WASHINGTON — Dee Ogilvy was sexually assaulted 42 years ago at her place of work. The police never made an arrest in the case, and a shoulder injury from the attack still gives her pain.
The Springfield, Missouri, resident said she’s disgusted to see former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens campaigning for U.S. Senate less than three years after allegations of blackmail and sexual assault helped lead to his resignation.
“I’ve had a number of women text me in the past 24 hours saying Greitens is back and they can’t process it … just the thought that we are still a state and a country that will give political power to these men who have used their power to physically and emotionally and mentally harm women,” said Ogilvy, 69, an activist and advocate who volunteers on weekends at The Victim Center in Springfield, where she fields phone calls from abused women.
Greitens’ former hairdresser told Missouri lawmakers in 2018 that her first sexual encounter with him in 2015 was not consensual.
In sworn testimony the GOP-led committee deemed credible, the woman said Greitens taped her hands to pull-up rings, blindfolded her, ripped her shirt open, pulled down her pants and photographed her without her consent.
He then forced her to perform oral sex as she sobbed uncontrollably, according to the report, released by the Republican-controlled Missouri House in 2018.
Greitens, a Republican, admitted to an extramarital affair, but has repeatedly denied the allegations of abuse. He decried the claims as “leftist lies” during an appearance last week on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, where the conservative host grilled him on the matter.
The former Navy SEAL’s return comes as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, defies calls for his resignation after allegations of sexual misconduct from at least 10 women.
Julie Donelon, president and CEO of the Kansas City-based Metro Organization to Counter Sexual Assault, said survivors can be retraumatized by media coverage of sexual assault, especially with cases involving prominent figures. Calls to the organization’s hotline often increase when there is a high profile case in the news, she said.
“The media reports bring back that trauma of sexual violence, especially when they’re so detailed … and so that does cause that resurfacing of trauma for survivors,” said Donelon, who emphasized that she was speaking generally and not about a specific case.
“And I think that when it is somebody in a position of power or privilege when that happens it’s felt even more so when they deny or they minimize or they blame the victim. And so I think that complicates that triggering and retraumatization for survivors in these really high profile cases, that feeling of, ‘This is exactly what happened to me. I was blamed, I was not believed’,” Donelon said.
When Ogilvy was assaulted, her boss at the time told her to get over the attack, she said. Greitens’ re-emergence sends a similarly dismissive message to survivors throughout the state, Ogilvy said.
“It shows all victims that we really don’t care that these men like Greitens can come back over and over again,” she said.
Ogilvy served on a 2019 task force force that made recommendations to the Springfield City Council on strategies to combat sexual assault. One was to increase reporting by improving victims’ experience in the criminal justice system. The majority of sexual assault cases are never reported to police.
The allegations against Greitens were only investigated after the woman’s ex-husband made them public.
The ex-husband made a surreptitious recording of the woman, known in court documents as K.S., describing the incident. His attorney shared the recording with the media, setting in motion a series of criminal and legislative investigations.
“It’s an example of why survivors don’t talk about this. It’s an example of why survivors don’t go public with this. In multiple ways, the woman’s agency over her own being was removed from her and she was betrayed by more than one man,” said Susan Sorenson, director of the Ortner Center on Violence & Abuse in Relationships at the University of Pennsylvania.
Scott Simpson, the attorney for the woman, declined to comment on Greitens’ re-emergence. In 2018, Simpson said no woman “should have to turn on the television and watch as the most private and difficult moments of her life are broadcast.”
The Greitens scandal took place during the height of the Me Too movement, when victims’ allegations of sexual harassment and assault against prominent men in business, entertainment and politics led to criminal cases and resignations.
His comeback offers a test for Missouri officials and voters years after the initial call for accountability from the Me Too movement. Sorenson said Americans tend to swing from alarm to complacency on many issues, including sexual assault.
“I think his political future’s going to depend on the personal, professional and political integrity of those who called for his resignation in the first place,” Sorenson said.
“The impact actually goes beyond that specific victim and the person who has survived that victimization experience. It’s a larger message to women and a message to men of saying what behavior is acceptable.”
Missouri officials in both parties have worked to to combat sexual assault. Former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, a former Jackson County prosecutor, championed legislation intended to curb sexual assault in the military and on college campuses.
St. Louis-area GOP Rep. Ann Wagner, a possible primary opponent against Greitens, has a long history of advocacy and was lead sponsor of a bill passed by the U.S. House this month to increase federal funding for victim support programs.
Wagner’s team did not respond to inquiries about Greitens’ candidacy.
National Republicans have been reluctant to comment on the possibility of Greitens as a Senate nominee. Democratic-leaning organizations say the allegations should disqualify him.
“Eric Greitens was credibly accused of violent sexual assault and threatening to distribute a nude photo of the woman he attacked if she told anyone. His conduct is thoroughly disqualifying, and his candidacy is an insult to Missourians,” said Ben Ray, spokesman for EMILY’s List, a progressive group that works to elect women who support abortion rights.
Greitens remains popular with a significant portion of the Republican base and stands a strong chance of winning the seat if he captures the Republican nomination in the GOP-leaning state.
Since announcing his campaign, he has received a string of endorsements from associates of former President Donald Trump, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
But for now there seems to be bipartisan opposition from Missouri elected leaders.
“My thoughts about Eric Greitens haven’t changed. I think he was unfit for office then, I think he’s unfit for office now,” Missouri Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican, told reporters Thursday.
Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat, went further and laid out the case against Greitens with a focus on his candidacy’s impact on victims and women.
“His victims and the women of Missouri will never forget reading the detailed and disturbing transcripts from the Republican-led investigative committee, and we will never forget the feeling of having someone so disturbing in the People’s Mansion,” she said in a statement last Tuesday.
“Not only is Eric Greitens a liar, an abuser, a fraud, and a cheat, but his shameless redemption tour has reminded us of the danger of electing self-serving politicians who, even after all the fallout, the resignation, the campaign fines, cannot admit he’s done wrong.”
In his interview on Hewitt’s radio show, Greitens attacked his alleged victim, the attorney who publicized the allegations, the St. Louis prosecutor who pursued a criminal case — eventually dropped — and politicians of both parties who called for his ouster from office.
“The fact is now all of those leftist and swamp lies have been exposed,” Greitens said, blaming his downfall on the mysterious $120,000 that was paid to the attorney representing the woman’s ex-husband, who distributed the audio to the media.
Greitens referred to the money as a bribe. The original source of the money remains in dispute.
He was charged with felony invasion of privacy in St. Louis, but the case was dropped a day before it was scheduled to go to trial after Greitens’ attorneys sought to call St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner as a witness.
Weeks later, Greitens resigned from office as the Missouri House was moving toward his impeachment.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker investigated the case as a special prosecutor and found probable cause for a sexual assault. But she declined to file charges because a lack of physical evidence and the passage of time made it difficult to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Baker pointed at the time to concerns about retraumatizing the woman, explaining that the case would have rested heavily upon the victim’s testimony. She noted that the woman’s testimony remained consistent throughout her many rounds of questioning over several months by lawmakers, lawyers and grand jurors.
“Though she repeatedly faced a large, aggressive team of expensive lawyers — I’m told that list may be as high as 40 lawyers — she held her own,” Baker said in 2018.
“I’m hopeful for one thing: I hope today the vicious attacks against this woman will stop,” Baker said. “She deserves to be protected from further harm. I am going to do my best to protect her from further harm.”
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