Back in 2008, an 18-year-old woman told police she had been raped in a Lynnwood apartment.
But police began to doubt her because her story was changing. She was eventually charged with false reporting. She pleaded guilty, got a deferred sentence and a $500 fine.
Now, however, investigators in Lynnwood believe the woman was raped and that she was wrongly charged. They want to clear her, the Herald of Everett reports.
They believe a suspected serial rapist in Colorado may be the suspect in the Lynnwood sexual assault. Marc P. O’Leary, 32, is in jail in Denver. He lived in Mountlake Terrace until 2009.
“We were wrong. Everybody feels terrible about it,” Lynnwood Police Chief Steve Jensen said Tuesday. “We take sexual assaults very seriously. Our investigators always get charged up to get the bad guys in these cases.The woman has already been repaid for her $500 fine. A lawyer will need to file a motion on her behalf to get her record cleared.
“We’re doing our best to make it right,” he said.
Police say they have evidence that makes O’Leary a suspect in the 2008 assault and are developing more evidence.
The Denver Post reported this week that O’Leary is being held on $5 million bail. He is suspected of assaulting a woman for two hours, then forcing her to brush her teeth and shower before he left, the newspaper reported.
He is accused of taking more than 100 photos during the assault after he put his camera on a timer.
Link:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2011/04/13/police-were-wrong-try-to-clear-woman-of-false-rape-charge-herald/
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12 comments:
Three months back I wrote a comment saying that the problem of failed due process is a problem for all people accused of a crime.
This woman has had to go through the trauma of the falsely accused and go through the trauma caused by a serial rapist. It's really saddening and depressing.
I think though it is worth noting this detail from the original story, "The 18-year-old told detectives she didn't want the story to go as far as it did, police said." She did what many falsely accused men have done (read Innocence Project documents) and semi-admitted/admitted to being guilty of something she did not do.
I think this is the result of people changing their stories based around what they expect people to believe. I think the message needs to be spread that the truth will set you free.
When something wildly traumatic happens to a person (false accusation or rape) that is truly unbelievable, that person recognizes the rarity of what happened and feels a great deal of doubt in others believing them.
I think the victims of rape and false accusations could both gain from more advocacy in being firm in what they know to be true and not letting any police, friends, media, etc. get in the way of their account of what really happened.
Exactly what kind of evidence is necessary to successfully prosecute a false rape claim? I assume it takes more than inconsistent testimony?
At least she wasn't imprisoned for days/weeks just based on suspicion.
I didn't see any quotes from the woman in the article, though - has she changed her story (again) back to claiming she was raped, now that new evidence has come to light?
Of course, it is still possible that she really did file a false police report, and is now being coddled by investigators who are eager to gel her story with their current theories about this suspect.
I'm suspicious, because apparently her story kept changing...
until / unless THAT is adequately explained, then the mere fact that there was a rapist in that area at that time is insufficient reason to suddenly assume she was telling the truth all along...
Druk/Anon/AfOR,
Based on the fact that the most recent case involves the fact that this guy was taking pictures of the most recent incident, I assume they found photos of the earlier one as well. Again, that's an assumption that can't be verified at this point, but I would guess that's what happened.
Freedom - ”I think this is the result of people changing their stories based around what they expect people to believe. I think the message needs to be spread that the truth will set you free.”
Very solid analysis of this unfortunate issue, Freedom. Thank you for providing it to us.
`ESB - ”Based on the fact that the most recent case involves the fact that this guy was taking pictures of the most recent incident, I assume they found photos of the earlier one as well. Again, that's an assumption that can't be verified at this point, but I would guess that's what happened.”
That is exactly what happened. Here’s the local story:
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_17836082
”Authorities in Lynnwood, Wash., reopened their case and reimbursed the woman after Colorado detectives found pictures of the victim on a camera belonging to Marc O'Leary, an Army veteran charged in two similar cases in Golden and Westminster”
I’ve noted before that real rapists are hard to catch, as they are the ones who take the greatest precautions to avoid leaving evidence behind. This will, unfortunately, also tend to make some real rapes appear to be possible fabrications, as there is likely to be no physical evidence.
This rape in Washington is one such unfortunate circumstance. Marc O'Leary made sure he left no evidence when he raped the woman there. It’s likely that police became frustrated when they could find no evidence, and as we often see happen, they re-questioned her. I don’t know why she would recant a real rape, but it seems that she did (of course, we know that many men, especially younger ones, have been likewise pressured into confessions of crimes they did not commit).
The potential problem with this incident is that the false rape apologists will likely seize on this lone case to start to claim that most, if not all, such recantations are also false recantation, pressured out of women by police.
We could, I suppose, preemptively make up some insignificant number (Hey, I know, let’s call it 2%) to claim reflects the percentage of such false recantations – but, I really don’t want to take the same “low road” as gender-feminists have followed of repeating lies often enough that people start to believe them. For the most part, we have the much stronger position of truth regarding the over-all issue of FRA’s (and I’d like to keep it that way).
This is exactly what any false accusation can lead to - whether falsely accused or rape, making fale rape accusations, murder, or anything else.
It's frighteningly amazing how many people plead "guilty" when they are innocent.
This is not something that should be 'seized on" to protect false rape accsers, but to further examine how in our "just us" system this happened.
It starts young. I know kids who plead guilty to shop lifting or vandalism they didn't commit because the DA presented them a choice of pleading guilty and getting off "easy" or pleading innocent and going through an expensive, punitative trial where they risk conviction and added punishment.
That's the reality in our current court system.
When a man is falsely accused of rape, rarely does the media make a public mea culpa and publicized retraction of it, after defaming his good name for weeks during the initial accusations.
"I’ve noted before that real rapists are hard to catch, as they are the ones who take the greatest precautions to avoid leaving evidence behind."
Which is one reason why "acquaintance rape" is bullshit. It's like a burglar leaving a note with their name and address.
There is only one truth readily apparent,that is the prosecutor is messing up and should be removed.
I wouldn't blame a prosecutor for going ahead with a false claim case against someone who has made recorded conflicting accounts. Without the evidence that didn't exist at the time, it's a reasonable case.
I'm blaming whoever the defense lawyer was, assuming the client told them she was innocent, and assuming they counseled their client to plead out. Again, what evidence would the prosecution have needed to convict her without a guilty plea?
Druk,
And that is what most balanced thinking people would say. But in just about every single story I've ready on this, the police and prosecutors are getting hammered. For going with the available evidence, which, at the time, was nothing more than her word, which kept changing.
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