Did Hillary Clinton defend a child-rapist and laugh about it?

By now you may have heard mention of a story accusing Hillary Clinton of defending a child rapist in the 1970s at the start of her career as a lawyer. Not only has the Democratic nominee been accused of defending a rapist, but also of knowing her client was guilty and laughing about how he received less than a year of jail time for his crime. I’ve seen a few Facebook posts and various opinion pieces regarding the court case, but wanted to find out about it for myself.

What were the facts of the case?

In 1975, Tom Taylor, a 41-year old factory worker from Springdale, Arkansas was accused of raping, then 12-year old Kathy Shelton on the side of the road. After Taylor was appointed a male attorney, he requested a female attorney to defend his case. Appointed to his case was 27-year old Hillary Rodham (Clinton), a law instructor who was also running a legal clinic in Fayetteville, Arkansas. According to the Washington Post, court records tell the story of Shelton being lured into her Taylor’s car in which she rode to a ravine with him, a 20-year old cousin, and a 15-year old boy who Shelton had a crush on. The men then allegedly raped Shelton on the Arkansas roadside. According to Shelton, she woke up in the hospital following the attack.

On July 28, 1975, Clinton filed a request for Shelton to go through a psychiatric examination claiming that the 12-year old was emotionally unstable “with a tendency to seek out older men and to engage in fantasizing.” Hillary went on to say that Shelton had made false claims about being sexually assaulted prior to this case, although the source of these alleged false claims is unknown. While Shelton underwent several rounds of psychiatric examinations and questionings, the deciding factor in the case came down to a pair of underwear presented as evidence by the prosecutor. The underwear, covered in blood and semen, was sent to a crime lab for testing. When the lab received the underwear for testing, the lab cut out the segment soiled by bodily fluids. After it was tested, this piece of the garment was accidentally thrown away, leaving the prosecution with the relatively unsoiled shreds that remained of the underwear to use as evidence in the case. Clinton was able to obtain the remaining pieces of the underwear which she took to a world-renowned forensics expert in New York. The forensic expert found that, due to the lack of bodily evidence remaining on the underwear, it could not be used to build a case against Tom Taylor.

At the beginning of the case, Taylor possibly faced 30 years in prison. However due to various elements in the case, including the mishandling of evidence and inconsistencies in Shelton’s testimony, the charges were reduced and only warranted a year-long prison sentence. Taylor only served two months of his sentence before being released.

Where is Kathy Shelton now?

Kathy Shelton, currently lives in Springdale, Arkansas. Recently she campaigned with Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, telling her story in an effort to get Trump elected. According to Shelton, “every speech she [Hillary Clinton] says ‘I care about women and children.’ If she cared about children, she wouldn’t have put me what she put me through.”

Was Hillary “just doing her job?”

While Hillary herself rarely addresses the case now, some have come to the Democratic nominee’s defense by claiming that she was fulfilling her responsibility as a court-appointed attorney. However, the disturbing nature in which she discussed the case with a journalist in the 80’s is what many find the most unsettling. In the recorded interview that was unearthed in 2014, Clinton seemingly jokes and even at some points can be heard laughing about the outcome of the case. A young Hillary can be heard saying while chuckling, “I had him [Taylor] take a polygraph, which he passed, which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs.” In this recording it would seem that an event that has traumatized Shelton for her entire life, is worthy of laughs for Clinton.

Will this affect her chances of winning the election?

Probably not. The Clintons seem to have a talent for escaping scandals. (Hillary’s private email server, the Benghazi situation, Bill getting blown in the Oval Office- just to name a few.) While this may seem like an endorsement for Donald Trump, it is absolutely not. The alternative to having Clinton in the White House is a man who was recorded bragging about how having money allows him to simply “grab her by the pussy” if he wants a woman. So, America, this is what we’ve come to. We started with almost two dozen candidates and now we’re down to a rapey tangerine with eyes and a half-robot-half-woman who lies as much as she talks. Not surprisingly, we can’t depend on politicians to “make America great again,” so I guess that’s up to us as Americans.

By now you may have heard mention of a story accusing Hillary Clinton of defending a child rapist in the 1970s at the start of her career as a lawyer. Not only has the Democratic nominee been accused of defending a rapist, but also of knowing her client was guilty and laughing about how he received less than a year of jail time for his crime. I’ve seen a few Facebook posts and various opinion pieces regarding the court case, but wanted to find out about it for myself.