1. Ms. Bennett, so long as she stays clean of any further wrongdoing, will have her record expunged in 3 years. How many men falsely convicted of rape are able to only serve 30 days and get their records expunged?
2. Once again, a man is to blame, as her former boyfriend coerced her to make the false rape claim. The fact that she came forward after the accusation and told the truth does count in her favor, but when are women going to be held culpable for their decisions?
Thankfully, they did not arrest the man she falsely accused, and she has to repay the court associated costs (it is unclear if that includes the cost of the police investigation).
Stephanine Ann Bennett sentenced to 30 days in jail for false claim.
BENTONVILLE - A Colcord, Okla., woman was sentenced to 30 days in jail for falsely accusing a man of raping her.
Stephanine Ann Bennett, 18, pleaded guilty Monday to filing a false police report, a class D felony. She agreed to plead guilty under an agreement that Public Defender Brynna Barnica reached with Deputy Prosecutor Ben Poole.
Bennett was arrested Oct. 20, 2008. She had earlier reported to police that she had been raped, but recanted the allegation a few days later.
Poole told Circuit Judge Robin Green that police investigated, but did not arrest, the man who Bennett claimed raped her.
Barnica told Green that Bennett was coerced by a former boyfriend to make the allegation against the man.
Green said the only reason she accepted the plea agreement is because Bennett came forward to report her lie.
Green accepted the plea agreement and Bennett's guilty plea.
Bennett was placed on state-supervised probation for three years with Act 346, which means her conviction can be expunged if she successfully completes her probation.
She must perform 120 hours of community service and must serve 30 days in the Benton County Jail.
Bennett must report to the jail by noon June 16. Green delayed Bennett's sentencing until she graduates from high school.
She must also pay $1,870 in court-associated costs.
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6 comments:
30 days? What an insult.
It is beyong an insult.
30 days in jail,I will bet she will never makes a false rape accusation again!
My false rape accuser got in no trouble at all, because of the heavily gender feminist dominated precinct that she went to did not want to leave a paper trail that might reflect the actual numbers of false rape accusations...
thats why i say, "break the gender feminist / law enforcement misinformation Alliance"
it's not 2%..it may be as much as 20 times that amount.
Rape is such a serious crime, and carries such a huge jail sentence, that knowingly and willfully trying to put someone in jail on a false acusation, the false acusser should at least get half of the jail sentence the guy would have got. It may seem harsh, but we need to return the rule of law to our courts,(women can no longer lie in them) and equal protection under the law for innocent men/boys.
"Poole told Circuit Judge Robin Green that police investigated, but did not arrest, the man who Bennett claimed raped her."Well, well! Perhaps we're seeing some improvements.
With digging back through the archives, it seems I can recall several instances where men learned that they were being accused when they were met by the SWAT team at their doorsteps or were handcuffed and dragged out of their place of employment (tactics, which I believe are deliberately employees to maximize the man's humiliation and his appearance of guilt).
And, while I do agree that 30 day plus three years on her record are way too light - she did come forward and confess (apparently soon after making her false claim), and, more importantly, the man was NOT subjected to the humiliation and public exposure that we've so typically seen.
Plus, she's been fined $1,870 - which IS more than $0.00.
And do note that the the judge, also a woman, accepted the plea agreement only because the accuser had confessed.
Personally, I'd have to say that in cases where a women confesses early on enough to effectively mitigate the harms, she ought to be rewards with a lighter sentence - but only if those who do not confess, and must be found out by investigation are punished much harder. In that way, women making false reports (as they so often do, without thinking it through) do have a powerful incentive to set the record straight, and spare both their victims, and the substantial costs of full investigations.
Weird, and potential offensive as this is going to sound for some of you; I think we should promote this woman as a "shining example" of doing the right thing after making a false report.
I completely agree, slwerner.
Let's make clear that nobody wants women to lie about rape, and the first thing we need to do for the sake of innocent men and boys, and secondarily, actual rape victims, is to educate women about not lying.
But likely women will always lie about rape (hopefully not to the extent they lie now). So what to do? We have often made the point here that early recantations need to be rewarded because it is often the ONLY way an innocent male will not be branded as a possible rapist for the remainder of his life. Without a recantation, there will always be some people who insist "something must have happened."
If the lie ends up targeting a specific male, as here, it needs more punishment; if the male is arrested, the punishment needs to jacked up to some significant time; if he is jailed for a significant period of time she needs to go away for years.
A caution, however. Most rape lies are told without the intention of destroying another male. Many claim that the rape was caused by a phantom male. The trouble with these little "white" lies is that they sometimes mushroom very quickly to target a specific male, and sometimes the male will suffer a beaten or even be killed because of a lie that started ever so innocently. So any rape lie is potentially lethal. And when a male suffers harm because of it, the female needs to be severely punished.
slwerner,
I agree. When no one is arrested for the claim, and the accuser comes forward quickly to state she lied, some leniency should be granted.
The problem with that is balancing how light the punishment should be, as the punishment should also be a deterrent to it happening again. Hopefully, this WILL prevent her from doing so again. It's a tough line to draw. And I'm glad I don't have to make the decision.
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