We frequently talk here about how the crime of making a false report of rape is treated so cavalierly. Finally, as shown by the article below, some state legislators are looking to do something about it.
Contact Rep. Murt, lend him all the support you can: tmurt@pahousegop.com
District Office:19 South York Rd.Hatboro, PA 19040
Phone (215) 674-3755Fax: (215) 674-3021
Capitol Office:429 Irvis Office Building
PO Box 202152Harrisburg PA 17120-2152
(717) 787-6886
Here is the bill in question: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2009&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billnbr=2006&pn=2710
Look on the face of the bill and find the bill's co-sponsors: lend them any support you can, too: List of Pennsylvania state legislators
Now read the news story:
Proposed Law Would Protect The Falsely Accused
By Susan Brinkmann, For the Bulletin
Friday, November 06, 2009
The persistence of an Abington teacher whose life was nearly destroyed after being falsely accused of raping a student, has led to the proposal of a new law that could make would-be accusers think twice before filing a false claim.
A chance encounter at a seniors meeting at St. David’s Church in Willow Grove last spring between the wife of retired Abington School District teacher Mike Gallagher, 71, and Rep. Tom Murt, R., Montgomery/Philadelphia, led to the introduction of H.R. 2600. The bill, introduced on Sept. 25, will upgrade the offense for giving police false information about a crime from a second or third degree misdemeanor to a third degree felony.
“It’s very painful to see someone get charged unfairly,” Rep. Murt said. “I don’t know why people would ever do that and I don’t know why anyone would go after someone like Mike Gallagher because I’m sure he was a very dedicated and very caring teacher. But sometimes people just do cruel things.”
More than 10 years ago, the lives of Mike and Betty Gallagher were turned upside down when a student accused Mike of repeatedly raping her while she was a fifth grade student at Willow Hill Elementary.
“It was December of 1997 when two detectives showed up at my house to say there was a complaint against me and I’d have to come down to the station,” Mike recalled.
He was told that the student had accused him of raping her more than 20 times during the 1985-86 school year.
He knew the charges were untrue, but that didn’t stop police from arresting him on Jan. 22, 1998.
“I was thrown in jail for a couple hours, then paraded in handcuffs to the District Justice’s office with every major news channel there,” he said. “I remember Vernon Odom sticking a mike in my face and asking, ‘Are you guilty of this crime?’”
For the next 10 months, he lived a teacher’s worst nightmare, suspended without pay, racking up $45,000 in lawyer fees and, worst of all, watching his good name scorned and his family humiliated.
In the end, the student’s story unraveled and law enforcement realized it was all a lie.
She was never charged and walked away scot free. The Gallaghers didn’t have it so easy. They were left with the tattered remains of their life and a conviction that something needed to be done to help other victims of the same injustice. For years, they helped others who were falsely accused, and lobbied Pennsylvania lawmakers to toughen penalties for those who knowingly make false allegations.
While statistically difficult to pin-point, national figures for false reports of rape range anywhere from two to 50 percent only because most reports don’t distinguish between women who deliberately misreport and women who mistakenly identify innocent men.
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report states that eight percent of reports of forcible rape are found to be false, but that pecentage doesn’t include cases where an accuser fails or refuses to cooperate in an investigation or drops the charges.
No one knows better than Mike Gallagher that every statistic represents a life forever changed, so when Rep. Murt came to a senior’s meeting at St. David’s church in Willow Grove last spring, Mrs. Gallagher didn’t hesitate to ask if he thought there might be any interest in the House in upgrading the offense for making a false report.
Rep. Murt looked into the issue and discovered that there had been attempts to pass a similar law prior to 2007, but the effort did not succeed. He decided it was worth another try and assembled a bi-partisan coalition of 20 co-sponsors who were willing to sign on to H.R. 2600. The bill has been referred to the Judiciary Committee.
“We think the bill has merit,” Rep. Murt said. “I think it will discourage people from making untrue claims about somebody with a motive of ‘shaking the money tree.’ It’s a pretty serious thing to damage someone’s reputation and integrity with a charge that’s not true.”
It will also cut down on the amount of wasted time and resources spent by law enforcement chasing down false claims, he said.
“This is time and money that can be spent on patrol work and crime prevention.”
But for families like Mike and Betty Gallagher, this law will spare innocent citizens something even more precious than time and money - their good name.
Link: http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/11/06/top_stories/doc4af4daff57286227160243.txt
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17 comments:
The problem is that it isn't enough just to have good laws on the books. They also have to be enforced, and that isn't happening even in states that already have tough laws.
Anon at 4:14, most states do not have tough laws. Many judges who are otherwise disposed to handing out harsher punishments for false reporting of rape are handcuffed by the statutory maximums, which limits them, in general, from six months to two years, depending on the jurisdiction. Those are maximums. Please, please understand the historic import of this bill: it is almost impossible to find a state legisalature that is willing to take on the sexual grievance industry or rape feminists who would prefer that false rape claims to be treated as non-crimes. This is among the few pro-false accused pieces of legislation we have seen. I humbly implore you and everyone else not to dismiss this effort, not to be discouraged by our past failures, because if we can do it in Pennsylvania, we can tout our success here in other states. It would send a very, very, very strong message nationwide -- a message that would be heard by the sexual grievance industry.
In short, this is an excellent place to start, and if we're ever going to get in the game instead of sitting on the sidelines bellyaching, this is it.
If we're not willing to go to bat on this one, then what are we doing here?
If all we want to do is wallow in this hateful culture that says false rape victims don't exist, then how does that help anybody?
If we think we shouldn't bother with this because it accomplishes too little, then what universe are we living in where positive change comes all of a sudden in oversized doses?
I humbly implore you and everyone else not to dismiss this effort, not to be discouraged by our past failures, because if we can do it in Pennsylvania, we can tout our success here in other states. It would send a very, very, very strong message nationwide -- a message that would be heard by the sexual grievance industry.
****
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
Let's see. I wrote all the representatives that sponsered this legislation supporting it,put it up on my blog and other places and emailed Marc Rudov about it too so hopefully we'll have more people sending those emails of support.
Excellent, Masculist Man! We need our men's rights bloggers to spread the word. Well done!
I plan on going down the contacts pierce gave us tomorrow, and (as a victim of a false rape accusation)..i will thank these men for protecting the innocent.
I live in Pa so I hope this passes...but I doubt it will.
I also agree that no matter how tough the penalty is for a false claim they still actually have to CHARGE the piece of trash that makes the claim.
In the Hofstra and Duke hoax both were not even CHARGED because they were troubled or whatever.
But none the less I hope it passes.
I just wanted to also say THANKS to all on the blog for fighting for the falsely accused.
Maybe if this this bill gets more publicity it would have a better shot at passing.
I sent an email with a synopsis of our story with a "thank you".
I hope it passes!!!
CBGirl
I'm not sure these representatives are going to care what people from other states think, but I hope this turns out well.
This is needed in all states and, it would be great if it could be done in other nations.
don't you pretty much have to be a resident of PA to use these contacts?
Norm, do you have to be a resident of the state to donate money to a state legislator? And wouldn't state legislators gladly accept out of state money?
In case anyone missed it, Zed has a piece up over at the SpearHead blog entitled, "Doing Something About False Rape Claims", which links back to this thread.
anon, I considered that, but I can't tell from the web site how to donate. Besides, who's to say they will use the money for what we want? For all I know, they'll use it to promote nuking Zimbabwe.
I am Michael Gallagher and my wife and I were the ones who requested Tom Murt to introduce a bill making false accusations of serious crimes into felony offenses. Since that time, the only action taken was getting some sponsors and a bill number (2006). I write to Mr. Murt and call his office and...nothing. This is the 4th time we have tried to get such a bill passed. Legislators are afraid, I think, of the radical feminists who think all men are guilty of rape.
Mike, thanks for writing. I thought as much. Someone I know tried to contact him and he never gave the courtesy of a response. If you would kindly write to me at falserape@yahoo.com, I think we can come up with a plan to put some pressure on Murt.
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