A couple of things that make me wonder in this case. Most times, a convicted sex offender isn't allowed to have contact with children. I realize his may be a case of a 17 year old with his 15 year old girlfriend (we don't know because it doesn't state). Was she arrested? Was she investigated? It is amazing that such isn't even stated in the article. But a false allegation, is a false allegation. Doesn't matter who files it.
Lawsuit over false sexual assault allegation that placed child in foster care.
GUERNSEY, Iowa – A Johnson County woman is suing the Iowa Department of Human Services for placing her 5-year-old daughter in foster care based on a false allegation.
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, 20-year-old Jessica Wilbur of Guernsey contends DHS staff placed her child in foster care based on document signed by the child’s noncustodial father, Robert Nino, a convicted sex offender.
Nino reportedly took the girl for a weekend visit, did not return her, and filed a false sexual abuse complaint against Wilbur. Nino then signed a voluntary foster care placement agreement, and the child spent two weeks in foster care.
The abuse allegation was deemed to be false, but Wilbur’s attorney says the department refused to return the child until after an article about the case ran in The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette.
Link:
http://angelfury.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/passociated-pressa-href
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3 comments:
"But a false allegation, is a false allegation. Doesn't matter who files it."
This is one of those stories that we read, and ask "what do we do with this?"
But, it deserves to be examined in the larger context of the treatment of those falsely accused.
As with a prior post,
How could I, a 5ft woman, have possibly raped a strapping, 6ft businessman?; we (apparently) see men behaving in ways more typically observed of women, and falsely accusing them.
In that prior story, a man seems to have done as numerous women have, use an FRA as a way to cover for illicit sex. Here, a man seeking to harm his ex by depriving her of her children, as is more typical of women. He uses a false allegation as a way to put the children into the labyrinth of the child "protection" monster [don't even get me started!].
Two women, falsely accused, facing the same tribulations that many men have - being tried for rape, and losing their children.
Yet, perhaps the most salient point to make comes from this final paragraph:
"The abuse allegation was deemed to be false, but Wilbur’s attorney says the department refused to return the child until after an article about the case ran in The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette."
Again, as with the earlier story, the press steps up to champion the woman facing injustice. How many men get such covering of their exonerations, or their struggles to regain custody of children?
On the one hand, we might like that one law professor who argued that false rape accusations could do men some good, write this off to some women getting "theirs".
But, these are real people, suffering real injustice, and I cannot bring myself to NOT care. I'd prefer their false accusers be brought to justice, and their lives made whole.
What I do take issue with is the apparent gender-differential in the way the press choose whom they will champion.
Well put slwerner. The one thing that I think we can agree on, is that a false accusation of a sexual nature, has real and damaging affects. And when more of the false accusations start targeting women, that may be the one thing that gets the gender-feminists, as you so adroitly used in another post, to start taking the problem seriously.
As well, it is incumbent upon the 4th estate to finally get back to reporting, NOT editorializing. They, as much as anything, are directly responsible for the state that things are in, due to the hysteria that they elevate incidents to.
They should, voluntarily, begin granting anonymity to all involved in a rape accusation, until such time as a conviction is obtained. I personally feel, that there should be no media coverage, once an arrest has been made (as it IS important that the public be made aware, if a rapist is on the loose). But once that arrest is made....
Now, the problem to all of this is, when you have an actual rapist, specifically if that person is suspected of being a serial rapist, then if there ARE other women that person has raped, then getting that information out could be vital, as this could cross jurisdictions (although my understanding is that serial (insert crime here), are usually fairly territorial).
We need to, in a lot of ways, loosen the ties on Police, to be able to investigate properly, and make non politically motivated decisions, and make those decisions based on what information/evidence they have.
Part of this is going to necessitate a large segment of the population standing up and telling the gender-feminist driven groups, to shut up, sit down, and stop politicizing the issue.
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