SASKATOON — A Saskatoon woman with a long history of mental-health problems pleaded guilty to a mischief charge this week over a phoney sex-assault tale that prompted a full-scale river search.
Michaela Rose Brown was 19 when she called 911 with a horror story on Sept. 10, 2007.
Brown said she had been sexually assaulted by a group of five males who had followed up the attack by tying her hands behind her back and dumping her into the river.
When officers found her, she told them she'd been with a female friend, who had also been tied up and thrown in the water.
The city's emergency responders swung into high gear to scour the shoreline for the missing woman, calling out canine units, a police plane, divers from the fire department's water rescue team and ambulance personnel.
Meanwhile, Brown was taken to hospital — where she refused to co-operate when staff tried to perform a standard sexual-assault kit on her, Crown prosecutor Deb Black told court.
After turning up nothing at the river, police went to the home of the supposedly missing woman, where they found her, safe and sound.
The friend said she had not been with Brown at all that day. When they confronted Brown, some confusion arose about whether she might have given the wrong last name for the missing woman, so police decided to continue the search, Black said.
During an interview with a police sergeant about four hours after she first called 911, Brown admitted she'd fabricated the whole incident.
Police learned she had a long history of mental-health problems and was under the care of a psychiatrist, court heard.
Brown's false allegation cost Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services about $7,000 — and that doesn't include the hours of work expended by a large number of police officers, Black told court.
Defence lawyer Michelle LeClair-Harding said Brown, now 22, has struggled with her mental health since she was a child and that, as a child, she was in and out of foster care and was exposed to physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as domestic violence.
At the time of the incident she was not taking medication and was going through a period of "teenage angst," LeClair-Harding said.
Judge Donna Scott accepted a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence to give Brown an 18-month suspended sentence, during which she will be on probation and must take any treatment or medication prescribed to her, and attend any programming ordered by her parole officer.
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This is a huge victory guys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnED-S278oU
Senator Webb speaks on Senate floor regarding Criminal Justice Bill passing House of Representatives
"It is a sign of how quickly the tide has turned against punitive criminal justice policies that this bill passed without opposition," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. "Prisons are overflowing at great taxpayer expense, in large part because of the failed war on drugs, and members of Congress are finally saying enough is enough, we need ideas for reform."
"Today's vote shows Congress is aware that our nation's criminal justice system is in need of major repair," said Julie Stewart, director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. "With 2.3 million people in its jails and prisons, the United States has the highest incarceration in the world. One of out of 31 Americans is under some sort of correctional supervision -- jail or prison, parole or probation. Brave though we may be, we are no longer the land of the free," continued Stewart.
"The House has spoken decisively. Now it is time for Senators to act," Piper said. "Sen. Webb's and Rep. Delahunt's bipartisan commission legislation needs to be passed quickly before the war on drugs and punitive criminal justice system bankrupt our country and destroy more lives."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/jul/29/house_passes_national_criminal_j
House Bill 5143 is a companion bill to S. 714, championed by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA). Senate Bill 714 will establish a `National Criminal Justice Commission’ to hold public hearings and “undertake a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system, including Federal, State, local, and tribal governments’ criminal justice costs, practices, and policies. … The Commission shall make findings regarding such review and recommendations for changes in oversight, policies, practices, and laws designed to prevent, deter, and reduce crime and violence, improve cost-effectiveness, and ensure the interests of justice at every step of the criminal justice system.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WRc8LPMe4I&feature=channel
@ Arod99k
4 posts and none of which are even remotely related to the article in question or False Rape Accusations in general.
Prison reform and the war on drugs is on the same planet, but that's about it.
Its interesting, i just looked at some of Glenn Sacks articles, and came accross the one where it suggests the gay , lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered communities newspaper as being the most honest and advanced newspaper that treats domestic violence as a "NON GENDERED" issue.
Its quite silly actually, and "willfully ignorant", as the Gender feminist community "Empower" themselves off attacking hetero-sexual males in any way they can, and to try to convince the readers that "no, it is in fact the GLBT community that ceasellessly fights for honesty, and the rights of fathers, men, and boys," is really the epitome of "Willfull ignorance".
@Arod99k:
Is there a site where we might read about the issue you seem to be trying to address here?
The last couple of threads, you've posted what seems to be a lot of informative material. It's just that I'm not clear as to just what, exactly, it is all about.
Perhaps you could at least provide some background information about the importance of these items you've been posting.
I'm not fan of the supposed "war on drugs", but like AoFR suggests, it seems to have little connection to the issue of FRA's.
I'm not a fan of the 'War on Drugs' either, but I consider these posts by Arod99k as spam.
Take your case to another website. If you have some input on FRAs or FR in general, you are welcome here.
"Brown's false allegation cost Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services about $7,000 — and that doesn't include the hours of work expended by a large number of police officers, Black told court."
Over at The Spearhead, Welmer recently posted a piece entitled The Little Things Men Do, which starts with an account of a dangerous river rescue.
This story of FRA does the men (and, perhaps some women too) who often put their own safety at risk in such endeavors such as searching for someone who's supposedly in a river a serious disservice in that it seems to make light of their heroic efforts - implying the only thing risked/lost was the money it cost to carry out that rescue/recovery work.
Yet, in this case, the lies not only ended up costing a lot on money (which, it seems, she will NOT be expected to repay any of), it also potentially put others in harms way - for no good reason at all.
I can sometime understand a suspended sentence; but, here, there is simply no call for not locking her up, if not for the protection of everyone else, at least for her own good.
She's a mental case who is NOT taking her medication. She is a menace to society, and, as she's now shown, a danger to others. Letting her loose is, itself, a serious wrong against the good people of that region.
You can also bet that if one woman is seen getting off easy, other's will be encourage to follow suit should they find themselves in "hot water".
Many years ago, on a show called The Rockford Files (Wow! I'm dating myself with that reference), one episode of which was the story of a professional contract killer who was both seeing and stalking a psychiatrist as a means of creating an insanity defense option should he ever get caught. I thought it twisted, evil, and yet brilliant.
Today, I hate to say, women could do much the same thing much, much easier. All they'd need to do is go into their doctors and complain about all manner of symptoms indicative of any number of mental health stressors, get a prescription for anti-depressant drugs (SSRI's are passed out like Halloween candy).
They need never take a single pill, yet, should they ever get caught doing something violent and/or illegal, they have a ready-made mental-health issues defense that can (as in the story above) buy them a deferred sentence - especially given that many judges are either radical feminists of old white-knight Chivalrists.
Just sayin'...
"she was in and out of foster care and was exposed to physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as domestic violence."
Ever think that she might be lying about those things too?
"At the time of the incident she was not taking medication and was going through a period of "teenage angst," LeClair-Harding said."
Could you imagine a someone defending a male accused of sexual assault by saying he was going through a period of teenage angst?
Why does mental health or a past history of abuse only apply to females?
"I'm not a fan of the 'War on Drugs' either, but I consider these posts by Arod99k as spam."
I agree. He and gender/raunch graphomaniac need to take it to the Irrelevant Comment Society.
Gender / Raunch guy should just go away, and leave the rights of heterosexual men, fathers, and boys in the hands of "capeable men", Capeable men like the mens studies proffessor who had a sex change????
No, just someone "capeable" of using a spell checker, and not sounding like a complete nutcase.
As far as the 'Gender/Raunch' guy, I think we've all been duped. These posts are feminist pap. Read the books out there regarding Raunch. This is an attempt from a poser (feminist troll) to make this site look bad.
These posts need to be deleted.
I know who Gender/Raunch is, and he's a false rape survivor. I also know who Arod99k is, and he is totally allied with our mission.
I know that some comments by certain people irritate regular readers, and I think you can imagine how I feel about the more inane or far-out ones. Yes, there are times I wish I could reach through the monitor . . . . I'd just urge everyone to focus on the comments that further the discussion and don't get hung up on the ones that don't.
Google has recently instituted a spam filter that catches spam -- but it also catches some legitimate comments. Unfortunatly, it has caught some comments by our esteemed slwerner and bypassed the inane comments! (I think it caught sl's because it had hyperlinks, as does a lot of spam. I wish I could disable the spam filter.)
Archivist, you could, just register the domain, stick on a copy of wordpress, and bob's your uncle, less than $50 bucks all in.
I (and I am sure many others) would be both willing to pay for it and able to set it up.
I'm just pointing the finger at those that i see have "constructed" this now "culture of false rape accusations."
"she was in and out of foster care and was exposed to physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as domestic violence."
"At the time of the incident she was not taking medication and was going through a period of "teenage angst," LeClair-Harding said."
Gesh! Did they miss anything? Did she hate Mondays as well?
TMOTS
"I know who Gender/Raunch is, and he's a false rape survivor."
Regardless, that is no excuse to undermine the credibility and purpose of this blog by making us look crazy. Telling our regular readers, who are used to his incessant nonsense, to ignore him does not solve the problem in regard to everyone else who might come to this site.
Gender/Raunch guy used to irritate me as well, but the guy is consistant and sincere.
He really believes he's found "the answer".
It doesn't answer "The Answer" for me, but I recognize his sincerity.
My own take on "The Answer" is sometimes met with derision and calls for banishment, sometimes praise for my insightfulness.
The tide is turning against The Drug War, it's true. However, I fear sex offenses and sexual hysteria are going to fill the void left by the failed drug war.
It's a "Huge Victory" for druggies but wait and see if sexual politics don't get racheted up a good notch or two.
There is nothing to be gained by enforcing myopic "we can only discuss false accusations" views.
There's a bigger picture going on.
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