Bonnie Oliphint admits lying about being attacked.
Upper Allen Township, Pa. - Upper Allen Township Police said a Messiah College student lied about being attacked on campus this past September.
She's now charged with filing a false police report.
Police said 20-year-old Bonnie Oliphint, who withdrew from the college in the fall, admitted she made the story up during an interview with police last week.
According to court documents, Oliphint "stated that she was upset over a failed relationship and made the fictitious report in an attempt to regain the interest of her former boyfriend."
[FRS COMMENT] - Once again we see the attempt to use a false allegation as a means to try to get the attention of a boyfriend. One has to wonder how it has gotten to the point that young women think that falsely crying rape/sexual assault will win them back?
In September, police said Oliphint told them a man attacked her on the school's fitness trail, dragged her into the woods, and tried to remove her pants.
Police searched the area using tracking dogs but found nothing. They continued to investigate the incident for nearly six months.
"There was a lot of time put into this case," said Upper Allen Police Lt. Michael McLaughlin. "In fact, she did waste our time."
Messiah College spokesperson Beth Lorow said the incident prompted campus leaders to increase security, including adding lighting and surveillance cameras.
"There was never really panic on campus, just more concern," Lorow said. "I think concern for the student that this might have actually happened and concern that it could potentially happen again."
[FRS COMMENT] - It would be interesting to see Ms. Lorow explain, how if nothing actually happened, there could be concern that it could potentially (hypothetically?) happen again? Could it be that you jumped to a conclusion of certainty before you even had any information about what actually happened?
Lorow said the false report was unfortunate, but that lessons were learned.
"If nothing else it served as a good reminder to students that you really can't be too safe," Lorow said. "We'll take the lessons we learned from it and move forward."
[FRS COMMENT] - Umm.... since nothing happened, how were the other students NOT safe? And what exactly were the lessons learned? That some women DO lie about rape/sexual assault?
Senior Dana Scannapieco called the incident "a whole lot of mess for nothing." She said she's relieved to hear that the attack didn't actually happen on her campus.
"Even if I didn't change much it's still nice to know it's still safe here," Scannapieco said. "I'm sure it's extremely frustrating for people that worked here."
Prominent victim advocate Jennifer Storm said cases like this do impact real victims.
"It's always upsetting when someone makes a false allegation as it does indeed detract from true victims," Storm said. "This should not be looked upon as a reflection of the staggering number of assaults that do happen everyday, particularly on college campuses....the vast majority of victims do not false report."
[FRS COMMENT] - Glad to see that Ms. Storm isn't concerned about the immediate victims of false accusations - the person falsely accused. Once again, the concern is for the possible, hypothetical future victim.
Link:
http://www.whtm.com/news/stories/0310/717019.html
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9 comments:
No concern whatsoever expressed for the innocent men who were the targets of this hate crime. (Yes, that's what it is.)
The next time an Oliphint lifts her trunks and blasts "RAAAAAAPE!" everyone should think twice before believing it.
"It's always upsetting when someone makes a false allegation as it does indeed detract from true victims," Storm said. "This should not be looked upon as a reflection of the staggering number of assaults that do happen everyday, particularly on college campuses....the vast majority of victims do not false report."
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Kind of reminds me of a comedy skit where the voice-over says "all cats are black, as this exception to the rule proves", as the camera crosses to footage of a white cat.
Yeah, don't you love that Orwellian language? Of course victims don't falsely report -- by definition! If it's a false report then they aren't victims.
Kind of like that Georgia DA, saying that on the one hand Ben can't be proven guilty while on the other, "Victim, victim, victim, victim!"
And even if you write off the limitless harm this could have done to individual men -- how much time would she get if she had called in a bomb threat to campus security? This caused much more fear and anxiety on campus, so why should she get a lesser punishment?
This is a form of terrorism; let's never forget that.
Beth Lorow's comment about how false rape accusations are a good thing because they raise awareness of campus safety issues are particularly troubling. Does she have any moral values whatsoever?
[FRS COMMENT] - It would be interesting to see Ms. Lorow explain, how if nothing actually happened, there could be concern that it could potentially (hypothetically?) happen again? Could it be that you jumped to a conclusion of certainty before you even had any information about what actually happened?
I can give you a one hundred percent, iron clad guarantee that nothing will actually happen again.
gwallan - "I can give you a one hundred percent, iron clad guarantee that nothing will actually happen again."
Spot-on, and good for a laugh.
The only question that remains is will yet another women report it when the nothing happens again. I'm just referring to that one campus, of course; since we all know that if all women where to stop reporting when nothing happens, there's no longer be any need for the FRS.
”Beth Lorow's comment about how false rape accusations are a good thing because they raise awareness of campus safety issues are particularly troubling. Does she have any moral values whatsoever?”
She likely just trying to put some lipstick on their “panic pig”. She needs to invent some good having come from the whole sordid affair, since as we know:
”Police searched the area using tracking dogs but found nothing. They continued to investigate the incident for nearly six months.
"There was a lot of time put into this case," said Upper Allen Police Lt. Michael McLaughlin. "In fact, she did waste our time."”
But rather than make some vague reference to some supposed value in heighten awareness, she could have just said something about making changes to better protect innocent men from the dangers of false reports made against them. Wait!, she did:
”Messiah College spokesperson Beth Lorow said the incident prompted campus leaders to increase security, including adding lighting and surveillance cameras.”
While they like to pretend this is something that serves to protect women (exclusively), it actually serves to protect men as well – especially the surveillance cameras.
Another example of the value (for men) was evident last week here in Colorado as a the fact that they were recorded having sex on a schools surveillance camera (clearly showing that the young was not only a willing participant, but seemingly the one initiating the sex acts) saved a young man from and FRA.
[I wasn’t supposed to make mention of this case here because my wife had filled in for the Juvenile Division Deputy and handled the arraignment of the young woman (Yes, she’s being charged with misdemeanor of filing a false report, as well as for public indecency - both parties are getting hit with that one); but, since it appears this one isn’t going to make the news, I’ll reveal a few details: One girl has sex with her friends boyfriend on school grounds, that friend finds out, confronts that first girl, who then claims it was rape. During her subsequent report to the Police detective, she revealed not only his name, but also where the supposed attack had occurred. At that location, the detective noticed the camera, and asked the school for the video, and he correctly deduced that no rape had occurred. I’d hoped the details would make the local paper, so I could submit the story without having to reveal my connectedness to it; but, since the news here doesn’t deem it worthy - certainly not nearly as important as a nudist in Boulder winning the right to garden in the nude – I thought it fitting that it should be noted, if for no other reason than the value to the falsely accused that surveillance can be.]
While they like to pretend this is something that serves to protect women (exclusively), it actually serves to protect men as well – especially the surveillance cameras.
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That's an excellent point.
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