Well Pat always kinda overreacts to these types of accusations. Despite the risk being virtually non existant for every member of society, these types of accusations are apparently life altering.
Despite not altering the lives of anyone in reality.
You don’t know anyone that’s been falsely accused of rape/sexual misconduct do you?
I do actually. My sister in law slept with her husbands cousin while he was in town evading Florida drug charges and she claimed rape instead of admitting she cheated.
But to the point of your question, do you know someone who has been falsely accused and proceeded to have their life ruined despite zero criminal charges?
I know a sailor that had several really rough years because of a false accusation (girl admitted she made it up to try and get an early separation from the Corps.). It really fucked him up, bad. It was definitely life altering for him.
As far as life ruined, I don’t know anyone personally who’s had their life ruined, but a quick google search shows two guys were just exonerated earlier this year after spending 26 years in prison on a false claim/conviction.
Honestly, I’m not sure how it couldn’t be. I can’t imagine being accused of something like that and not having it hang heavily over one’s head every single day. I’ve been outraged over being accused of using the last of the toilet paper.
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I’m honestly surprised this guy didn’t kill himself. He was on suicide watch several times, but to his credit, he toughed it out knowing he was innocent. He looked like shit, though. Even started balding (could be a coincidence). As far as I know, he’s moved past it at this point (it’s been a decade since I’ve spoken to him), but I would be surprised if it still doesn’t haunt him to some degree.
Which is genuinely terrible. But to act like that’s common in any way or makes it a scary time to be a man, is patently false imo.
Was this guy imprisoned for said false crime?
He spent a few days in the brig and was restricted to the barracks for about 6 months.
I do agree there. I’m likely to win the lotto before anyone sees any reward from falsely accusing me of a crime of that nature.
And President Clinton is making a killing on the speaking circuit, no? Depends on who you are, I guess.
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I was commenting on whether accusations are “life altering”, which I believe they very much are.
The risk is low, but not non-existent. If it was non-existent we both wouldn’t know someone falsely accused, right? It definitely alters lives in reality.
I know he probably didn’t, but that guy should have sued the govt for a hella payday on that one.
CAN allegations with zero supporting evidence be life altering? Sure. No argument there. Is it likely? Hell no. Is it likely when 35 years have passed? Hells to the fuck no.
The guy I’m referring to laughed off the charges and went home even after admitting to sleeping with her (his claim was obv that it was consentual). He ended up going back home a couple months later and back to selling drugs.
I guess we’ll see with Kavanaugh.
He seems like a swell fella, but my point is it’s pretty odd we both know a person that this happened to with it being so “non-existent”.
I’m not saying fake claims are non existant. I’m saying fake claims with zero evidence that proceed to ruin the defendants life is virtually non existent.
Hell my anecdote he actually did sleep with her, and admitted as such, and never saw the inside of a questioning room over it. As far as I’m concerned he’s a shining example of exactly what I’m saying.
If that’s what you’re saying now (I only commented initially because you wrote life altering not life-ruining) then okay, but how much evidence could there have been for the two guys that spent 26 years in prison for a rape that never happened? That’s pretty life-ruining in my book.
I don’t think false claims happen all that much, but they can be pretty devasting. Not just from a criminal perspective, but just to someone’s psyche.
Sill, I mean, he is a drug dealer. Maybe his reputation and good name isn’t important to him. At least not in the ordinary sense. However, for others, I could see how sideways glances from neighbors, real or imagined, could have have a real mental toll on a person. The idea that people could think “hmm, maybe he did it?”
I know a young man who was falsely accused of rape. He was an 18-year-old high school senior. The young woman, his ex-girlfriend a year or two younger.
She came from a troubled home, so she briefly lived with the young man’s family because she claimed she was being abused at home. When they broke up, she started rumors at the high school that he had raped her. That led to her being called into the counselor’s office and questioned. She stuck by her story until he was actually arrested and charged. Then a few days later she was questioned further and when she finally admitted she was angry and hurt because he broke up with her.
I don’t know if it ruined his life, but it was very public in the community. The police came to the high school and hauled him to jail.
There’s a well known case here in CA, where Brian Banks, spent time in prison. The young woman’s family sued the school district related to poor lighting, an unsafe environment, and won over a million dollars. That made it very hard for her to come forward and tell people it was a lie. Eventually the truth came out, she admitted to lying and letting him sit in prison. Her family was still able to keep the money if you can believe it.
@ Kavanaugh. She’s calling it an attempted rape. That’s very serious, and different from some drunk kids goofing around. She has to be heard. If her testimony is credible, no attempted 17-year-old rapist would be able to serve on the SCOTUS. I believe she is claiming that she’s sure he would have raped her. This is not a legal situation where you just need to create doubt in a jury’s mind. In this case, if there’s any doubt about it, I can see him not being confirmed. I think this all hinges on how convincing he is, but we’ll never know for sure what happened. I could see this going south for him, fair or not.
Prediction. This won’t go down next week. She will decide that she need several weeks to prepare her testimony, and be briefed on the process of testifying in front of the judiciary committee. She’ll be ready… lets see… sometime in November.
edited
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Crazy how three people in our small little PWI world know a guy falsely accused… There are probably still people in the community that think the 18-year-old in your story raped the girl.
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I once got involved in a student rape accusation as a school psychologist, and the kids were sixth graders if you can believe that. I don’t know how that got resolved. I suspect it was false.
@ False memories. I also know someone who has very vivid memories of traumatic events from adolescence, that they absolutely believe are true. Their siblings, who were supposed to be witnesses, or she claims were involved in these events, say that they never happened. This is an aunt of mine. I don’t think she’s lying on purpose. I suspect she really does believe some of these traumatic things happened. I’m not sure if she confuses vivid stories with her own life, or if she has had dreams that she now believes are real memories. Something.
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Serious question. What would make her testimony credible? So far, I am at a loss.
Is it that she seems sympathetic? Because that isn’t enough for me based on the serious gaps in her claims thus far.
Maybe I am being cruel, or unsympathetic here, but I don’t buy this 11th hour, uncorrobated claim.
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