June 6th, 2007
Remember Allison Stokke? Of course you do.
She recently vaulted to national fame when the Washington Post ran a front-page story on her pernicious internet celebrity. Here’s a snippet from the piece:
Stokke read on message boards that dozens of anonymous strangers had turned her picture into the background image on their computers. She felt violated. It was like becoming the victim of a crime, Stokke said.
Stokke’s family, including her father, Al, seemed to agree with her and be concerned about how terrible her new-found celebrity was.
With Leather gently hints at the irony here: Al Stokke is a noted defense attorney in Orange County and has tried a number of high-profile cases:
* In early 2007, Al Stokke represented a cop who pulled over a female motorist. During the course of the traffic stop, he somehow ejaculated onto her sweater. Said Stokke, “She got what she wanted. She’s an overtly sexual person.” Stokke won the case.
* In 2005/2006 Stokke represented a female teacher who was charged with molesting three of her male students, one of whom was 11 years old. “Where was she when I was 13?” Stokke asked the jury. Stokke lost that case.
Charming. But With Leather does not mention what is probably Stokke’s best-known case, the Haidl gang rape. In 2002 three young men raped an unconscious minor. They videotaped the assault. Stokke represented the lead rapist, Gregory Haidl. Here’s the OC Weekly‘s account:
Defense lawyer Al Stokke, who replaced lead trial attorney Joseph G. Cavallo, questioned any link between the rape and the victim’s claim of mental anguish. Stokke also mocked the girl’s physical injuries, finally conceding she was unconscious but then trying to use that against her. “There’s [no pain] that is felt,” he said, “because she was unconscious.”
Stokke “conceded” the girl’s unconsciousness because the defense had originally insisted that she was just faking it.
This is the concerned father who was so upset by his 18-year-old daughter’s picture being posted on the internet. Which is just like becoming the victim of a crime, right?
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