The letter

Michael Seccuro, Liz’s husband: There was no way, once she opened that letter and read that letter and jut say, “I forgive you,” and put it down.  It just would have created more pain on us and our family.

Edie Magnus, Dateline correspondent: Would you rather that you had not heard from him at all?

Liz Seccuro: Some days, yes.  Some days no.  Everything is, you know, “BL and AL”—before the letter and after the letter. You know, that’s how we’re defining our lives now.

Liz and her husband Michael flew into Charlottesville Virginia for a preliminary hearing.  Its purpose: to consider if there was probable cause to believe Beebe had raped Liz and, therefore, whether a grand jury should be convened to consider indicting him for rape - a crime which carries a prison sentence of 5 years to life.

Beebe was already sitting when Liz entered the courtroom.  Nervous but defiant, she scowled when she finally stole a peak at him.  A few minutes later, when the judge asked Liz to identify her assailant, she looked at Beebe but an instant before pointing at the grim-faced man across from her.

Over the next 2 hours, Liz gave her version of the assault, tearing up when she recounted the rape itself.

By the end of the afternoon, Liz got what she’d hoped for 21 years ago: the judge ruled that the rape case against William Beebe would go forward to the grand jury.

Seccuro: He looks exactly as I recalled so that’s what was very hard. So that’s what was very hard so I was a scared 17 year old in an instant.

Beebe surrendered his passport and is out on bond, living with friends in Richmond.  He was ordered by the judge to have no contact with  Liz and to keep attending AA meetings. 

It would seem like an open and shut case - particularly given that incriminating email Beebe sent Liz, saying, “I’m not intentionally minimizing the fact of having raped you. I did.”

But Beebe’s attorney is suggesting otherwise. In a statement to Dateline, his lawyer wrote, “Mr. Beebe did not rape Ms. Seccuro.  He treated her thoughtlessly in a college sex encounter, for which he was sorry...” as for the emails, the lawyer says, “Mr. Beebe sought only to avoid conflict, not to answer for a crime he did not commit.”

Seccuro: I’m like, are you kidding?  Oh, this was a, you know, he was not apologizing for rape.  He was apologizing for being ungentlemanly and immature and unkind.  Please.

There are perhaps 35 incidents of rape for every 1,000 college women, according to the latest government study.  Most of these assaults go unreported to the police.

The issue has sparked protests on many college campuses and little more than a year ago, students at UVA where Liz went to school staged a silent protest, condemning what they termed “the silence surrounding rape and sexual assault at the university”.  This coupled with  several rape victims coming forward to publicly tell their stories helped prompt UVA to change its policies on sexual assault.

Liz herself recently started STARS (Sisters Together Assisting Rape) — a foundation to help victims of rape get crucial medical, psychological and legal counseling.

Seccuro: I have a responsibility to the 17-year-old person that I was to make this right for her. And  I have a 3-year-old daughter.  Do I want her to go to a university and have this happen?  If I stay silent, nothing is going to change.

The man who was UVA’s dean of students in 1984 and who Liz says was insensitive to her declined to be interviewed on camera by Dateline.  But in a brief phone conversation he says he is comfortable how he treated Liz, and insists that he and the university did not minimize or mishandle Liz’s charges, saying “it’s contrary to what we stood for.” 

In a separate statement, a current UVA official urged us not to compare the way the university dealt with Liz’s 1984 allegations with how such issues are handled today. “The university”, the statement reads, “does not and will not tolerate acts of violence against students.”

In April 2006, a grand jury indicted William Beebe for forcible rape of Liz Seccuro in 1984 and ordered that he stand trial.

Magnus: Why put yourself back in this hole 22 years later?  Where you have to relive the whole thing?

Seccuro: Because I’m always reliving the whole thing.  This might finish it for me.  I didn’t choose to be raped.  I didn’t choose to have this piece of mail come to me.  I think I have a choice in how this turns out for me. I mean, what are the odds that someone’s going to write to you 20 years later and say, you know, “I’m sorry I raped you.” And now I have a chance to go to court.  There are people who don’t get a second chance.

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