WARNING: Details in this story may be disturbing to some
A Kansas woman who alleges consensual sex with a friend in his college dorm room turned into a terrifying assault took matters into her own hands when prosecutors declined to bring rape charges. She called a citizen grand jury, relying on a 134-year-old state law.
Madison Smith, 22, collected the hundreds of signatures necessary to empanel the grand jury after the county prosecutor resolved the case by allowing Jared Stolzenburg to plead guilty to aggravated battery and receive two years' probation.
Smith, who graduated earlier this month from Bethany College in Lindsborg, about 70 miles (112.65 kilometers) north of Wichita, is part of a generation of women emboldened to go public with their stories due to the #MeToo movement.