Panelists explore 'date rape'
drugs at March 30 symposium
"When Drugs are Used for Rape" will be the topic of a public
panel discussion scheduled from 12:30-2:30 p.m. Monday, March 30, in Tull
Auditorium. Panelists will include Renee Korn, assistant district attorney
in Los Angeles who prosecuted a case last summer against two men convicted
of using the drug GHB to rape women; Duane Decker, Los Angeles County sheriff's
deputy and principal investigator in that case; J. Tom Morgan, district
attorney of DeKalb County; and Brent Morgan, assistant professor of surgery/emergency
medicine at Emory.
Panelists Korn and Decker will relate their experiences in the successful
prosecution of Steven Hagemann and Dan Bohannon, who were convicted in August
1997 of drugging and raping more than a dozen women with the aid of the
powerful depressant GHB. District Attorney Morgan will outline the problems
associated with prosecuting similar drug-related rape cases in Georgia,
and physician Morgan will outline the symptoms and effects of GHB use.
The event is being organized by second-year law student Cameron Welborn
and third-year law student Eva Jabber, both from California. Jabber became
familiar with the case after spending last summer working in the Los Angeles
County district attorney's office. The women's interest in the topic increased
last fall when three female Emory law students were slipped unknown substances
at parties. Fortunately, friends intervened to get them medical attention
and none of the women was assaulted, but the incidents convinced Jabber
and Welborn that "we really need to bring awareness of this drug to
the campus and the community."
-Elaine Justice
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