The woman who told police she was sexually assaulted by a man Saturday morning in Fremont was lying, investigators said Tuesday.
The woman, who gave interviews describing the fake attack in detail, told police she was approached by an unknown man about 1:50 a.m. near North 43rd Street and Linden Avenue North.
"The attacker tried to get my pants down and reached inside them and grabbed my thigh, causing lacerations with his nails," a woman who identified herself as the victim told the Fremont Universe blog. "At this time I started elbowing him in the face as hard as I could and screaming. He then slammed my head into the cement so hard I lost consciousness."
The woman pinned the fake attack on a man with olive complexion, about 5-foot-9 and a muscular build.
Police said that story didn't add up.
False reporting is a gross misdemeanor in Washington. The law states a person is guilty "if with knowledge that the information reported, conveyed or circulated is false, he initiates or circulates a false report or warning of an alleged occurrence or impending occurrence of a fire, explosion, crime, catastrophe, or emergency knowing that such false report is likely to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or transportation facility, or to cause public inconvenience or alarm."
Police spokesman Jeff Kappel wouldn't say if police considered sending their investigation to the City Attorney, whose office could file the false reporting charge. The office hadn't received the case late Tuesday.
Kappel didn't elaborate on the extent of police resources that were wasted, and referred to a short department statement saying the incident didn't occur.
Police say false reports are not uncommon.
In another Dec. 2009 case, a woman told police she was raped by a stranger in a First Hill parking garage. She also lied, but detectives said she suffered from medical issues and she was not charged. She blamed the fake attack on a dark-skinned black man, describing her attacker as 6-feet tall with a muscular build. She claimed he wore a dark ski mask and implied he had a gun.
In 2003, a Roosevelt High School student was lured by classmates to Snohomish County after they believed he raped the girlfriend of one of the classmate. Before he was killed, the student told police the sex was consensual, and about a month after the alleged rape, the girl recanted the allegation.
She was not charged, and the teen was murdered. The teens who beat him to death were sentenced to 22 and 25 years in prison.
Link:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/434575_fremont02.html
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7 comments:
Lying about rape is legal in all 50 states.
Lying about rape must become a felony.
Another 3 accounts of out-right FRA’s, and yet no one seems the least bit interested (at least not enough to comment)?
But, this article is very, very telling of what appears to be a fundamental change in the way both police and press are dealing with the FRA issue (in this case, both positively).
First we have the remarks made to the press by police:
”Police said that story didn't add up.
Police say false reports are not uncommon.”
What isn’t perhaps obvious in these statements having been made is the reality that, just a few short years ago, such comments were not typically made, and were all but verboten.
Even if police did doubt a given claim, that sentiment simply was not shared publicly. Every effort was made to appear to take a woman’s allegations very seriously. I even have some suspicion that many instance of innocent men, who happened to resemble “the description” were simply a result of un-spoken policies that “somebody needs to be arrested” so as to make the PD “look good” and prevent unwanted scrutiny and bitching from the SGI.
Even if police either disproved the allegation or failed to find any corroborating evidence, the matter was not made public, but quietly swept “under the rug”. I seriously doubt that the was even one news account of any of the cases that Dr. Kanin compiled for his research (that the police determined were false) being, in fact, false reports. Such things simply weren’t discussed. If people did come to know of a rape claim being shown to be false, it was widely assumed that the women MUST be some crazy “outlier”. [Still today, many people consider Crystal Mangum, the de facto poster-girl of FRA’s to have been just some troubled women with mental issues].
But, as we see in this news story, that’s changing. Police have found their voice (or, some missing body parts), and aren’t sugar coating it any more. They now state that they doubt many rape claims, and they acknowledge that there are many of them. This is a very good thing that is happening. Exposure, public exposure, of the FRA issue is the best thing that can happen to help turn the tide. Police silence amounted to not only a “cover-up”, but also a seeming tacit acceptance of FRA’s as not being a problem.
Let’s hope those days are forever behind us.
I do, of course, recognize that many here have a reflexive distrust, if not out-right hatred for cops. While I would acknowledge that there have been very good reasons to be distrustful of them, it is cops who play a pivotal role in how the FRA issue will play-out. They are the frontline in exposing FRA’s, yet they can also mishandle their role that they doom innocent men.
This is why I believe that it is time that more intelligent and rational voices be raised in encouragement of the police doing their jobs, properly, investigating fully, employing reasonable skepticism, and delaying arrests until the fact become clear.
In some cases, the police are not even directly involved – until well after the fact of an FRA. Sadly, the lack of police involvement in FRA’s is no guarantee that innocent men won’t suffer even worse fates.
”In 2003, a Roosevelt High School student was lured by classmates to Snohomish County after they believed he raped the girlfriend of one of the classmate.”
The “silver-lining” I see in this sad account is that at least the reporter, Casey McNerthney made the effort to link the latest case of an FRA to pervious local ones. He didn’t need to tdo so. His job is simply to report on current issue as the crime reporter. That he took the time and made the effort to highlight the fact that the most recent FRA was not the only one is to be commended.
In the ongoing effort to “educate” the public as to the realities of the FRA issue, not only do we need the police to change their misbegotten ways, but we also need the press to also begin to address the issue and individual cases with more openness and honesty. Casey McNerthney seems to be doing his part.
I should also note that it's always heartening to read the comments on news sites regarding such stories. They are almost always overwhelmingly in agreement with the thoughts expressed on this site. It seems that there have been great inroads in the ideological battle against FRA's and light treatment of the perpetrators of that heinous crime.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362671/Jail-drunken-teenager-falsely-accused-war-heroes-rape.html
Brilliant piece written by Mr. Pierce Harlan
Good Morning America: 'It's Official: Women Win Battle of Sexes'
Submitted by anthony on Wed, 2011-03-02 15:45.
Video here. The (male) author of the book "Man Down" outlines the many ways in which women have men beat in all possible critical ways imaginable. You be the judge..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQdM3fAlVjE&feature=relmfu
http://news.mensactivism.org/node/16377
Welcome to the now "culture of false rape accusations".
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