Climber Charles Barrett Arrested for Yosemite Sexual Assaults

Artem Vee wrote:

This whole mess is a gigantic reminder why I don’t fratenize with the cults of personality that strong athletes will sometimes form via their admirers - specifically because a ton of vile behavior habitually gets swept under the rug. I’ve seen it happen too many times to count, and it’s made me jaded to the point where I just avoid those people once I get any sense of this kind of juvenile shit. In most cases nothing happens to the perpetrators, it’s just standard foul behavior - but in this case it obviously boiled over until it became impossible to ignore (though obviously people STILL are trying their hardest to keep pretending that everything is all cool, because this dude is “cool”).

Anyway - big reminder that if this dude was an unremarkable climber without a personality - he would have been stopped basically immediately. 

But, since we’re suckers for strength, talent, status, and charisma - he got away with it for as long as he did. Here’s a reminder to stay cynical and to not afford any special to privileges to people just because they can hold onto slightly tinier holds…

Predators purposefully seek out social positions/capital where they are afforded the benefit of the doubt, blind eyes to their ugly side, and default trust/respect from the community. Always remember that. (Obviously not everybody in these positions is a predator, it’s just that predators are specifically attracted to these positions because it enables them to operate as they please - so don’t act surprised when the predator turns out to be a prominent member of X or Y community)

30 pages in, and there it the most relevant bit of advice 

Recent posts are tone deaf, portraying lifestyle changes and belied systems as “obvious” fixes to the rolling tragedies that people like CB instigate. They are an oversimplification - out of many other possible oversimplified solutions - that misses the mark for so many of us today.

In these latest posts, seeing a man change someone else’s thoughts to his liking appears, well, forceful and so cringe worthy especially in light of the topic of this thread. Worse than tone deaf.

I realize there is absolutely no point in engaging in this, but I cannot sit and read what you are saying Eric without some kind of response. Your black and white statements reflect a narrow and simplistic worldview that places the blame squarely on the victims of sexual assault and violence.

I understand there are people who hold these opinions. What terrifies me is that you are a detective and in the position of investigating these crimes. You state you have empathy, but you certainly are not demonstrating that here. We all have biases, explicit and implicit, and these impact our actions whether we admit it or not. It’s hard to imagine (from reading what you’ve written) that you would give the same care and diligence in the investigation of crimes committed against a woman who was a sex worker compared to a woman who was not. The thinly veiled implication is the sex worker somehow deserved it. No woman deserves this.

It makes me sick that you took the victim’s words of self-guilt/blame as somehow validating what you’ve written.

Your statement that the Long Island killer didn’t kill his wife, but only sex workers is also sickening and does nothing to support your assertions. It dehumanizes these women.

I sincerely hope you do not carry these attitudes into your work. Victims blame themselves enough and do not need law enforcement (or others) also telling them it’s their fault. The fault rests squarely on the monster who preyed on them. 

What’s the best Bishop bouldering guidebook not by Barrett? 

Looks like MP admins locked this thread after deleting Eric's standard-violating comments. I agree with that and I'm sad that we can't just have a conversation about this particular case and trial without someone always wanting to turn it into a megaphone for their retrograde ways of thinking about women.

Thanks again to the brave person who posted her personal experience. I'll post here again if there's new coverage of the trial that seems relevant. 

Word is that jury selection will be completed today and opening statements tomorrow. Very curious to hear what the defense's theory of the case is. 

A couple forum members have messaged me asking how to access case documents directly. The search engine for Federal Courts is called PACER. The link to set up an account is HERE. They charge a per page amount for documents but then waive any bill under $40 per quarter. I've never actually received a bill.

Case number is 1:22-cr-00213 to search by case number.

Name of defendant if you do a party search is Charles Barrett. There's another Charles Richard Barrett with a criminal trial for child porn who is not the one you are looking for.

Court where the case is docketed is California Eastern District Court (note that it's FEDERAL court but in the California Eastern District.)

Easiest way to search documents is to find the right case and then do a document history search with newest first.

I wish it were easier, but that's about as simple as I can describe it. 

A MP user just shared that Court Listener has many of the case documents online for free and more simple to search.

Try this link

I got a debrief today from someone who attended the closing arguments and other parts of the trial. A couple things I found interesting in the details shared by the person who attended. Bear in mind that I'm just reporting what was reported to me, so even though everyone is being as accurate as they can be, there may be errors in the way things were remembered or re-told.

First, the trial was initially slated to take three weeks. It wrapped in one, including jury selection.

It appears many of the witnesses listed in advance as testifying on Barrett's behalf didn't ever appear. It's unclear if that's because they were listed without the defense actually securing their commitment to testify, or if something changed their minds, or if the defense attorneys simply changed their strategy.

The victim of the crimes charged in this indictment, KG, testified with great credibility and effectively.

Several other prior victims of Barrett also appeared and testified to their experiences, corroborating the similarities between what happened to them with CB and the crimes charged in this trial.

At closing arguments the Defense attorneys apparently conceded that their client may, in fact, have sexually assaulted other women (seemingly a reference to the other victims testifying) but that the only question in front of the jury is did CB assault the charged victim. And then they argued that hadn't been proved, citing evidence like (their idea, not mine) that while she did cry for help when being assaulted in the communal showers at camp, she didn't cry for help LOUD ENOUGH.

It doesn't sound like things went super well for the defendant. Will be very interesting to see how long the jury deliberates and what verdicts they return with.

 

A Federal Jury of 12 people just found Charlie Barrett GUILTY of all three counts against him. 

I'm going to go out on a limb and leave this thread unlocked with the hopes that we can now have a reasonable and civil discussion of the case without it devolving into victim blaming or a platform for ad hominum attacks on each other. I'm sure the MP admins will close it down again if that happens. 

I'm really proud of the victims who were so brave in testifying despite threats and many other good reasons they could have decided not to. I hope this verdict brings them some closure.

Thank you for the updates!! Very happy to hear this verdict. 

May this be a time for us to all reflect on the toxic people in our lives, and perhaps distance ourselves away from them. Barrett sounded like an out of control narcissist to me personally (with some other things going on).

Andrew Ricewrote:

I'm going to go out on a limb and leave this thread unlocked

Andrew, are you saying that you were able to lock and unlock this thread at your will? 

This is incredible. I really hope this provides some comfort/hope for all those victims. One less predator at the crag. Well done everyone involved in the prosecution! 

Yurywrote:

Andrew, are you saying that you were able to lock and unlock this thread at your will? 

Anyone who starts a thread can do this. 

The lesson I'll try to take to heart (and hope others will too) after this trial and saga of abuse is to allow the presumption of innocence, but to investigate when you hear someone has a criminal past.

This was not an isolated incident and if anybody who called him a friend and handwaved his crimes away had bothered to look into his convictions I would hope they would have acted differently.

Good fucking riddance. 

Andrew, 

Do we have any idea how long the sentence might be?  

I agree with you about the bravery of the victims. 

I also want to say that, considering his history, I would count you among the heros who stood up to CB.

You have also done an amazing job in this thread of constantly trying to keep things on the right track. 

Thank you.  Respect.