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THE EVIDENTIARY PROBLEM

When someone makes claims of domestic violence or battery — serious criminal allegations — but never reported those claims to police, never sought medical treatment, left no contemporaneous paper trail of any kind, and is raising them for the first time publicly decades after the alleged incident, against someone who is deceased and therefore unable to offer any defense, any rebuttal, any account of their own: how does the public, the press, or the legal system begin to evaluate whether the alleged crime ever occurred? This is not a rhetorical question. It is one of the most fundamental challenges in posthumous allegation cases, and it deserves a straight answer — not silence, and not uncritical repetition.

The absence of a police report does not prove innocence. Survivors of abuse frequently do not come forward immediately — or ever — for precisely the reasons Jones herself describes: fear, economic coercion, social pressure, and the very real power imbalance between a global superstar and the people in his orbit. I understand that. I take that seriously. But the absence of contemporaneous documentation also means there is no verified record that the event occurred. That is not a technicality. That is the bedrock of how democratic societies adjudicate claims of wrongdoing. The burden of proof exists for a reason.

Prince Rogers Nelson cannot be questioned. He cannot be deposed. He cannot hire a lawyer. He cannot produce his own witnesses or his own evidence. He is ten years dead. And yet, with each passing anniversary, claims multiply, a documentary gets suppressed, and the tabloid press runs headlines that treat allegations as established history. Something about that should give all of us pause — regardless of how we feel about the man or his music.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Samuel López is an investigative reporter at USA Herald, where he covers the intersection of law, national security, power, and media. With a background in legal analysis and a track record of breaking stories that major outlets won't touch.

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