with Smith to Angola. When she returned, she was quoted as saying Smith was a "pig" and refused to even step foot in the office. She wouldn't even go back to get her personal belongings.

"He's our boss what are we going to do?"

CIR formed a committee and brought in an investigator to look into the sexual harassment claims. According to a confidential source, in at least one case the board found Smith used "bad judgment" involving a woman, but they said he didn't violate any CIR policies.

We've learned at least one former female worker is represented by Washington attorney Patricia Ireland. Former head of NOW, the National Organization for Women, and Wednesday night secretly settled a sexual harassment complaint against Smith.

"We basically had this agreement between the females in the office that we were not going to leave one another alone in the office," said Soulias.

In 1991, Smith was tried and acquitted for rape. At that time three other women came forward -- all professional women, all gave sworn statements by Florida authorities and all accused Smith of rape.

"He just said, 'You need to relax. You need to let this happen. This is what needs to happen to you,'" said Soulias.

Since our CBS 2 exclusive report Wednesday about Audra, two other women have come forward.

CBS 2 has made several attempts to obtain a comment from the Center for International Rehabilitation about these other allegations.

[Munchkin]

Why is it a civil lawsuit instead of a criminal lawsuit? I can't believe he was acquitted.

[SavannahMan]

Because I believe a civil lawsuit has less of burden of proof? When the Kennedy's can afford high priced lawyers like Roy Black it will be pretty hard for the prosecution to get a conviction in a crimminal court. Wonder if Ted Kennedy will be testifying in this trial?

There wont be any Kennedy's going to jail, they have proven that they can get away with murder and manslaughter so I doubt they will sweat another rape trial too much. Of course everyone remembers Teddy driving the girl off the bridge and leaving her to die but lets also not forget this one...

Kennedy murder case after 26 years

A family conspiracy helped a member of the Kennedy clan escape punishment for "furiously" bludgeoning to death a 15-year-old girl in one of America's most exclusive communities, a court heard yesterday - more than 26 years after a killing which has fuelled speculation ever since.

By Guardian Newspapers, 5/7/2002

Girl found bludgeoned to death when accused was 15.

A family conspiracy helped a member of the Kennedy clan escape punishment for "furiously" bludgeoning to death a 15-year-old girl in one of America's most exclusive communities, a court heard yesterday - more than 26 years after a killing which has fuelled speculation ever since.

Looking blotchy, overweight and older than his 41 years, Michael Skakel, the nephew by marriage of the assassinated presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy, showed no emotion as the jury was told of "a concerted effort by the Skakel family to disguise the identity of the real killer of Martha Moxley," who was discovered beneath a pine tree near her parent's 26-room mansion in the leafy Connecticut suburb of Belle Haven on the night before Halloween in 1975.

She had been beaten with a golf club "so furiously that the club fell apart, and she was subsequently stabbed with a part of the shaft," prosecutor Jonathan Benedict told the court in Norwalk.

[Galatea]

The suit is beng filed 5 years after the incident. The criminal statute of limitations has likely passed

[Munchkin]

But Michael Skakel is in jail... so they are not immune. Kennedy is not the only family that gets away with things. ;)

[SavannahMan]

Yes he is now in jail...after 26 years of freedom, oh and the numerous appeals continue..another one was filed today, eventually I'm sure the Kennedy will find a judge to give them the decision they want.

The Kennedy family might not be the only family that gets away with things but they sure do get away with it a lot. I wont add a little winking smiley because I dont think killing 15 year old girls with golf clubs or repeatedly raping women is something to joke about.

I wonder how many of the Kennedy supporters who defended William Kennedy Smith during his first rape trial will be willing to come to bat for him again...I would like to think there wouldnt be many but I fear that I might be wrong....I mean he is a KENNEDY! These women are just after the money right? :rolleyes:

[Munchkin]

There wont be any Kennedy's going to jailHey SM, I am just answering what you posted. Even murderer gets numerous appeals. So what, it is part of the legal system.

I don't know if the Kennedy family can get away with more stuff since Micheal Skakel is in jail. I think the public is tired of the rich getting away with it. What about Martha Stewart?

In this particular case, I am curious about whether there was a criminal investigation. If there isn't, why is that the case?

[Munchkin]

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/239/nation/William_Kennedy_Smith_accused_:.shtml

Soulias said the power and money held by Smith's family was what kept her silent for five years, although her lawyer acknowledged that the woman had consensual sex with Smith several times after the encounter. The attorney said such behavior was typical in cases of ''acquaintance rape.''

:confused:

[Jeeper]

they have proven that they can get away with murder and manslaughter
Sort of like Laura Bush at 17, when she ran right through that stop sign and killed her boyfriend?

[Michele]

all the Kenndy's suck...always have and always will

[Lori]

all the Kenndy's suck...always have and always will...surely not Caroline....

http://www.jfkin61.com/graphics/caroline_main.jpg

[Scout]

all the Kenndy's suck...always have and always will
Nice. :rolleyes:

[SavannahMan]

Sort of like Laura Bush at 17, when she ran right through that stop sign and killed her boyfriend?
It is sad, some of the things people need to resort to to defend the Kennedy's.

[Michele]

...surely not Caroline....

http://www.jfkin61.com/graphics/caroline_main.jpgcoming from this state...yes all of them......

[Lori]

coming from this state...yes all of them......Not to threadjack, but what do you have against Caroline? I've always admired her.

From Time: Caroline shares Jackie's cultivated charm and has steadily expanded her own profile as a patron of culture and the arts. And though not driven to politics as were J.F.K. and his brothers, she has nonetheless compiled a ledger of quiet but diligent service to the public, and to her father's legacy, that reflects a commitment to civic life and a belief in the value of rigorous, reflective debate. "She has a strong sense of personal responsibility," says historian David McCullough, who sits with Caroline on the panel that hands out the Kennedy Library's annual Profile in Courage Awards. "She knows she has serious work to do".

[Munchkin]

Nobody wonders why Soulias had consensual sex with Smith. That explains why there wasn't a criminal case. I feel sad for Soulias.

Michele, what about Maria Shiva(sp?)? Don't you like her? She is married to Arnold, the governator!

[Viki]

whats the scoop on Laura Bush? I haven't heard that story.

[Jeeper]

"The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush." - a very sympathetic bio.

You could see for miles. And it was dry, and it was clear, and it was so bright at night under the star canopy, and there wasn't traffic back in those days, not like there is today, everybody hurrying over to the Target or the Sam's Club or the Jumburrito. So there would have been no reasonable excuse for even protective parents to say no to a daughter who wanted to go to a party, especially when she was such a good and responsible girl.

And so they said yes...

...Laura, they learned, had been speeding blithely out of town about 8 P.M., east on Farm Road 868, her high school friend Judy Dykes in the passenger seat. She never saw the stop sign. She never saw the other car. She plowed right through that stop sign and slammed hard into the 1962 Corvair coming south and with the right-of-way, on State Road 349, the La Mesa Highway. She was fine, really, the officer assured her parents, but bruised and banged up, and awfully upset. Judy was shaking but unharmed as well. But the boy in the other car, well, the force of the broadside impact was so severe that, well...He never had a chance. Michael Douglas, golden boy of Midland, high school track star, was dead on arrival at Midland Memorial Hospital. The two girls were taken there, too, in another ambulance. Mike Douglas's father had been driving another car behind his son. He saw the entire horrific scene, the explosive beginning of a nightmare that haunted him his whole life.

The front-page story in the Midland Reporter-Telegram was blunt and nonaccusatory. "Police said death was attributed to a broken neck," the paper reported, using that passive voice peculiar to newspaper writing. But the news flew through Midland about whose actions had caused that death.

Killing another person was a tragic, shattering error for a girl to make at seventeen. It was one of those hinges in a life, a moment when destiny shuddered, then lurched in a new direction. In its aftermath, Laura became more cautious and less spontaneous, more inclined to be compassionate, less inclined to judge another person.

What made the crash even more devastating was that the boy Laura killed was no stranger but a good friend of hers, a boy from her crowd. Some said Mike Douglas was her boyfriend. Or had been, or maybe she wanted him to be. ...

Copyright © 2004 by Ann Gerhart

It is rumored that he was decapitated, the force of the collision was so great. She was not even cited for so much as running the stop sign, and the speed at which she was traveling has been obliterated from the police report.

[SavannahMan]

Okay Jeeper, what kind of criminal charges do you think should have been filed against a 17 year old in this case?

The is hardly something to compare to Ted Kennedy - drunk - driving a car off a bridge, getting out and swimming to shore, not trying to help the girl he just drove into the bottom of a lake, and then spending the next 9 hours trying to cover up his involvement from police. (A police diver testified that the passenger in that car could have possibly been alive for up to two hours with the air trapped in the car).

Does partisanship know no boundries?

[Bridget]

That William Kennedy Smith strikes me as a real dirtbag. This sentences actually raises the hair on the back of my neck "He's our boss what are we going to do?"

Ugh.

[WonderWoman]

I agree with SavannahMan on this one. It is a horrid shame and perhaps Mrs. Bush was irresponsible - but it's not even in the same ballpark as Chappaquidick (sp?).

["GL"]

I agree with SavannahMan on this one. It is a horrid shame and perhaps Mrs. Bush was irresponsible - but it's not even in the same ballpark as Chappaquidick (sp?).Exactly.