Pillowcase Rapist got away with rape for decades because women don’t matter enough | Opinion

There’s only one reason why the so-called “Pillowcase Rapist” got away with his crimes for decades: Women don’t matter enough in this country.

No matter how qualified, we aren’t seen as able to reach the presidency.

No matter how high we rise, how much we accomplish, it’s never enough to be paid as a man’s equal.

And, no matter how clearly we say, “he raped me,” and describe in painful detail what has happened to us, we aren’t believed from the get-go.

All it takes is for a man to say we had consensual sex — and prosecutors doubt they can prove we were violated.

The burden for life itself is always on us.

If we did matter enough, if what we say happened and the gravity of it were taken more seriously, Robert Koehler wouldn’t have gotten away with a crime spree against women that began in 1980s Miami, then moved upstate.

‘Dungeon in progress’ found in home of Pillowcase Rapist suspect. DNA ties him to dozens of cases

His son had to get arrested in September for a DNA match to rise to the surface and allow law enforcement to make the connection to a rapist no police agency was able to catch in Miami-Dade.

But Koehler, an electrician, had been right in front of law enforcement long before the fortunate circumstance of matching his DNA on file to that of his son.

DNA hit that led cops to suspected Pillowcase Rapist came from another arrest. Of his son

The rapist could’ve been caught and put away for life in 1991 after he raped a Palm Beach County woman in the same way he raped dozens of women in Miami-Dade: By breaking into homes through a door or window and raping terrified women at knife-point while holding a pillowcase or some other fabric over their faces.

The Palm Beach County woman violated called the police as soon as he left.

Koehler was spotted by police driving out of her neighborhood in a white Camaro, nervous and heavily sweating. He was issued traffic tickets, and when a detective followed up, he at first denied being in her house.

But, knowing he had left his mark, he changed his story, saying he had sex with her.

This is the point where it all goes wrong.

The Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office negotiated a guilty plea under which Koehler was put on probation.

A woman was raped and the offender’s punishment is no jail time.

There’s no good explanation for this decision, and the public deserves one.

That it happened long ago, four or five administrations ago, as the PB state attorney is saying now, is no excuse.

Look it up, research it.

No matter how many years have gone by, the victims — and all of us who lived terrified during the days of Koehler’s crime spree — deserve a coherent and detailed explanation from law enforcement.

If we mattered, this sexual assault case would have been handled differently. The Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office failed this victim of sexual assault the same way the agency failed Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.

Dare I even say that if Koehler had been a black man or Hispanic immigrant instead of white he might have been treated differently?

Because I’ve seen in action how justice works in Florida and the undocumented who plead guilty to traffic infractions or loitering at a 7-Eleven are essentially sentenced to deportation.

Yes, I’m angry, disgusted.

I was one of the young women who lived in fear in the 1980s. One of the victims was a journalist. Another a publicist. Others students. For a long time, we couldn’t get a good night’s rest while, day after day, news reports warned us that this man was on the hunt for victims.

The tally: 40 victims.

Sixty-year-old Koehler finally saw the inside of a Miami jail when he was booked Wednesday. At this time, he is only charged in the attack of a woman who was raped in her Southwest Miami-Dade apartment on Dec. 23, 1983.

Police are tracking down the rest of the victims, hoping to build more cases through DNA and evidence. Prosecutors said Thursday his DNA has been matched to 25 victims.

This exemplifies why it’s important to process every rape kit.

In 2016, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement released a report revealing that more than 3,700 rape kits sat untested for DNA in police storage facilities in Miami-Dade County — the highest number in Florida. Of those, 2,243 were handled by Miami police.

Neglecting a crime-solving tool in a crime as offensive to human dignity as sexual assault is what I mean about the institutionalized disrespect for women.

It runs top to bottom.

So many other countries, developed and undeveloped — even Latin America, which has the deserved reputation of being the cradle of machismo — have elected female presidents.

Since 1974, when Argentina elected Isabel Perón, 11 women have become presidents of their countries — but here we are, #MeToo behind us, and still debating whether a woman can win the presidency in the United States.

We’re always suspect, from the White House to the privacy of our bedroom, where one horrendous day or night our lives as we know it end at knife- or gun-point.

Of all the crimes, sexual assault against women is the hardest to prosecute because of the bias against women. Even female judges, as I wrote recently about a case in Key West, want an accounting of our dating history to determine whether we are telling the truth about assault.

Yes, I’m angry, disgusted — and every woman in this country should be, too.