PAVE PAVING THE WAY FOR WOMEN April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. PAVE Founder & Executive Director Angela Rose tells her story of survival BY IYA BAKARE
Photograph by Tom Bluett
PROMOTING AWARENESS, VICTIM EMPOWERMENT (PAVE) Is a multi-chapter national nonprofit organization that uses education and action to shatter the silence of sexual violence through targeted social, educational and legislative tactics. PAVE’s work has been featured on CNN, The Today Show and in TIME.
Angela Rose
ANGELA ROSE SAYS it was a day like any other day in suburban Chicago in 1996. She sang to herself under the sunny sky and walked to her car from a day of shopping at the mall. Within moments, she was snatched into a cloud of darkness as an assailant forced her into a car at knifepoint. Seconds later, 17-year-old Angela found herself at the mercy of a predator, a repeat offender who was already out on parole for the 1980 rape and murder of 15-year-old Julie Angel. “Although my eyes were taped shut, I 20 ME: IN FOCUS APRIL 2010
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could remember distinct details, like distinguishing characteristics of his face and details about the seats of his car,” recounts Angela. After convincing him to release her, Angela says her offender drove her back to the streets near the mall. “I remember him using a handkerchief or something when he opened the car door, which led me to believe he wanted to be careful about getting caught,” says Angela. Those vivid details aided in her assailant’s capture days later. The detective whom Angela initially reported the incident to
didn’t believe her and other detectives were assigned to her case. “One of the detectives actually recognized him after he was apprehended,” she says. Angela’s offender is currently serving a mandatory life sentence for the crimes he committed, which were violations of his parole. A unique twist of fate united Angela with people from her attacker’s past— the daughter and sister of his murder victim and other women he assaulted. These individuals banned together to collect thousands of signatures during a petition