District Attorney Williams,

Around 2:30 am, July 27th, 2016, during the Democratic National Convention, a fellow Pennsylvania delegate to the DNC committed an act of sexual violence against me in a crowded bar. He thrust his face into my chest and forced his tongue just above my nipple. I yelled and pushed him away. I was humiliated; I went to my room and cried. When I pulled myself together enough to speak, I came back down to the lobby to report what happened to other members of my delegation.

Later that morning, I reported what happened to the police.

Since then, I have answered every question the police have asked. I've spent 90 minutes locked in the back of a squad car without air conditioning in order to get to SVU to give my statement. I've supplied the name and contact information of my attacker, and those of witnesses. I have done everything in my power to be a "good" victim and get justice. This past Friday, however, the detective on my case told me that your office had declined to prosecute my case.

Today I spoke with representatives at your office to ask why you weren't prosecuting. I was told that although "it was clear" that I had not given consent, one of the main reasons your office had decided not to prosecute was because my attacker had been drinking to excess. I was told that your office believed that because he was drunk, prosecutors might not be able to "prove beyond a reasonable doubt" to a jury that "he knew [I] hadn't given consent."

District Attorney Williams, this is unacceptable. Alcohol cannot be a get-out-of jail-free card for sexual assault. No prosecutor would let someone get away with speeding because he was too drunk to notice the speed limit; the idea that consent should be handled any differently is ludicrous.

The undersigned and I call on you to apologize for your office's choice to use alcohol consumption by a perpetrator as a factor in deciding whether or not to prosecute cases of sexual violence, and we demand that you prosecute my case to the full extent of the law.