Special MCTTBC Edition: Chassadi’s Plea

I am shaking as I sit down to write an introduction for this special MCTTBC Edition…I want to say the right thing. This is important. This is about a young woman’s life. A life that has been irrevocably changed by a predator. A man that she thought that she could trust. Her uncle. Instead, this lame excuse for a human being, sexually abused her. Often. When she was a child.

Kevin O’Conner was arrested in 2018 on six counts of child sexual abuse, and is scheduled to stand trial this coming January 6-9, 2020, in the Loudoun County Circuit Court in Virginia.

Chassadi Thompson is one brave woman. She has always named her abuser, but as so often – too often – in cases like this, she wasn’t believed.

From the moment that Chassadi came forward, I have always believed her. Always.

This is why I do what I do. This is why I still speak out. Monsters like Kevin O’Conner live under the same laws and rules that I do. When you break them, there are consequences. Kevin O’Conner must stand trial. And he should be locked up. Period.

Chassadi has given me permission to share what she is feeling, right now, just weeks away from her trial. After all of this time, she will face her abuser again. Along with Chass’s story, I also have authorization to spotlight the plight of another young woman, Samantha Lily. Samantha’s rape has already been heard in a jury courtroom, much like Chass’ will be in January, but the result was not what anyone expected. The verdict was shocking, as was the jury’s excuse.

This is real, folks. This stuff is happening every single day. Women and children alike are being sexually abused, and violated; molested, demeaned, and raped. The men – and women – responsible, are walking away, free and clear, leaving lifelong scars in their wake.

I want to see Kevin O’Conner pay for what he did to Chass. I want him to confess. I want him to show contrition. To say that he is sorry for taking advantage of a trusting and defenseless child, all for his own corrupted and twisted self-gratification.

There is no excuse. None.

Do I think that he will be contrite? No. I do not. He is arrogant. He is belligerent. He is cocky. And he disgusts me.

What you are about to read is not easy. And it shouldn’t be. It should make you ill. And. It should make you angry.

If you can be there in that courtroom this coming January 2020 to show support for Chassadi, I urge you to do so. It is my plan to be there.

See you in court, Kevin.

PS And for those of you who knew/know about all of this and say or do nothing? You are culpable, too. YOU are just as guilty as Kevin. I know who you are. I am working to expose you, too.

Chassadi Thompson shared a post.

This is my greatest fear, tbh. I go to court in January to testify against the despicable psuedo human who abused me for years (16 YEARS after I reported him to the authorities). My own family doesn’t believe or support me. They’ve said to my face things such as “you’re a liar” “*IF* it happened” “you made it up because you wanted to get out of that house” “why would a good, Christian man abuse you when he has a wife” and other statements along the same lines. My own blood family STILL chooses to invite this creature (not blood, just married into said “family”), who has been arrested, charged, and faces trial, to “family” functions while telling me I can come early and leave early before he gets there so I can visit with family members from out of state and allow my children to meet them. The worst part?? I’m NOT the only family member that he abused. I’m just the one who won’t shut up and go away.

What happens if I testify and he doesn’t face consequences for destroying my childhood and altering the course of my life permanently? What happens when I stumble through reliving the most painful memories of my life and I’m still left with the scars and demons while he continues to live his lif, free from accountability? I genuinely don’t know how I will continue or what could/will happen should he be believed over me. How do I look my daughter in the eye and expect her to believe that her life and innocence matters to anyone outside of me? How do we empower our children when all we show them is that victims get re-victimized for seeking justice??

Regardless of how the trial ends, I will NEVER stop speaking on the evil I experienced. I will NEVER stop naming my abuser (Kevin Robert O’Connor). I will NEVER stop fighting for the protection of innocence. And if you cant support that, I pray you or anyone you know never have to experience this literal hell I have and continue to live through.

And to my family: I invite you to come sit in that courtroom for those 4 days (Jan 6-9, Loudoun County Circuit Court in VA) and hear every single word. Listen to the facts and reevaluate (or not) your stance then. Listen to every detail, every memory, every nightmare I have repeatedly lived through for the last decade and a half of my life. Please. It could change your life and mine.

Btw this post is public so please feel free to share… I could use all of the support I can get.

Samantha Lily

November 24 at 11:25 AM

I need to tell you my story. It is not another story of the police making mistakes, or the judge, this was the community. This is about the twelve jurors that swore to be fair but failed to be fair to the VICTIM of a violent rape. These jurors are our neighbors, our friends, our community. They are our peers, our teachers, or family members. They said, “We believe her.” But, somehow still all twelve chose to not hold my rapist accountable for his crime. Their ONLY job was to decide, do we believe her or not? Was she the victim of this crime or not? Is he guilty of this crime or not? They chose not guilty, but specifically said afterwards, “We believe her.” Then why are they not holding him accountable? One of them mentioned wishing the police had checked my blood alcohol levels – but that is COMPLETELY irrelevant. Let me tell you about when I was raped, because I did everything right. The police did everything right. The lawyers did everything right. The twelve members of our community of Travis County were the ones that did not do the right thing.

I will not use anyone’s real name.

On August 21, 2016 I was approached at a bar in Austin, Texas by “Trent” while I was taking a few shots at last call. I was still sober/coherent at this point and we instantly hit it off and agreed to go back to his hotel to enjoy the night together, as two consenting adults. The alcohol did hit me, hard, shortly after and I blacked out for the rest of the night and do not remember even leaving the bar – but this is less important.

What is important – I woke up at around 8:40 am to the pain of being raped. I was asleep on the hotel bed, on my stomach, with my dress pulled up to my ribs, the rest of my body completely naked and exposed and I felt a penis penetrating my vagina. The pain is what woke me up. I opened my eyes to see “Trent” asleep next to me, and then turned my head back to see what was happening, why did I feel this pain. I saw a man standing at the foot of the bed, completely naked, holding his penis, staring down at my naked body – the expression on his face is seared in my memory because he looked like he was enjoying what he had just done to me, his mouth was making an “O” shape, as if he would have been saying “Oh yeah” but he wasn’t saying anything, just staring at where he had just raped me. He quickly realized I was awake, his face went from an “Oh yeah” expression to an “Oh no” expression, and he jumped to the floor as if to hide from me. He then sprinted to the bathroom. I woke up “Trent” and screamed that someone was hiding in the bathroom and they had just raped me. My vagina was hurting and there was so much fluid everywhere.

The man then comes out of the bathroom, naked, except for now with a towel wrapped around his waist. We’ll call him “Jake.” He is “Trent’s” best friend. “Jake” and another friend had shared the hotel room with “Trent” and I, but I do not remember ever speaking to those friends. I do not know anything about him except for the fact that I had just woken up to him raping me.

Then, I did everything right. I spoke with 911 IMMEDIATELY, I told them EXACTLY what happened, I was hysterical, I sobbed and screamed, begged for help. “Jake” was screaming at me, that I was a, “crazy fucking lying bitch” and that he was going to throw me out of the room and that they all needed to throw me out of the room. The two other men in the room were just in shock.

“Jake” was so arrogant he said, “You want to call 911? Fine, I’ll call them for you.” And he did, on his own phone. I told them, “I need to report a rape.” I told them, “He’s trying to take the phone away from me, please hurry, I don’t know where I am.” The jury heard this recording. They heard every detail of this. They heard me sobbing and screaming and pleading.

Then, the police and ambulance arrived, I was taken to have the rape kit done IMMEDIATELY. I did not shower. I did not wait. It was performed IMMEDIATELY. I told the detective on record exactly what had just happened IMMEDIATELY. I was woken up to being raped. I told them again two weeks later.

During the closing at the trial, I heard the recording of “Jake” telling the detective that he never touched me. The detective asked, “Is there any reason why I will find your DNA inside of her vagina?” “Jake” said, “No.”

The DNA results came back. Every single swab, from my vagina, cervix, buttocks, anus, legs, every single swab came back positive for “Jake’s” DNA.

The day I left for the trial, my body was experiencing so much anxiety and trauma that I was vomiting several times a day. This did not stop for the entire week. Every day, multiple times a day, in front of everyone or completely alone, it did not matter, my body would just start to vomit violently.

I went before the jury and swore to tell the truth and I did. I poured my heart out to them. They looked at me with so much empathy and compassion. Nodding their heads with sympathetic smiles.

I did everything right.

The jury deliberated for a few hours, then returned. Not guilty.

I left the room sobbing, in shock, I have never experienced so much pain in my life. It was worse than the actual rape. After the rape, there was only one person, “Jake,” that said it didn’t happen. But now, his two lawyers are saying to the jury that I was just a drunk, emotionally unstable, party girl, and that this rape did not happen. And now twelve jurors said he was not guilty of raping me at around 8:40 am.

I cannot explain the way I sobbed as anything other than howling. At one point I fell to my hands and knees, I said, “I need a trash can,” my team said, “It’s ok, just throw up on the floor,” and I did.

I wanted so badly to speak to the jury. To ask them HOW they could come to that decision, with the testimonies, the DNA, the evidence, the witnesses. HOW could they not believe me?

But this is the worst part – they did believe me. None of the jurors chose to speak with me after, and my lawyers told me I had to respect that decision. However, the jurors did speak to my lawyers after the trial. They said, “We believe her.”

And yet, they still chose to NOT hold my rapist accountable.

Their reason? One of them apparently had mentioned they wish there had been more done by the police, like a blood alcohol test. BUT WHY?

I woke up at around 8:40 am to the pain of being raped, I saw my rapist, I told the police, I told them what happened, I had the rape kit performed, the rapist’s DNA was found on every single swab, the jury said they believed me, but they were not going to hold my rapist accountable.

As the jury, it was not their job to try to teach the police a lesson, it was not their job to do anything other than decide, do we believe her? Do we believe the evidence?

Their ONLY job was to decide, do we believe that she was raped at around 8:40 am and they said, “We believe her.” But did they hold him accountable and say, “Guilty?” Absolutely not. For some reason, that I will never understand, they said, “We believe her.” But then they chose to not hold my rapist accountable.

The jury is made up of our peers. Our community. Whoever is reading this, that juror could have been your friend, your parent, your teacher, your nurse, your doctor, your therapist, your babysitter, whoever, it could have even been you. That is who failed me.

My soul is completely shattered. And I’m trying to listen to my soul and find whatever it is that I need for my soul to heal because my soul refuses to believe that we live in a world so unsafe that the twelve people assigned to bring me justice and to give a fair trial can say, “we believe her,” but then also refuse to hold my rapist accountable.

I refuse to let our daughters grow up in a world where they could do everything “right” after a sexual assault, their peers could believe them, but some man will still not be held accountable for the crime he committed. This cannot be the world that we live in. My soul cannot accept that.

Please share my story as much as you possibly can. The community obviously needs to know that they failed and that they need to do better. My soul needs us to make our society safer.

Thank you,
Samantha