We've created a new group on Diigo for those wrongly accused

For those who use, or want to use Diigo, we've added a new group to our account, for those wrongly accused of sexual crimes.

You can see all our other groups here, and you can follow us here.

About Diigo
If you browse or read a lot on the web, we believe you will find Diigo indispensable. Diigo is two services in one -- it is a research and collaborative research tool on the one hand, and a knowledge-sharing community and social content site on the other. You can learn more about Diigo here, or watch the video below.

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Exonerees Document Their Stories On Video

Original Article | After Innocence Web Site

Series Description:
Charles Chatman served one of the longest prison sentences ever for an innocent man.

John Thompson was exonerated days before his execution date.

Johnnie Lindsey spent 26 years behind bars for another man’s crime.

Ten people, ten stories of conviction and exoneration.

James Waller: Imprisoned At 23, Exonerated At 50

“The worst thing you can be is a sex offender because it’s dirt that you can’t wash off.”

Those words were spoken by James Waller in an interview with WUNC at the Innocence Network Conference in Charlotte in April. Waller spent decades in prison and on parole after being wrongfully convicted of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy. When he went to jail, he was 23. When he was exonerated in 2007, he was 50.

“Once I got into prison, I had to let all the anger go,” Waller said. “Because I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to work on my case. And being angry wasn’t going to do me any good.”

Waller’s conviction was based almost entirely on the word of the victim, a 12-year-old boy who misidentified Waller as a rapist. In 1982 the boy was raped in his home, and when questioned by police, the victim initially described the offender as about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 150 pounds. Waller was 6 feet 4 and much heavier. At the time of the crime, he was in his own apartment asleep beside his girlfriend, a claim that both she and Waller’s roommate confirmed. Despite their claims and the victim’s initial description, Waller was convicted of the crime and served ten years in prison before being let out on parole.

But Waller was not satisfied with parole. He wanted to be cleared of his sex offender status, and he saved up money for a DNA test. When the Innocence Project took on his case, they helped Waller prove his innocence with his DNA results, which did not match the DNA associated with the perpetrator. He was exonerated in 2007.

“It was like the whole world was lifted off of your shoulders,” Waller said of that moment. “You’ve been carrying this around for so long. And now, it’s all gone.”

Waller has gone on to write and talk about his experiences. One of his essays was included in the book How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth, which contains essays from Barack Obama and George W. Bush. He is currently the president of the Exonerated Brothers of Texas, a non-profit organization that offers housing, educational and vocational training, counseling and other services to exonerees.

Video Link | More videos here

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NY - After Innocence: Jeffrey Deskovic Was Incarcerated At 17, Exonerated At 33

Jeffrey Deskovic

Original Article

Why do they collect DNA if they almost never use it?

06/11/2013

By LAURA CANDLER

Jeffrey Deskovic was 16 when one of his female classmates, Angela Correa, was found murdered in the woods in their hometown in upstate New York. He says he didn't know her well, but she was always friendly to him in the school hallways. At the girl’s funeral, Jeffrey broke down in heavy sobs and visited her wake multiple times. It was there that some people started to suspect that he might have had something to do with the murder.

Three weeks after the crime, the police approached Deskovic and asked him to submit to a polygraph test. He agreed, not knowing that the polygraph business was run by an officer of the local Sherriff’s Department. Later, that officer testified that he’d been hired to “get the confession.”

Jeffrey took the polygraph test and was questioned for nearly seven hours with no lawyer present. They gave him nothing to eat. Interrogators told Deskovic that he was guilty of the crime, fed him information about Angela’s death, and provoked him into confessing for the murder he did not do. At the end of the interrogation, he curled up in a fetal position on the floor, crying, and made a false confession.

Based on that confession, Deskovic was convicted of murder and rape and sentenced 15 years to life in prison.

“I lost most of my friends when I was convicted,” Deskovic said in an interview with WUNC at the Innocence Network Conference in April. “I had a couple of friends that stuck with me for a couple of years, but…you end up essentially by yourself. My mother was the only one who consistently came to see me, but in the last six years I was lucky if I saw her once every six months.”

In 2006, the Innocence Project decided to take on Deskovic’s case. The Innocence Project is a national organization that litigates for wrongfully convicted people on the basis of DNA evidence and whose work has led to the exonerations of hundreds of innocent people nationwide.

Deskovic’s case became stronger when DNA evidence collected at the original crime scene turned out to match another inmate in one of New York’s prisons named Steven Cunningham, who was convicted of murdering another woman. Based on this evidence, lawyers with the Innocence Project helped overturn Deskovic’s original conviction at his retrial, and Jeffrey was released in September of 2006. It was a moment he’ll never forget.

“The judge told me that the conviction had been overturned and I was free to leave,” Deskovic recounted. “I got ready to get up to leave the courtroom, and after I took a step, the enormity of the moment kind of hit me. I was just overcome. I mentally couldn’t accept that this was over.”

When he stepped outside of the courtroom, the press was waiting.

“I gave an off-the-cuff two and a half hour spiel of everything I ever I wanted to say over the years but could never quite get anyone to hear me. Those were my first words of freedom. I stepped to the microphone, and I actually asked ‘Is this really happening?’”

But Deskovic had a long road ahead. He hadn’t gone to college. He’d never even been on the internet or used a cell phone. He’d never paid rent. He was 33 years old and had to learn basic skills that most adults take for granted. While he had a little support from his mother, they often ended their conversations in fights. Jeffrey became despondent and terribly lonely, struggling deeply with how to fill his time.

As the days passed, Deskovic started accepting speaking engagements, something that felt empowering to him. He enrolled in college and started writing newspaper columns about his experience.

After he received compensation from the state for his wrongful incarceration, Deskovic started the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, to assist others who’ve been wrongfully convicted. The Foundation investigates cases of wrongful conviction both with and without DNA evidence, and they also provide support for exonerees once they leave prison.

Deskovic earned a masters degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice on May 28 of this year.

Video Link

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GA - Cops Plead Guilty to Helping Plant Drugs on Woman Sexually Harassed by Judge (Bryant Cochran)

Bryant Cochran

Original Article

06/11/2013

By Clarence Walker

A judge responded to an assault victim by demanding sex in exchange for 'legal favors.' She filed a complaint, and he sent cops to plant meth in her car.

With a plot out of a Hollywood movie or a gripping Lifetime TV show, a mesmerizing drama of sex, power, frame-ups, planted drugs, and lies unfolded in real life in Georgia when two Murray County sheriff's deputies recently pleaded guilty in federal court for their part in a scheme to send an innocent woman to prison. Now both deputies await sentencing on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury stemming from an FBI civil rights investigation into the odd goings-on Down South.

The woman in question, [name withheld], had filed a complaint with the Georgia Judicial Qualification Committee alleging that Chief Magistrate Judge Bryant Cochran solicited sex from her in return for legal favors. Shortly after [name withheld] filed her complaint, she was arrested on August 14, 2012 in sleepy Chatsworth, Georgia, and charged with possession of methamphetamines.

"My client was set up and framed with methamphetamine drugs by Judge Bryant Cochran, whom she had accused of soliciting her for sex in exchange for legal favors in a case she had in Cochran's court," attorney McCracken Poston told the Chronicle.

Poston, a former Georgia state representative from nearby Ringgold with a reputation as a crack attorney, is representing [name withheld] in a civil lawsuit against Murray County. And [name withheld] isn't alone. Since this scandal broke, three women who worked in Cochran's court have filed a separate lawsuit against the judge and the county claiming Cochran sexually harassed them while county officials negligently failed to protect their rights.

"The judge, two deputies, and a handyman named C.J. who is employed at Judge Cochran's property conspired to plant the drugs on my client. And if the frame-up hadn't been discovered my client would've been facing 25 to 30 years in prison," Poston said, echoing the allegations made it the lawsuit.

Although the drug charge was dismissed a week later at the request of investigators when the frame-up wax exposed, [name withheld] is still suffering the consequences of her false arrest. Under Georgia law, it takes one year for the charge to be removed from [name withheld]'s record, and the arrest has already cost her.

"My client was denied a much higher paid job due to the felony drug charge on her record and what the judge and cops did to her. Nobody should have to suffer like that," Poston said.

Lust and Privilege at the County Courthouse

According to [name withheld]'s lawsuit -- and largely supported by the record in judicial proceedings so far -- she went to the courthouse on April 9, 2012 in regard to an assault on her by three persons the previous day. When [name withheld] arrived at Cochran's office, he requested that she meet with him alone, preventing her sister, who had been an eyewitness to the assault, from attending or providing a corroborating statement.

"While privately sitting in chambers with Cochran, I related details about the assault," [name withheld] said in the lawsuit.

But Cochran was more interested in the state of her marriage, the suit alleges, whether or not she had cheated on her estranged husband, and whether the persons who assaulted her "have anything on her to hurt her divorce from [name withheld]." While shying away from particulars of the assault, Cochran made repeated comments about "how pretty" [name withheld] was and then veered into even more uncomfortable territory.

"My wife doesn't take care of my sexual needs and I need a mistress to have sex with I can trust," [name withheld] said Cochran told her. He had "a real boner" for her and wanted her to return to his office the following week, he added flirtatiously, the lawsuit alleges.

[name withheld] played along as if interested in his offer, the suit alleges, and then Cochran upped the ante by asking [name withheld] to send him a photo of herself in a seductive way to let him take a "sneak peek" at what he was going to get. After giving [name withheld] his private cell number, Cochran, with a fixed stare at [name withheld]  gave her a direct order: "Come back on Wednesday with a dress and no panties so we can have sex."

Read the entire article

Video Link

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PA - Woman (Gabrielle Drexler) scorned pleads guilty to perjury in false sexual allegations against Lower Merion police officer

Gabrielle Drexler

Original Article

06/12/2013

By JENNY DeHUFF

A grand jury summed up its conclusion of a three-year investigation into claims a local woman was sexually harassed by a Lower Merion police officer in May 2011 with the words, “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

Those words spoke volumes in Montgomery County Court Wednesday when Gabrielle Drexler, 28, pleaded guilty to perjury in a case that could have ended a Lower Merion police officer’s career.

Before Common Pleas Judge William R. Carpenter Wednesday, Drexler pleaded guilty to perjury, a third-degree felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

In May 2011, a Montgomery County grand jury began investigating Drexler’s allegations of indecent assault, stalking and other related offenses by a member of the Lower Merion Police Department.

According to prosecutors, the initial claims were made in a very emotional and very public way – in front of the televised Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners on May 18, 2011 (Video Below).

During that meeting, a tearful Drexler alleged that an officer groped her breasts in August 2010, sent her unwanted e-mails and would often park his patrol cruiser outside her house, stalking her.

The investigation lasted nearly six months, and when a Montgomery County detective first contacted Drexler, she claimed she had proof of her allegations in the form of e-mailed messages sent to her from the officer that she retained.

Yet, two copies Drexler provided to the district attorney’s office contained discrepancies, with the later e-mail containing additional language that the first did not.

“What turned out was, as proof of the officer stalking, Ms. Drexler retained e-mails from him and turned them over to the police,” said Assistant District Attorney John Gradel, lead prosecutor in the case.

“Now, the thing about the e-mails was, she – on her own computer – added sentences, which, if believed, would have resulted in that officer’s arrest. They were basically confessions to what she was alleging.”

According to the grand jury presentment obtained by The Times Herald, in one e-mail, Drexler added the sentence, “I am sorry for groping and trying to kiss you as you backed away in confusion that day at the park…I knew you were my dream girl…”

“The officer’s alleged statements were basically confessions to that sexual assault and would have been used against the officer at his trial,” said Gradel.

“The pair had a consensual relationship for a period of months, and at some point, Drexler learned the officer was married with children and the relationship soured.”

When questioned about the discrepancies in the e-mails on the witness stand, Drexler reportedly lied to the grand jury, claiming that they “just mysteriously appeared.”

In the days after she made the allegations, Drexler filed civil claims against the Lower Merion Police Department and the township in the millions of dollars for violating her rights.

Gradel said the officer lost seniority as a result of the accusations against him.

“He went from the head of the line in promotion to the back of the line,” he said. That officer’s duties have since been restored to patrol.

Sentencing in this matter has been deferred for 90 days to allow time for a pre-sentence investigation to commence.

Video from 2011 (Source)

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MI - Amber Lynn McCain charged with falsely reporting kidnapping and sexual assault will head to trial

Amber Lynn McCain

Original Article

06/08/2013

By JOHN COUNTS

A 21-year-old Dundee woman accused of lying to police about being kidnapped and sexually assaulted last November had her case bound over to circuit court by Judge Joseph Burke during a preliminary exam in the 14A-1 District Court Tuesday.

Amber Lynn McCain is charged with one count of false report of a felony for telling Pittsfield Township police a man drove her against her will to a secluded spot by Ann Arbor Municipal Airport and sexually assaulted her.

Police determined the allegations to not be true and McCain was arraigned on the charge of filing the false complaint May 28.

Burke made the decision to bind over the case after hearing testimony from Pittsfield Township police Detective Jason Hohner, who was assigned the case.

Hohner testified McCain told police a man named “Caleb,” who she knew from cosmetology school in Monroe, came to pick her up the night of Nov. 4, 2012 at her home in Dundee. He had flowers and tried to kiss her, Hohner testified she told police.

“She said she wasn’t that kind of girl,” Hohner said.

McCain told police she was acquainted with “Caleb,” but not enough to know his last name.

The two decided to go to see a movie together at Rave Motion Pictures, located at 1400 Carpenter Road in Pittsfield Township, according to the testimony. After the movie ended, McCain told detectives “Caleb” drove her to a dirt driveway near the airport at Ellsworth Road and South State Street and sexually assaulted her, according to Hohner’s testimony.

When she tried to get away, “Caleb” held her by the wrists

McCain told police she punched him and made a desperate escape to a nearby Speedway gas station.

After taking the report, Hohner began his investigation.

“I scoured every database I knew of looking for anything that would find out the identity of 'Caleb,'" Hohner said. “I couldn’t find anything that indicated who this person was.”

At a follow-up interview in December, Hohner informed McCain the charges related to the alleged incident were very serious: unlawful imprisonment and first-degree criminal sexual conduct — life offenses.

Still, Hohner said McCain stuck by her story — at first.

Police had obtained video from the Speedway gas station that night. The surveillance tape revealed a very different story than the one McCain was telling, Hohner testified: she did not walk to the gas station, but was dropped off from a different direction than the airport, and she appeared to cheerily chat with the clerk.

“She appeared happy,” Hohner said. “She was smiling. I would call it grinning ear to ear.”

When police showed McCain the pictures they had of her smiling at the gas station, her story began to change, Hohner testified. McCain said the assault took place, but she called her friend, “Raffi,” who picked her up and dropped her off at the gas station where she could call police. “Raffi” didn’t stick around because he was afraid of getting deported, according to testimony.

But the story would change yet again. “Caleb” existed, McCain confessed, but had nothing to do with the incident as reported, according to testimony.

“In the end, she said the suspect really was ‘Raffi’,” Hohner said.

“Raffi,” who police also were unable to identify or contact, and McCain watched the movie “Wanted” at his Ann Arbor townhouse before he drove her to the Speedway, according to testimony. It was while they were watching the movie in his bedroom the sexual assault took place, McCain told police.

“She said she didn’t want him to get deported,” Hohner said was the reason she substituted “Caleb” with “Raffi.”

Hohner said McCain could not provide a last name for “Raffi.”

McCain’s public defender Timothy Niemann told the judge McCain’s cousin was the one to urge her to report the sexual assault. In fact, it was her cousin’s wife who actually called police to report the assault by “Raffi.”

Niemann argued it still was a sexual assault regardless of whether it was done by a different suspect under different circumstances. The case, he said, had been handed over to the Ann Arbor Police Department.

Ann Arbor police Detective William Stanford told AnnArbor.com a report had been generated, but the case was not being actively investigated.

A pretrial date was set for July 17 in the Washtenaw County Trial Court. McCain remains free on a personal recognizance bond. The charge of a false report of a felony is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison, a $2,000 fine or both.

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UK - Linsey Attridge falsely claimed two strangers broke into her house and raped her by selecting their profiles from Facebook

Linsey Attridge

Original Article

06/07/2013

By ALAN SHIELDS

A woman who falsely accused two strangers of raping her in a bid to win back her boyfriend has escaped jail.
- And this is why false rape allegations continue to happen, the person who is making the stuff up is not punished while the person they are accusing could have their lives ruined!  I guess when the police get so inundated with false reports then they might start punishing these people more harshly?

In an attempt to garner sympathy from her partner, Linsey Attridge, 31, claimed the two men broke into her house in Aberdeen and attacked her.

She even punched herself in the face and ripped her own clothing to make her story seem more credible.

Attridge then spent three days trawling social networking sites so she could hand over profiles of the men she claimed were responsible to police.

The two men were detained, questioned and had to undergo forensic and medical examinations because of her claims.

It was two months before police dropped the case against them because there was no evidence to support the allegations.

Attridge appeared in Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Wednesday, where she admitted wasting police time.

Yesterday, her former partner [name withheld], 32, said she had put the lives of the two random men she pinpointed as rapists through hell.

Mr [name withheld] said he had also suffered difficulties because he chose to support her.

He added: ‘I’ve spent the last two years trying to build bridges with my parents, my sister and some of my friends – just because of everything that happened.'

‘I also feel sorry for the two guys on Facebook. I don’t know who they are, she just picked them off Facebook.'

‘They didn’t deserve that, no one deserves that. These poor guys were tormented. They won’t get any compensation for this.’
- They should get compensation from her, or take her to court to get it, and to possibly restore their reputation.

Attridge had been in a relationship with Mr [name withheld] for 18 months at the time of the incident in 2011.

But their romance had hit the rocks and the couple looked likely to split.

She thought, however, that she could save their relationship by making up a story claiming to have been raped.

Mr [name withheld] spent weeks comforting her after she told him she was attacked and raped by the strangers in their home while he was playing football.

The court heard single mother Attridge, now of Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, had made up the story so Mr [name withheld] would be more caring towards her.

But after she was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work in the community rather than jail, Mr [name withheld] said: ‘I think the sentence was ridiculous. I actually walked out of the court as soon as I heard it. I think the justice system has let us all down.’

The kickboxing instructor from Aberdeen said the worst part of the whole experience had been listening to her lies come out in court.

He added: ‘Sitting in court and hearing that was hard to take. But I’m glad it’s done and dusted and I can move on.'

‘It’s been really quite bad, as while we were together I lost touch with family and friends.'

‘She started arguments with friends. I think it was because they had figured her out.’

Mr [name withheld] said her sentence was not enough, as she could have potentially ruined lives with her lies. He added: ‘She doesn’t think about anyone else or the consequences of her actions. She should have been locked up.’

Attridge has 12 months to complete her community payback order. She was also placed under the supervision of the social work department for two years.

Police refused to comment on the case yesterday.

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Two years ago, a lawyer accused the Scottish justice system of taking a ‘softly, softly’ approach to rape investigations which allows women to make false allegations.

Iain Innes represented Charlene Kielty, 23, who was jailed for 18 months for lying about a sex ordeal.

Despite acting for Kielty, Mr Innes took the unusual step of criticising police and prosecutors for failing to crack down on false rape allegations.

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PA - False rape allegations affect police, the community and future victims

Original Article

06/06/2013

By Ewa Roman

In the past year there have been at least three times where someone reported a rape or abduction in our area, which turned out to be false.

On June 6, Silver Spring Township police dealt with a false rape report after a woman said she was thrown into a van and raped on June 2.
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On May 24th, in Lancaster City, a woman told police she was abducted and shoved into a trunk. It lead police on a five-hour manhunt. Turns out, she was allegedly making the whole thing up.

Also in May, police say a 15-year-old girl lied about an assault and fighting off her four attackers. That one happened in York County.

And who could forget the report that put the community on edge about an alleged rape at the CVS parking lot on Allentown Boulevard in Dauphin County back in 2011. Amber Adams later admitted she made up the story.

Kristen Houser is with the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. She says national statistics show that it's estimated between two and eight percent of reported rapes are false.

"People have a lot of things going on in their life. They may be looking for a distraction, they may looking for support from other people," said Kristen Houser, PA Coalition Against Rape.

Sergeant Shawki Lacey is with the Susquehanna Township Police Department. He says falsely reporting a crime not only effects the person accused and the alleged victim, but it takes a toll on the community as well.

"It causes an uproar in the community, no one wants crime in their community, especially crimes of violence against persons," Sergeant Shawki Lacey, Susquehanna Township Police Department.

When someone reports a fake crime, that also takes police away from real crimes they could be investigating.

"Basically you have officers, detectives, forensics of multiple jurisdictions potentially, labs are all working on this common goal to try to identify who committed this crime, arresting that person," said Sgt. Lacey.

Sergeant Lacey says if you report a false crime, you could be charged with anything from a misdemeanor to a felony and face jail time.

In addition, the person who you falsely accused could file a civil lawsuit against you.

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The False Allegation Epidemic

Video Description:
On the increasing prevalence of false accusations made by women against men in the areas of rape, domestic violence and child sexual abuse. Looks at the tragic consequences for men as their lives are destroyed by lying women, with many even driven to suicide by the false allegations.

This film is part of a Bitesize series of short clips that looks at individual elements of Feminism, Equality and Misandry in society.

Video Link

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The Hunt Official Trailer

Amazon.com

Sound familiar? Happens all the time to those who are accused and/or convicted of sexual crimes, innocent or not.

Plot:
Lucas is an average member of a small, close-knit, Danish community. Being a divorcee who is struggling to maintain a relationship with his son and having lost his former job as a secondary school teacher, he is facing some difficulties in his life, and resorts to working at a kindergarten to make ends meet. Yet he enjoys wholesome interaction with the children, and there seems to be a silver lining when an attractive female coworker makes advances towards him and eventually moves in as his girlfriend.

All this is ruined, however, when he is wrongly accused of showing his genitals to Klara, a little girl at the day care who he walks home from school and who is also the daughter of Theo, Lucas' closest friend. Klara was earlier shown a picture of an erect penis by her older brother in jest, and she makes unclear comments about the event that involve Lucas. She is asked leading questions by the nursery personnel during an investigation and unintentionally states that Lucas acted sexually inappropriately around her. All the adults in the community readily believe her story and urge her not to expand on it, lest she relive the supposedly tragic event.

As a result, Lucas is shunned by the majority of the community as a sexual predator. He loses his girlfriend, and his son is publicly ostracized. The end of his friendship with Theo is particularly painful, with Theo's attempts to sympathize with Lucas thwarted by his overprotective wife. Eventually, the ostracism turns to violence when Lucas' dog, Fanny, is killed and Lucas is beaten by the employees of his local grocery store for trying to buy food there. While drifting off to sleep, Klara apologizes to Lucas for her lie and what has transpired. Theo hears her and realizes his friend is innocent.

Lucas confronts Theo during a public mass on Christmas Eve, and the two gain some trust of each other as a result, but they remain largely distanced.

A year after the incident, tensions in the community have lessened. Lucas' girlfriend from the kindergarten is again with him, and his son is being accepted into the local hunting society as an adult member. Yet on a hunting expedition to commemorate the event, an anonymous individual shoots at Lucas and nearly hits him. Lucas looks, blinded by the setting sun, at his attacker, who cannot be seen in the rays, and then almost begins crying with this painful reminder that he will never be fully vindicated.

WARNING: BRIEF NUDITY AT THE BEGINNING

Video Link

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UK - Op-Ed: The Registry of FALSE RAPE Allegations

Christina Hoff Sommers

Original Article

Click the "WronglyAccused" label above to see many more examples of people falsely accusing others of a sexual crime.

05/27/2013

By Alexander Baron

Oxford - Last week, an Oxford woman was given an eight month gaol sentence for making a false rape allegation against a totally innocent man. This case was reported only by local media.

The woman concerned, Kirsty Debanks, claimed a former boyfriend had raped her in her home in July last year. Often cases like this are she said/he said, and as in the fictional case of Carla Connor, this can be a nightmare for a jury. Do they destroy the reputation or even the life of a none too eloquent but decent man, or do they acquit the plausible monster in a business suit who may go on to rape another woman, or worse? In that case, the jury got it wrong, but fortunately, this (false) rape allegation didn't go to the jury because the police carried out a thorough investigation, and not for the first time, our much maligned total surveillance society delivered the goods. CCTV proved the alleged perpetrator was elsewhere at the time of the rape that never happened.

Having said that, it was lucky for [name withheld] it did, because his accuser went to extraordinary lengths in order to frame him, recruiting two co-conspirators - one of them a woman - to inflict injuries on her. This was all the more despicable because in spite of her young age, Debanks is the mother of two children, by Mr [name withheld].

Although most false rape accusers don't go to such lengths, the incidence of false reporting is a lot more common than the campus rape industry and their fellow travelers would have us believe. Here is an ad hoc timeline of false allegations since the turn of the Millennium.

The American academic Christina Hoff Sommers has researched this subject in considerable depth, and her results make disturbing reading, or perhaps that should be edifying reading if rape is nowhere near as endemic as believed?

Although the Debanks case received little publicity, this need not be the case any longer. There is now a registry of false rape accusers. Actually, Register Her Dot Com has been around for some time. Currently it has a heavy US/UK bias, but it needs to be expanded, because the prevalence of false rape allegations and their widespread acceptance can lead only to and indeed has led to bad social policy, which is good for neither the victims of false rape allegations, nor for genuine rape victims, nor for society as a whole, all societies worldwide.

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KY - 5 years in prison for a social worker (Geri Murphy) who filed fake reports about sexual abuse involving children

Video Link

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MN - The Mag: False child porn allegation ends coach's career

Original Article

This world has gone friggin' MAD! This man lost his career over bath time videos and photos?

05/25/2013

By Eli Saslow

The athletic director walked onto the field unannounced, wearing jeans and sandals, and Todd Hoffner knew in that moment that something was terribly wrong. Nobody interrupted his football practices at Minnesota State Mankato without advance notice and permission. His success as head coach was based on maintaining total control; each practice was scripted to the minute. He believed small disruptions in preparation became big problems during games, so he sometimes asked his players to recite a motto: No mistakes. No distractions. No surprises.

Now, on Aug. 17, 2012, his life was about to become the story of all three.

The athletic director approached Hoffner at midfield and told the coach he wanted to speak with him privately. "What's this about?" Hoffner asked, but the athletic director simply motioned for him to follow. Only a month earlier, Hoffner had earned a new four-year contract with a raise of more than 15 percent, and he had already stated his plans to stay at Mankato for the rest of his career. Hoffner and the AD walked into an adjacent building, where a woman from the university's human resources department was waiting. She handed Hoffner a typed note on university letterhead, and he hurriedly began to read, each phrase blurring into the next. Investigative leave. Effective immediately. No longer permitted on university grounds.

"Is this a joke?" Hoffner asked. "What did I do?" The woman from HR refused to answer. She told him to leave campus immediately. She said he would learn more about the university's reasoning in the next few days.

Hoffner drove back to his house in the nearby town of Eagle Lake, his hands shaking at the steering wheel, and told his wife, Melodee, who was equally at a loss. For the next three days, he barely slept. Mel vomited from stress. Todd watched game film at midnight in the living room, seeking comfort in routine. Together they made a list of potential reasons for Hoffner's banishment. He had worked his assistant coaches 70 or 80 hours a week despite their occasional complaints about long hours. He had cussed, punished players for breaking his rules and, every once in a while, lightly grabbed a player. Did they suddenly decide you drive people too hard? his wife asked.

Some other colleagues saw Division II football as an obscure stopover on the way to bigger jobs, but not Hoffner, a farm boy from Esmond, N.D., who had started his coaching career in nine-man high school football. Now he was entering his fifth season as Mankato's head coach, earning six figures and winning division titles -- by some measures the most successful coach in the school's history. Now strangers at the grocery store stopped to congratulate him and take his picture. Now he had a house in the suburbs where a motivational poster hung in the kitchen: if you believe it, you can achieve it.

He had always wanted only one kind of life, a coach's life, and now, at age 46, he had it. There was his beautiful wife who dressed in Mankato purple, his three young kids and their tradition of Family Fun Nights on Fridays, his one free night during the offseason, when they would go to Chuck E. Cheese's, then come home to watch a movie. He was muscular, competitive and stoic. His friends considered him the model of a football coach: beloved by some assistants, feared by some administrators, but respected by almost everyone on campus.

Now he phoned the university and heard he would receive an overnight letter, which didn't show up for days. So he began to slowly disassemble the life he had built. He wanted to prepare for the worst, in case he was suspended or demoted or even fired. He called coaches at other small colleges, asking about vacant assistant positions. He canceled his golf club membership, convinced he wouldn't be able to afford it without a job.

He was about to suspend his cable on a Tuesday morning when five police cars pulled up to his house. Two officers approached the door. Hoffner greeted them outside.

"What's all this about?" Hoffner asked.

This time he got an answer, and it only confounded him more.

He was under arrest on suspicion of producing and possessing child pornography.

Read the entire article

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Agraphobia - The abnormal fear of sexual abuse

Wikipedia Article

Sufferers of agraphobia may have had an experience linking emotional trauma with sexual abuse. Such experiences do not have to happen to the sufferer: watching sexual abuse occur (even in movies or on television) can act as a trigger to the condition. The body then develops a fear of the experience occurring again as a way of 'ensuring' that the event does not occur.

In some cases sex abuse hysteria, caused by misinformation, overzealous or careless investigation practices, or sensationalist news coverage, can cause agraphobia as well: This being different than the PTSD-driven agraphobia that comes from real situations of sexual abuse. Day care sex abuse hysteria is one example of this erroneously caused agraphobia. Many people who were originally accused or even found guilty were later found to be innocent of sexual abuse, their ordeal having been caused by hysteria and misinformation-driven agraphobia.

Both real sexual abuse and also false accusations of sexual abuse are prevalent, making a professional and carefully done investigation necessary to determine which type of agraphobia may be occurring in any particular case. Newer standards for sexual abuse investigation have been developed in some states (and are mandated by courts) in order to prevent such hysteria-driven agraphobia from causing prosecution of the innocent. These new standards are not uniformly applied or followed in all states, however.

Malicious intent can also sometimes cause hysteria-driven agraphobia in children. For example, a vindictive or abusive parent may purposely try to instill agraphobic hysteria in a child in order to manipulate a false accusation by a child against the other parent in a divorce child-custody case, or to trigger a damaging police investigation in order to abuse an innocent parent. This sometimes results in the prosecution of the parent who tried to cause the false accusation. Courts are increasingly viewing proven cases of intentionally induced agraphobia in children as a form of child abuse, as well as being a crime against the falsely accused target adult.

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FL - Today, An Accusation Gets You Life (in Prison)

Original Article

05/25/2013

By Joseph Snook

Escambia - Most professionals would agree that children lie. Young children often have a creative and vivid imagination. Learning the implications of a lie can be difficult without proper guidance. When a child lies, adults often laugh hysterically because it is so blatantly obvious. As a parent, I can relate to a child's fib and the humorous aspect of such. Despite the humor of lies told by children, the implications of certain un-truths can have serious effects. How can someone believe a child who clearly displays deceitful traits? How does a parent or an adult make the determination whether a lie is acceptable or not, regardless of its nature? How can you tell the difference between a lie and truth when a child who has admittedly lied to authorities, makes a statement that indicates a crime has been committed to that same authority?

“An even more sophisticated level of lying emerges between the ages of 6 and 8... At this stage, it's not just the content of the lie, but the motive or attitude...” - Scholastic.com

Allegations of a 7 Year Old Girl Places Zane Crowder in Prison for Life, Plus 25 Years

Shyane Ellis, then 7 years old was playing outside her babysitter's house with another young girl. As the two young children continued to talk and play, Shyane told the older child that she had been touched by someone in her private area.

The babysitter, Terrie Webb was then informed by the older child. The parents of Shyane, Abe and Danielle Levi, along with the authorities were subsequently contacted. Later, while describing the alleged sexual assault to authorities, Shyane claimed to have been told by a friend of hers that the same thing had also happened to her. According to video evidence, there were no questions from authorities to determine the validity of the statement by Shyane's friend or the probability of this comment by another young child possibly contributing to Shyane's similar accusation.

Based on Shyane’s statement alone, 22 year old [name withheld] was arrested on June 6, 2010. Zane was ordered to be under electronic monitoring by the police and was charged with sexual battery and lewd or lascivious molestation upon a child under 12 years of age.

Shyane Ellis had claimed that [name withheld] penetrated her private area with his finger. [name withheld] was a close friend of Shyane's step-father Abe Levi at the time of her accusation. Although he denied the allegations, he was labeled a child molester by many in his community, including many friends, neighbors and the local mainstream media.

Read the entire article

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UK - Dad falsely accused of being paedophile on Facebook found hanged

Original Article

This is what happens when you have self proclaimed "saviors of children" who harass many people claiming they are "pedophiles" but who are not. Innocent people lose their lives. There are many groups online who claim to "out" pedophiles, but they do nothing except break the law, harass people, and make libelous claims.  The person or persons responsible should be sent to prison for murder.

05/24/2013

By Steve White

A dad found hanged in a cemetery was driven to suicide after he was falsely accused on Facebook of being a paedophile, his family claim.

Steven Rudderham, 48, was traumatised when his name, address and photograph were published online, with a message calling him a “dirty perv”.

Within 15 minutes, the message had been shared hundreds of times and he received death threats via the social network.

An inquest heard he was found hanged in the graveyard three days later.

His daughter Bethany Beaumont told the hearing: “They’ve destroyed an innocent life for no reason. It was disgusting.”

His mother Carol Matthews said: “I want to know why someone did something like that. I hope they rot in hell. It took a person’s life. We will never get over it.”

Mr Rudderham was a bricklayer and was working towards examinations as a building site manager before the internet accusations, an inquest in Hull heard.

The family explained that Steven spotted a 14-year-old girl giving out contact details to a 60-year-old man on Facebook and added a comment warning her not to give out her details to people she didn’t know.

Steven’s father, David Matthews, 66, said that another user then made a copy of his son’s profile picture and posted it with a banner labelling him a paedophile.

David, who lives with his wife Carol, 69, in Hull, said: “Within 15 minutes over 100 people had shared the picture of my son and it went viral.”

"Steven was getting death threats and threats that if he was spotted on the streets that he’d be castrated or hung.”

"He hated paedophiles so to be called one himself was devastating to him.”

Bethany, 19, told the inquest: “There were people who had known him for years commenting on it, he was so upset.”

"He stayed at my house that night because of what the comments were saying, about people coming to his house and smashing it up.”

The darts fan, who proudly posed with top pro Phil “the Power” Taylor, saw Bethany every day and she realised the profound effect the accusations were having on him.

She said: “He couldn’t believe it. He just looked at the wall and wouldn’t eat. It was like someone had ripped his life apart.”

Mr Rudderham discussed giving police a memory stick with evidence but it was recovered from Mr Rudderham's body. Police have also seized a computer hard drive.

Mr Rudderham's family say he served time in prison in 2010 for fighting but had no convictions for sex offences.

The inquest heard there had been no evidence of medical depression in the months before his death. No drugs and no significant amounts of alcohol were found.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Coroner Paul Marks said: “The medical cause of death was hanging.”

"He was actively pursuing a qualification to improve his status and job prospects. In the last few days of his life, he received a pejorative message on a social networking site which greatly troubled him.”

Police confirmed they are considering an investigation into the Facebook posts.

Mr Rudderham is said to have reported comments to Facebook who removed them.

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CO - Angry Mob Pelts Man Thought to Be Sex Attacker

Original Article

05/20/2013

By STEVEN K. PAULSON

Residents angry that police had not warned them about sex assaults of children took matters into their own hands, chasing down a man they thought was the attacker, pelting him with rocks and leaving him with a bloody face in Colorado, authorities said Monday.

Pueblo police later released the man because of lack of evidence, The Pueblo Chieftain reported.

Neighborhood residents were looking for a man suspected of two separate sexual acts when they got word that a man matching the description had been spotted, said Alex Pacheco, one of the pursuers.

The group confronted the man and he ran.

Pursuers surrounded him and punched him in the face, police Capt. Tom Rummel said. Arriving officers shoved the man into a police car and whisked him to the station for questioning. He was not seriously injured.

"The primary officer on the scene said get him out of here," Rummel said.
- So tell me, why didn't the police arrest the people who attacked him?  Why is Alex Pacheco and the others not in jail?  They are basically telling the mob that it's okay to harm others you think might be responsible.  They are basically condoning vigilante violence, in our opinion.

Pacheco told the newspaper that residents were canvassing the area looking for the man who committed the sex crimes during the past few months.

One incident involved the sexual assault of a girl in her home. In the other, authorities said a man with the same description exposed himself to another child.

Police said the mob grew to about a half-dozen people as residents learned of the chase and joined in.

"We went through the right channels in contacting the police but there hasn't been much response," Pacheco said. "We can't wait around any longer without doing something. These are children that this man is after and we can't let any more children get hurt by him."

Rummel said police had notified the media and posted warnings on social media about the attacks, but authorities are not required by law to notify residents because no one had been arrested.

Rummel said police only had a vague description of the suspect because he wore a bandanna over his face.

The 54-year-old man accosted by the mob did not want to file charges against his pursuers, the chief said.

"He said folks were reacting to a bad situation and he told the officer, 'I don't want to go that route,'" Rummel said. "He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The name of the man was not released because no charges were filed. He agreed to give investigators a DNA sample so he could be ruled out as a suspect.

See Also:

• Residents of Colorado neighborhood chase down man they thought sexually assaulted children

Video Source

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UK - Co-founder of activist movement Anonymous UK, Malcolm Blackman, accused of raping a woman at the Occupy London demonstration

Malcolm Blackman

Original Article

05/13/2013

By Simon Angear

A political activist who says his life has been ‘shattered’ by false rape claims is returning to Weston to begin a fight for new laws to protect people from malicious allegations.

Malcolm Blackman made national headlines two weeks ago when he went on trial at the Old Bailey accused of raping a woman at the Occupy London demonstration at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Jurors have since cleared the 46-year-old of any wrong-doing – and now Mr Blackman says he wants to return home ‘with his head up high’ and campaign to save others from having their lives ‘ruined’ in the same way.

Formal ‘not guilty’ verdicts were recorded on both charges against Mr Blackman on May 3, and now he faces the task of piecing together a life which has been on hold for more than a year.

Mr Blackman – the co-founder of activist movement Anonymous UK – told the Mercury: “The whole situation has been horrendous.”

“All year, people have been told I am a rapist. Life will never be the same again.”

“There will always be that stigma attached to me. There will always be people who are wondering ‘I wonder if he just got away with it’.”

“The worst thing was knowing that I would either be going to prison as an innocent man, or walking away with my life in ruins.”

“Completely vindicated as I was, it’s not going to change the fact that my life is shattered.”

Key video evidence and witness testimonies put Mr Blackman elsewhere at the time the woman – who cannot be named – claimed she was attacked.
- Why can't the woman be named?

And he now wants the law to do more to protect the identity of people accused of rape until their guilt is established.

Mr Blackman said: “We live in a make-believe world where people are innocent until proven guilty - but I had to prove my innocence.”
- Welcome to the real world where you are guilty and must prove your innocence.  Like we've said before, people have no clue, until it happens to them.

“I expected British justice to do its thing. The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) should have looked at this and seen it had no legs. They said they have to be sympathetic to the victim – but now I am the victim.”

“I am 100 per cent behind anonymity for alleged victims of rape, as real victims must not be deterred from coming forward.”

“But what I am going to be stamping my feet about and campaigning for is the need for anonymity for both parties.”

“The law needs to be reviewed as a matter of urgency. The accused gets his life torn apart. It has cost me my career, my home.”

“I had to go and see everyone in my life that matters to me. I told them ‘the first thing I need to say is I didn’t do it – the second is, you’d better sit down’.”

“It’s a very difficult thing to try to explain something which is so alien to you.”

“Even my sisters, like everyone else, just didn’t know. They were forced to question their faith in me.”

“I’ve not slept, I’ve not eaten. I’ve lived with untold pressure. I have lost a lot of faith in humanity. I now have only a very few friends. And I have an absolute fear of women – I don’t intend to date ever again.”

The first step will be for Mr Blackman to return home to the town where he has lived for more than 20 years, and is well known for his work in the security industry and for his street act as a magician.

He said: “What I really want to do is get back to Weston and rebuild my life. I want to be able to walk around with my head up high. I want people to know the truth.”

“I consider myself a decent citizen of Weston, and an asset to the town. I love it as home.”

“I want to sit on the beach and watch the sun go down. Little things like that mean a lot now.”

“But I will have to take it one day at a time because there have been no plans for me. How can you make plans when your life is in limbo?”

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False reports outpace sex assaults in the military

Original Article

And let's not forget all the child porn being downloaded and shared by the Pentagon, FBI and other agencies as well.

05/12/2013

By Rowan Scarborough

False complaints of sexual abuse in the military are rising at a faster rate than overall reports of sexual assault, a trend that could harm combat readiness, analysts say.

Virtually all media attention on a Pentagon report last week focused on an increase in service members’ claims of sexual abuse in an anonymous survey, but unmentioned were statistics showing that a significant percentage of such actually investigated cases were baseless.

From 2009 to 2012, the number of sexual abuse reports rose from 3,244 to 3,374 — a 4 percent increase.

During the same period, the number of what the Pentagon calls “unfounded allegations” based on completed investigations of those reports rose from 331 to 444 — a 35 percent increase.

In 2012, there were 2,661 completed investigations, meaning that the 444 false complaints accounted for about 17 percent of all closed cases last year. False reports accounted for about 13 percent of closed cases in 2009.

Robert Maginnis, a retired Army officer and analyst at the Family Research Council, is writing a book for Regnery Publishing Inc. about the Pentagon’s push to put women in direct ground combat in the infantry, armor and special operations.

“In the course of conducting interviews with commanders, I heard time and again complaints about female service members making sex-related allegations which proved unfounded,” Mr. Maginnis said. “Not only do some women abuse the truth, but it also robs their commanders from more important, mission-related tasks.”

“Female service members told me that some women invite problems which lead men on and then result in advances the woman can’t turn off. Too often, such female culpability leads to allegations of sexual contact, assault and then the women feign innocence.”

The annual Pentagon report on sexual assault noted the numbers of false complaints but included no analysis. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

Elaine Donnelly, who runs the Center for Military Readiness, said the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Office (SAPRO) is ignoring the problem of false reports.

“Unsubstantiated accusations remain a significant problem, but the SAPRO is doing nothing about it,” Mrs. Donnelly said. “I went through both volumes and found no evidence of concern about the significant 17 percent of ‘unfounded accusations.’ Something should be done to reduce the numbers of false accusations, the first step being an admission that the problem exists.”

The number of sex abuse reports has risen from 1,700 a decade ago to 3,374 last year.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have pushed male and female personnel into close living conditions at a sprawling network of bases.

The existence of unwanted and wanted sexual contact in the war zone is not disputed.

For example, a group of Army physicians in 2010 studied one brigade combat team deployed to Iraq in 2007.

Read the rest of the article

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FL - Jacksonville man mistakenly labeled sex offender on Florida ID

Original Article

05/09/2013

By Vic Micolucci

Man says mistake was devastating, humiliating

JACKSONVILLE - Andrew Flaherty recently moved to Jacksonville last year from out of state. He’s legally blind and can’t drive, but did as the law requires and got a Florida Identification Card.

But as he visited banks, doctors’ offices and pharmacies, he noticed things didn't seem right and Floridians weren’t showing the southern hospitality he had heard so much about.

"Even when my brother from Hawaii came to visit me, he said, 'You got a dark cloud over you for some reason,'" said Flaherty.

This past March, it became clear, when Flaherty and his brother tried to get onto the base at NAS Jacksonville.
- So even if the man was a sex offender, what does that have to do with him trying to enter a Navy base?

“When we gave the ID they told us to pull over and about 30 minutes later, an officer approached our vehicle and said there’s a Florida statute on my ID that said I’m a sexual offender,” explained Flaherty.

It’s a crime for sex offender to try and get on military bases.
- It is?  Really?  Why?

“Wow, I was completely floored,” explained Flaherty. “I’ve never been accused, much less convicted of something that horrible.”

We checked and Flaherty’s background is clean. The problem was his Florida ID card. In the bottom right corner it says 943.0435 FS. It’s a statute that means the person on the ID is a convicted sexual offender.

“Who has formed this opinion of me, that I am a sexual offender?” asked Flaherty.

Flaherty believes it was a simple mistake, with terrible damage. He has hired Jacksonville attorney John Phillips to look over what happened.

“Here’s a man that did nothing wrong, lives on the absolute right side of life and all of a sudden has been called the worst of the worst,” said Phillips.
- So now, because of a typo, he has to use his own money to pay a lawyer to fix this?  I sure hope he gets compensated for the states error?

Channel 4 did its own investigating and looked for answers, taking Flaherty’s situation to the people who gave him the ID in the first place: the Duval County Tax Collector’s Office.

“It was not an intentional thing. It was a mistake, absolutely. Human error,” explained Sherry Hall, Duval County deputy tax collector.

Hall says one of the clerks accidentally clicked the wrong box when creating Flaherty’s ID. They use a state computer program to make the cards and there are a series of boxes to click, which classify people as organ donors, insulin dependent and sex offenders.
- And apparently they do not double check the information either.

Once we brought Flaherty's problem to their attention, the Tax Collector's Office took action. Hall says they let their employees know what happened and will train them on ways to avoid it. They also are working with the state to possibly make the program a little more fail-safe, so this doesn’t happen again. And now Flaherty's new ID is clean, just like his record.

“We absolutely apologize that this error caused him any issues at all. We have corrected this issue since it occurred. We are certainly very sorry he was the recipient of this mistake,” said Hall.
- So did you pay his lawyer fees and such for your mistake?

Hall adds that this is the first time a mistake like this has ever happened in her office, but she says the markings on the IDs and licenses are important.

Channel 4 crime and safety analyst Ken Jefferson says police need to know who they’re dealing with and having the statute clearly labeled certainly helps.

Flaherty says he couldn't agree more, but thinks clerks need to be more careful so no one else is wrongly accused.

“I hope that this lets everyone know that this is possible. And if it happened to you, you need to go and get this changed,” said Flaherty.

Read the rest of the article

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