When the story initially broke, my thoughts were that he showed poor judgement, at best. I suspected the company had justification to terminate him with factual evidence of drinking already discovered, however, the rape charges were another story. The criminal allegations FO Pina had made were suspect as an internal investigation had been conducted and both were approved to return to flying status. Unlike the luxury of the Seattle press to mindlessly rule in favor of whatever agenda sells newspapers, the company made a conscious decision, presumably based on an investigation thorough enough to cover their liability, to retain both. That says a lot.
For her part, had FO Pina come forward or filed a police report without her employment being threatened (motive), her account would have been more credible.
Like most, I try to wait and listen to both sides because I've learned, the hard way, that things aren't always as they appear. This story built upon itself as one side was allowed to espouse their story through the press and #metoo while the other was barred from defending themselves publicly, no doubt agonizing given the media firestorm they faced.
While I'm glad there appears to be a re-evaluation of the case based on his version and her subsequent repeated drunken behavior and 'resignation', I'm curious as to why her story was initially deemed so credible, given the clear motive and lack of evidence(?)
We continue to suffer this same theme being played out on a national scale. Sexual assault/harrasment is a powerful tool and has been successfully employed in the workplace as a 'get out of jail free card' or for financial benefit. To automatically assume truth or jump to conclusions because of a hyper-activist, populist movement only worsens the condition. While we justifiably want to 'believe the survivors', the actual victims of sexual assault are paying the price when we rush to judgement of the accused without allowing for testimony and fact-finding. Pre-judging creates another set of victims: the falsely accused.