Fred R. Van Valkenburg (born May 3, 1948) is an American politician in the state of

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

. He served in the

Montana Senate The Montana Senate is the upper house of the Montana Legislature, the state legislative branch of the U.S. state of Montana. The body is composed of 50 senators elected for four years. Composition of the Senate :''67th Legislature – 2021–202 ...

from 1979 to 1998. In 1993 he was President of the Senate, and in 1985, 1987, and 1991 he was majority leader of the Senate. An attorney, Van Valkenburg attended the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

, earning his J.D. degree in 1973. From 1998 to 2014, he was the county attorney for Missoula County, Montana. He has also served as city attorney of Missoula and deputy county attorney of Missoula County.

2012 Department of Justice Investigation

In 2012 the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

opened an investigation into alleged mishandling of

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

and

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

cases by Van Valkenberg's Missoula County Attorney's Office. Many of the cases involved students at the

. This included allegations of

gang rape Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...

brought against University of Montana Grizzlies football players. The Department of Education would later open an investigation regarding the sexual assault issues within the football team. According to the DOJ, the County Attorney's Office rarely explained why they failed to prosecute offenders even when police investigators had found strong evidence of guilt. Van Valkenburg refused to cooperate with the DOJ investigation, going as far as to file a declaratory judgment to stop the investigation. In February 2014 the DOJ released a

report A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always in the form of written documents. Usage In ...

stating that investigators had found "substantial evidence of gender bias" in the Missoula County Attorney's Office which amounted to a violation of

federal law Federal law is the body of law created by the federal government of a country. A federal government is formed when a group of political units, such as states or provinces join in a federation, delegating their individual sovereignty and many po ...

, including the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels for the Civil Rights Division stated: "We uncovered evidence of a disturbing pattern of deficiencies in the handling of these cases by the County Attorney’s Office, a pattern that not only denies victims meaningful access to justice, but places the safety of all women in Missoula at risk. We hope that this letter will enable us to move forward with constructive discussions with the County Attorney to resolve these serious concerns." In June 2014 the DOJ entered into an agreement with the Missoula County Attorney's Office to implement changes in an effort to eliminate gender bias in the Office's response to sexual assault.

References

1948 births Living people Politicians from Denver Politicians from Missoula, Montana University of Montana alumni Montana lawyers Democratic Party Montana state senators Presidents of the Montana Senate {{Montana-politician-stub