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Oswego -- An Oswego city councilor has filed a lawsuit against SUNY Oswego's student-run newspaper, The Oswegonian, after the newspaper mistakenly identified him as a registered sex offender. Councilor Mike Todd, R-3rd Ward, filed the court action after The Oswegonian published a news story identifying him as a registered sex offender and co-owner of a taxi company. Todd is neither. The suit alleges that the newspaper made a "false and defamatory statement" causing Todd "financial loss, ridicule and public humiliation."

A college newspaper is again the subject of a libel lawsuit. The Oswegonian, State University of New York-Oswego's "only independent, not for profit, student run newspaper," is being sued for libel after it wrongly identified local city councilor Michael Todd as "a registered sex offender and co-owner of a taxi company" when he "is neither," Syracuse.com reported. The Feb. 15 story in question reports on Todd's proposed law against taxi companies hiring sex offenders but then wrongly reports "Todd is a registered sex offender and manager of D&M taxi company with his brother, Brian Savage."

The young woman who told police she was abducted and raped at a Queensbury town park has been charged with falsely reporting the attack after police determined she had been working as a prostitute and had arranged a sexual encounter with a man that night, police said. The 17-year-old from Glens Falls was charged with misdemeanor counts of prostitution, falsely reporting an incident and making a false written statement to police for her report that she was raped at Hovey Pond Park the night of June 15. Her name is being withheld because of her age.

It was a frighteningly close call for Charles Tubbins. The 23-year-old Buffalo man was already charged with murder and indicted by a grand jury for a crime he did not commit. All that was required for a wholesale miscarriage of justice was for the plea negotiations to begin, presenting Tubbins with the horrifying options of standing trial or admitting to a crime he didn't commit in hopes of a lesser sentence. It didn't come to that because DNA evidence found at the crime scene exonerated Tubbins and implicated another man, Ahkeem R. Huffman. To his credit, Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita moved quickly to dismiss the charges, but the case raises the same issues that have led to lengthy prison sentences for other innocent people in Erie County - issues of which law enforcement and the State Legislature are fully aware, but haven't seen fit to address. Tubbins was ensnared by the same human error that put Anthony Capozzi in prison for rapes he did not commit: witness misidentification. Eyewitness testimony was the only evidence against Tubbins, who, his lawyer noted, has no prior criminal convictions, no history of violence, no prior felony or misdemeanor.

Original Article07/24/2013 Based on the data compiled in the NYS Wrongful Conviction Database, 35.5% of wrongful convictions since 1881 have been caused by official misconduct on the part of the prosecution and/or the police. This disregard for ...

One of the primary concerns in the orthodox Jewish community when discussing the issue of reporting sex abuse to the authorities is that inevitably there will be false accusations that will ruin the lives of innocent people. It is very scary to think that someone can be named as an abuser and before any evidence is presented the accused can be found guilty in the court of public opinion. In a community where the main currency is reputation and communal standing false accusations can have drastic consequences. This is a good reason not to judge people before the facts are known and also a good argument against placing too much stock in reputation. Changing our approach on these issues would go a long way to making our communities safer places.