I work in the office that prosecuted a fairly famous rape case back in the mid-90s, one involving a group of suburban high school football jocks who sexually assaulted a mildly retarded girl (the kind we used to call “slow”). The girl was flattered by their attention. Unfortunately, she was too innocent to realize the power of teenage lust and the concurrent disrespect that she garnered from the “cool guys”. She thus fell victim to the dark side of a seemingly civilized, upper-income environment.

In 1999, ABC made a TV movie about the case based on the book “Our Guys”. Bob, the assistant prosecutor (i.e. trial attorney for the State) who handled the case was played by an actor; however, Bob actually got a bit part in the movie, not as himself, but as a detective. In one scene, he was actually introduced to himself when encountering his character — hmm, deja vu all over again! The other day I overheard Bob chatting with some fellow assistant prosecutors about his movie. He was quite proud of it, and pointed out that it was still being shown on cable channels and was occasionally in theaters in Canada.

I work regularly with Bob (who is now a “CAP”, chief assistant prosecutor), and to be honest, he’s a really good guy. He obviously isn’t interested in the kind of paperwork that I process (but he is one of the most helpful bigwigs in that regard — he always has a moment for even the most minute of the minutia). Bob found his niche; he wants to do what he does, i.e. function as a high-profile prosecutor and trial attorney. He found a road to follow his bliss, and he took it.

I can’t blame him for that. I want to follow my bliss too. But for now, I’m stuck with that paperwork, which ain’t all that blissful. Nevertheless, after hearing Bob discuss his movie, I followed a bit of my own bliss as a researcher by finding some internet reviews on his movie. Here’s what I saw: the E!Online site acknowledges his film and gives it a C+ rating based on viewer’s opinions. And the MSN Entertainment site had a review which called it formulistic and ultimately boring, just another made-for-TV movie.

Oh well. Bliss doesn’t come easy for any of us, I guess.

NONETHELESS … I must point out that Bob has put a lot of sexual preditors behind bars, and the streets are better for it. Recently he got a guy sent up for at least 60 years in a bizarre robbery, kidnapping and sexual assault case where the victim was a young man who was simply walking down the street. Two women accompanied the defendant, but were only interested in robbery; after the take, they left the victim to the sadistic insticts of his attacker. So yes guys, rape ain’t just for women any more. In an out-of-kilter world like this, first-rate CAP’s like Bob do good for all of us, even if TV and the movies don’t always do them justice.