Western Front - 1997 April 15

              Postal fraud, CD club
i^ rip-offs, and other
scams
FEATURES, 6-7
Western lacrosse teams
gear up for league
championships
SPORTS, 8
Tuesday,
April 15,1997/
Volume 100
Issue 4
WESTERN FRONT Western Washington University Bellingham, Washington
a nice WmmimiM Newstand wins
federal civil suit
By Jacob Henifin
The Western Front
Whatcom County. Prosecutor
David McEachran violated the
civil rights of The Newstand
International's owner and former
manager through prior restraint
and retaliatory prosecution, an
eight-member jury ruled Friday.
They subsequently awarded Ira
Stohl and Kristin Hjelsand $1.3
million in damages.
McEachran prosecuted Stohl
and Hjelsand in February 1995
for promoting pornography by
selling an issue of the magazine
Answer Me!, which dealt explic­itly
and graphically with rape.
The two were acquitted of crimi­nal
charges a year later and
brought suit against Whatcom
County in federal district court in
Seattle.
"It is incredibly gratifying to
tell your story to a jury — how
the business was hurt and how
horrible it was," Stohl said.
Stohl and Hjelsand's federal
case was based on precisely what
McEachran said to them in a
February meeting. After a com­plaint
was brought to
McEachran's attention, he threat­ened
them with prosecution if
they continued to sell Answer
Me! or "anything like it in the
future." McEachran testified he
did not say "anything like it," but
instead said "anything exactly
like (Answer Me!)."
The central issue in the case
was prior restraint, "which occurs
when an agent of the government
abridges First Amendment guar­antees
of free speech and press
through threat of arrest.
Attorney Breean Beggs, who
defended The Newstand in the
criminal trial, explained the sub­tlety
of the semantics. Mc­Eachran
argued that what he
meant by "exactly like it" was
that a change, such as a new
cover, if everything else
remained the same, would be
"exactly like it" and therefore
prohibited, he said.
Judge Thomas S. Zilley
instructed the jury that "exactly
like it" in this context would not
have been prior restraint.
'"Anything like it' is more
vague and crosses the line of per­missible
vagueness," Beggs said.
McEachran's testimony was
contradicted by the testimony of
Bellingham Police Det. Tim
Lintz, who was present at the
meeting with Stohl and Hjelsand.
McEachran's claims were also
refuted by former Western Front
reporter Jason Hickman, who
interviewed and quoted Mc­Eachran
verbatim.
"Zilley misinstructed the jury
on prior restraint," Randy Watts,
representing Whatcom County,
said. "He only gave half of the
equation. McEachran would have
to have removed material from
See Trial, page 3
Sexual assault effects highlighted this week
By Jennifer Hart
The Western Front
"The Ripple Effect: Sexual
Assault Impacting Our Comm­unity"
is the theme of this years'
Sexual Assault Awareness Week,
running from April 13-19.
When many people think of
sexual assault, they think of it as
something that happens to some­one
else. "That could never hap­pen
to me" has been uttered by
many women and men.
Though many of us may never
be victims of sexual assault, odds
are we know someone who has.
Whether it be a friend, family
member or co-worker, anyone
who has known a victim of sexu­al
assault realizes the violation
not only has a profound effect on
that person, but also everyone
around them.
The goal of the week is to pro­mote
community awareness of
sexual assault and how it affects
not only victims, but their loved
ones as well.
"Sexual assault crosses all
boundaries. Men, women, chil­dren,
old people, they are all vic­tims
of sexual violence," said
Allison Bennett of Whatcom
Crisis Services,
"And when someone defines
what has happened to themselves
as not being a sexual assault, it
normalizes violence," Bennett
said.
"Victims of sexual assault often
experience trust issues with those
around them. Sexual violence is
both stressful and draining for the
victims and their families," said
Kathy Nyhuis of the Brigid
Collins House.
Another goal of Sexual Assault
Awareness Week is to show how
widespread sexual assault really
is.
"Awareness of sexual assault
leads to education. Educating the
community will make people
more conscious of things like
safety," Nyhuis said.
"There were 151 sexual
assaults and 32 rapes by force in
Bellingham in 1996," said Lt.
Dascom Jamison, of the
Bellingham Police Department.
During Sexual Assault
Awareness Week, neighborhoods
can come together to look at the
current state of sexual violence in
our city and what can be done to
stop it.
According to crisis services,
several things can be done
throughout the community to pro­mote
awareness and put a stop to
sexual violence.
These include talking to chil­dren
about safety, becoming
informed on the issue of sexual
assault and volunteering at a sex­ual
assault outreach center in your
community.
"Volunteers provide both phys­ical
and emotional support for
victims. They act as listeners
without telling the person what to
do," said Caytie Cuniff of crisis
services.
Crisis services is sponsoring
several events to correspond to
Sexual Assault Awareness Week.
A forum, "Sexual Assault: The
Ripple Effect," will be conducted
at 11:30 a.m. April 16 at
Whatcom Community College's
Student Center. Bennett will
oversee the forum, which raises
the issue of sexual violence and
its effects on the community.
"But I Said No," a play about
the affects of date rape on both
men and women, will also run on
at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 17 at
Allied Arts of Whatcom County,
1418 Cornwall Ave.
Bennett said violence perpetu­ates
cycles of abuse and can have
a snowball effect unless it is
stopped.