Rape Victim Jailed by Detroit Judge for Contempt of Court Released

DETROIT (WJBK) - "I was held against my will overnight. I was raped several times. I was beaten bad to a pulp," a rape victim told FOX 2's Taryn Asher.

She had already been through what most women could not imagine. She was abducted on the way to a Detroit bus stop, taken to a house where she was beaten with everything from a belt to a two-by-four and raped overnight repeatedly.

She escaped and called police. Investigators caught one of the suspects.

Wednesday, she testified against her alleged attacker in court. She claimed the defense attorney, Gabi Silver, was relentless.

"The defense attorney just treated me so awful and so bad. She just like kept yelling at me over and over, and the judge didn't ask her to lower her tone," said the victim.

"I started having an anxiety attack in the courtroom, and I just blurted out 'get to the point' and I used a cuss word," she added. "I shouldn't have said it, but I had such anger from the whole ordeal inside of me that when I was just looking at him and he kept mouthing stuff … it just came out."

She said there was no warning. 36th District Court Judge Vanesa Jones Bradley held her in contempt and then had her thrown in jail.

"I thought maybe contempt of court they would've gave me … a fine or something, but they put me in the jail and treated me like I was just a hardened, felony criminal," the victim said.

The judge ordered her there for three days, but after our story Wednesday, she said court officials learned what happened and had her released.

Now, she has to go back to the same courtroom with the same judge on Friday and continue to testify against her alleged attacker. It's something she admits she is scared to do.

"I don't want to go back, but then I just think about them getting free and then possibly doing it to another woman or to maybe even possibly a child and it just sickens me," she said. "I don't want anybody to have to go through what I went through."

As for swearing in court, she said that she feels bad and apologizes for it. In the heat of the moment it just came out.