When a woman finds herself a victim of a sexual assault, she should expect to be treated with care or respect. Unless you’re from Kansas, in which case they show the photos of your sexual assault to anyone with a set of eyes.

A county attorney in Kansas violated a girl’s privacy by showing around photos of her sexual assault, the teen and her mother claim in Topeka Federal Court. The Anderson County Attorney refused to prosecute the assailant, but showed other parents photos of the sexual assault, and was suspended from practicing law for 6 months for it, the family says.

The parents say their 17-year-old daughter attended an outdoor party in May 2007, where four men or boys forced her to take off her clothes. One of them had sex with her in the bed of a truck, despite her repeated pleas for him to stop, while others took photos of it, according to the complaint.

The girl says that she reported the assault to police, who referred it to County Attorney Frank Campbell.

She says Campbell “decided he would not pursue prosecution of the male” involved in the sexual assault, but told a local newspaper that he would share the pictures with parents of the minors at the party.

I have to admit that I look at these stories a bit differently than most people. My girlfriend goes to law school and she’s always trying to impart wisdom from that experience to me and, I have to say, sometimes it rubs off and I’ve started to feel as though I have a cursory understanding of how our American legal system really works. Though now, I have to think she hasn’t learned too much about the law yet…since she’s never showing me photos of nude 17 year-olds. Maybe that comes in the third year. Fingers crossed!

[via]