Group to protest ban on word 'rape' in sex assault trial
By CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star
Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday in the trial of a Lincoln man charged with sexually assaulting a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student in 2004.
The trial of Pamir Safi, 33, in Lancaster County District Court is scheduled to take about 10 days. If convicted, Safi faces up to 50 years in prison.
Authorities arrested Safi in 2004 after a 21-year-old student reported he had sexually assaulted her at his apartment.
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Safi did not deny the two had sex, but he said it was consensual. The Lancaster County Attorney’s Office alleged Safi knew the woman was too intoxicated to give consent. Safi and the woman were strangers when they met at a downtown Lincoln bar Oct. 30, 2004. The two left the bar after closing and went to Safi’s apartment in his vehicle.
The case has drawn national attention, especially after Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront said he would bar witnesses from using words like “rape” and “sexual assault kit” at the trial.
Tory Bowen, the woman Safi is accused of sexually assaulting, has criticized the ban, contending it would force her to use the word, “sex” rather than “rape” to describe her encounter with Safi.
Bowen has said the word “sex” would imply to jurors that she consented to have sex with Safi.
A Chicago-based organization, Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, or PAVE, plans to conduct a silent protest against the ban Monday outside the County-City Building.
The protesters were expected to hold placards with the banned words.
“We’re not trying to sway the jury,” said PAVE founder and executive director Angela Rose. “For her (Bowen) to not be able to say what happened to her is absolutely absurd.”
Rose said in an interview Saturday that Cheuvront’s ruling was part of a deeper problem: the re-victimization of sex assault victims by the criminal justice system.
Safi’s attorney, Clarence Mock, said he doubted PAVE’s stated motives for the rally.
“I think this has nothing to do with Cheuvront’s ruling,” he said. “I think they’re trying to influence the jury. I think it’s completely reprehensible and unfair.”
Safi’s right to a fair trial could be compromised, Mock said, if many people attend the rally, and depending on their actions and the wording on the placards.
“If they do what they say they’re going to do, it would be an issue,” he said.
Reach Clarence Mabin at cmabin@journalstar.com or 473-7234.

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