BY DAVID MCNEILL - SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES
NOV 21, 2013
A woman has won a landmark civil judgment against the American serviceman she accuses of raping her near the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2002.
Catherine Fisher revealed Monday that the Milwaukee County Circuit Court has enforced a Japanese civil judgment for rape against Bloke T. Deans, a former U.S. sailor who now lives in Milwaukee. He was never charged with the crime.
Fisher, an Australian citizen and long-term Japan resident, said the verdict is the first in which a foreign judgment for rape has been enforced in a U.S. court.
“History has been made,” Fisher told The Japan Times. She said the result will make it more difficult for U.S. military personnel to evade justice after committing a crime in Japan. “But it does make me angry that Deans is still free. I think he should be in prison.”
Her lawyer, Chris Hanewicz, who fought the case pro bono, praised Fisher’s “incredible strength and determination.”
“We are very proud to have represented Ms. Fisher in her tireless efforts to finally recognize a judgment to which she has long been entitled.”
Fisher demanded a nominal sum of a single dollar as settlement.
“Anybody who knows me knows it is not about the money,” she explained. “I did this for all the women who have been raped in this country by the U.S. military over the last 70 years.”
The verdict is likely to deepen the controversy surrounding the case. Deans left Japan soon after the rape and never came back. Fisher has always maintained the U.S. military helped him evade justice and that the Japanese government did little to help pursue him.
That claim has apparently been strengthened by a statement submitted by Deans to the court, in which he says a U.S. Navy lawyer told him to leave the country.
“When they — my lawyer came and told me, ‘you are now leaving Japan’ I said, ‘okay,’ ” the statement reads. “I just followed orders. I don’t have no say-so. I’m thinking everything is done.”
Fisher, who in media appearances went under the pseudonym “Jane” for years to protect her privacy, said the revelation helped vindicate her 12-year legal fight, during which she repeatedly crossed swords with U.S. and Japanese officialdom and filed a total of seven court cases.
“When I saw that document, I finally had the truth,” she said. “That was the most important thing for me. Why was he disappearing; why wasn’t anyone questioning him? Officials told me they were helping me, but that was all lies.”
The U.S. military made no immediate comment on the statement.
Deans was given an honorable discharge after the incident and returned to Milwaukee, where he has had a series of tussles with the law. In November 2004, a Tokyo court ordered him to pay ¥3 million after Fisher filed and won a civil suit against him, but there was no jurisdictional authority to force payment.
Later, she received compensation from the Defense Ministry that came out of a fund for civilian victims of crimes by U.S. military personnel. She sued the Kanagawa Prefectural Police for what she described as their incompetent investigation into her rape but lost in December 2007. She appealed the decision.
Fisher tracked Deans down to his U.S. address and began a legal battle there. She said the fight had left her mentally, physically and financially “depleted.”
“My son was in elementary school when this started,” she said. “Now he is 18. I’ve not been able to pay for things for him, pay for Christmas presents, the normal things that kids have.”
At several stages, Fisher said, Japanese plainclothes officers followed her when she appeared in public.
Her treatment highlights profound problems with how the U.S. and Japanese authorities handle such cases, she said.
“A U.S. serviceman, here to serve and protect civilians, raped me. I was then denied criminal court action by the Japanese government. Nobody would help me.”
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