National Organization for Women

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Child Abuser Mark Fugler Must Stay in Jail

Statement of NOW President Toni Van Pelt and Florida NOW President Kim Porteous:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A former Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor who was convicted by a jury of sexual misconduct with a child is getting the Jeffrey Epstein treatment by a Florida judge.

Mark Fugler was sentenced to 15 years in prison in June for showing pornographic material to a 7-year old girl, masturbating in front of the child and soliciting her to touch him sexually over a two-year period.

But instead of keeping this dangerous man behind bars, Senior Judge R. Michael Hutcheson is letting him sleep in his own bed at night. Fugler was freed on bail pending appeal—a process that could take years and potentially allow him to prey on even more victims.

How many more outrages and failures of criminal justice must survivors endure? When will men of wealth and privilege be denied get-out-of-jail free cards because they can game the system?

Judge Hutcheson must rescind his order and Mark Fugler should not be allowed to live at home while his lawyers delay the reckoning justice—and human decency—demand.

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745

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America’s Game is America’s Shame

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The day after Antonio Brown became a player for the New England Patriots, a federal lawsuit was filed accusing him of rape and sexual assault. And the day after that, the Patriots, whose owner Robert Kraft was charged with two counts of solicitation of prostitution at a Florida day spa, responded by putting Brown on the training field.   

The NFL’s message is clear–there’s too much money resting on Brown’s career to keep him from playing, or to seriously address the league’s systemic culture of violence against women.  

We’ve seen this before when former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice assaulted his then-fiancée in a hotel elevator.  At the time, NOW said that the NFL didn’t have a Ray Rice problem, it had a violence against women problem.  

It still does.   

NOW renews our demand for an independent investigation on domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking within the NFL community, and for enaction of real and lasting reforms.  Today, the league’s enforcement of punishment for abuse or domestic violence is secretive, haphazard, inconsistent and inadequate.  

Why does the NFL refuse to change its shameful culture? And why is Antonio Brown still on the field? Society must stop the patriarchy’s protection of men who lash out over their imagined grievances and pain, imposing physical and mental harm on women. 

America’s game is America’s shame. The NFL’s “boys will be boys” culture of violence against women must stop, now. 

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745

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Stop Mitch McConnell’s Sneak Attack on Justice and Women’s Rights—Defeat Steven Menashi’s Nomination to the Court of Appeals

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mitch McConnell likes to run his do-nothing Senate at a turtle’s pace, but there’s one thing that makes him run like a rabbit—confirming federal judges.  The worse the nominee, the faster he acts. 

Steven Menashi, a legal aide to Donald Trump with an appalling record of inflammatory rhetoric, and hostile views towards women, communities of color and LGBTQIA+ Americans, is the worst of the worst.  

Donald Trump nominated Menashi to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit once held by Thurgood Marshall. But instead of advancing equality and justice, Menashi is a picture of intolerance, bigotry and misogyny. He regularly engages in hate speech and is unfit to serve on the federal bench. 

While a student at Dartmouth and editor of the notoriously right-wing Dartmouth Review he defended a fraternity “ghetto party” as “harmless and unimportant.” 

He also used his platform to attack “gynocentrists” participating in Take Back the Night marches, compare race data collection in college admissions to Hitler’s Germany, and oppose the “radical abortion rights advocated by campus feminists and codified in Roe v. Wade.” 

As part of Trump’s administration, Menashi has rescinded protections for students of color, sexual assault survivors, and victims of fraudulent for-profit colleges, and advocated for Stephen Miller’s horrific immigration policy.  

In order to short-circuit opposition to this nomination, Mitch McConnell kept details of today’s Judiciary Committee hearing a secret until the last minute.   

But we will not be silenced.  NOW calls on the Senate Judiciary Committee to defeat Steven Menashi’s nomination and reject this sneak attack on justice, fairness and equity. 

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745