False Accusers / Wrongly Accused

Three teens who told Walterboro Public Safety officers they were kidnapped at gunpoint and almost sexually assaulted made up the story to avoid getting in trouble, officers say. According to an incident report, three female teens claimed they were kidnapped at gunpoint by four suspects from Edisto Terrace Apartments around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 22. The girls, aged 13, 13, and 15, said the suspects tried to rape one of them, but she was able to fight them off. The girls said they were later forced out of the suspects' car at Wal-Mart. Officers say they noticed inconsistencies in the girls' statements after reviewing video from Edisto Terrace and Wal-Mart. The girls were re-interviewed, where officers say they admitted to making up the kidnapping and rape allegations to avoid getting in trouble. All three girls were charged with filing a false police report.

Uriah Courtney could not hold back the tears. After spending eight years in state prison for something he did not do, he was a free man. "When I got out, I felt I could fly," he said. Courtney, along with his mother, father and sister, spoke about his ordeal in front of a throng of cameras at the California Western School of Law, whose students along with the California Innocence Project worked to exonerate him. "I can't believe this day is here," said Courtney's mother, Mary Gambino. Courtney was convicted for the rape and assault of a 16-year-old girl in Lemon Grove in 2004. Eyewitnesses placed his truck or a truck that looked like his at the scene. That plus eyewitness testimony sealed his conviction. New DNA testing, however, pointed to a man who closely resembled Courtney. All charges against Courtney were dropped and his record expunged. When asked about the victim who identified him as the attacker, Courtney said he hoped by now she recognized that he was not the attacker but if not, he hopes one day she will. "I hold no grudge and I'm heartbroken over what happened to her," Courtney said.

SAN DIEGO - Even though he spent the past eight years in prison, wrongly convicted of kidnapping and raping a teenager in Lemon Grove, Uriah Courtney is considered among the lucky ones. Lucky, because his case caught the attention of the California Innocence Project. Lucky, because evidence in the sexual assault still existed to be retested for DNA. And lucky, because he is one of the few to actually have his conviction overturned, said California Western School of Law professor Justin Brooks, who oversees the Innocence Project. Courtney, 33, was released from Donovan State Prison on May 6 after new tests showed DNA from the victim's clothing matched another felon who lived in the area of the attack.

A Masterton woman falsely claimed to have been raped because she wanted police to give her a ride home after watching a male strip show. Helen Maree Bidlake, 25, was yesterday convicted of making a false statement and sentenced to 100 hours' community work when she was sentenced in Masterton District Court. According to the police summary of facts, on April 17 Bidlake, who is unemployed, attended a male strip show in Greytown. She did not want to pay for a taxi back to Masterton so rang 111 and said she had been raped by a male she had met at the show.

Investigators will lie, grill for hours on end and withhold exonerating evidence - in effect do anything - to extract a confession from a suspect they have pegged for a crime, a 1994 parolee seeking a retrial to clear his name in the 1963 kidnap-murder of a Saitama Prefecture girl said Thursday in Tokyo. Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, Kazuo Ishikawa, who appeared with his lawyer, Taketoshi Nakayama, pointed to discrepancies in the kanji used in an apparent ransom demand for ¥200,000 and an earlier document he wrote and also alleged that the state looked to him as a usual suspect because of his roots in Japan's former outcast class known as the "burakumin." He continues to claim he is innocent.

Original Article09/04/2013By Mark Hofmann Charges have been filed with District Judge Ronald Haggerty Jr. against a South Connellsville woman who allegedly told police that she was raped, only to admit later she wasn't.Sheena Anne Housel, 20, of...

Javier Perez Original Article06/04/2014By David Edwards A Florida activist has said that he discovered that he was framed for public masturbation by one officer who did not like the idea of police being recorded on video. In a video posted to his...

Emma Saxon Original Article12/27/2013A Sheffield woman who 'endangered lives' by setting fire to her flat in a failed suicide attempt has been jailed.Emma Saxon - who last year also made a false accusation of rape - penned letters to her mother...

More than 2,000 people who were falsely convicted of serious crimes have been exonerated in the United States in the past 23 years, according to a new archive compiled at two universities. There is no official record-keeping system for exonerations of convicted criminals in the country, so academics set one up. The new national registry, or database, painstakingly assembled by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, is the most complete list of exonerations ever compiled. The database compiled and analyzed by the researchers contains information on 873 exonerations for which they have the most detailed evidence. The researchers are aware of nearly 1,200 other exonerations, for which they have less data.

Original Article12/26/2013By LYNNE TUOHYCONCORD (AP) - The New Hampshire Supreme Court has reversed a man's conviction for attempted possession of child sex abuse images, saying police were wrong to arrest him for taking pictures of children at ...

Original Article12/24/2013By Elizabeth KeatingeRUTLAND - Police say Marie Severance, who resides outside of Vermont, falsely reported that she was raped at the Main Street Park Gazebo in Rutland. Police say providing false information to law enfor...

Original Article12/24/2013CASTLETON - Vermont State Police have charged a Strafford woman with filing a false report after she told police she was sexually assaulted at a party in Castleton earlier this month, according to a state police press rel...

"State police have charged a western Pennsylvania woman with putting child pornography on a computer in an unsuccessful effort to frame her estranged husband. Online court records don't list an attorney for 42-year-old Meri Jane Woods, of Cherry Hill Township, who also doesn't have a listed phone. Troopers from Indiana, Pa. say she started the investigation when she came to their barracks on Aug. 14 to report her husband sexually abused children and put images of same on their home computer. Police investigated and determined the images were put on the computer Aug. 11 but that Woods' husband left the residence July 23. Woods is charged with a felony count of sexual abuse of children for possessing a computer with the images on it, and 40 counts of lying about alleged abuse incidents involving her husband."

Original ArticleThey should be charged with a crime and prosecuted for it. They could have ruined a persons life forever, and sadly, this happens all the time as you can see by clicking the "WRONGLYACCUSED" label above.12/17/2013By Roxanne Jones...

"A postman who has served 17 years in prison for an attempted rape he has always denied has walked free after DNA evidence was heard at the Appeal Court. Victor Nealon, 53, was living in Redditch, Worcestershire, when he was convicted of attacking a woman in January 1997 and jailed for life. New DNA evidence revealed the presence of another man's genetic material, three Appeal Court judges were told. Mr Nealon's barrister said the evidence was "dynamite" for his client."

Original Article12/12/2013By JOHN MONKMANNING - Be sure you're correct when you call someone a registered sex offender. LIke, really sure. A Clarendon County jury awarded $890,000 in damages to a man who his fellow condominium owners - all on th...

"For six years, one month and 12 days, Jerry Paul Tippins had remained in jail accused of one of the worst things imaginable. But Thursday his longtime proclamations of innocence echoed loudly through a Jacksonville courtroom when he was found not guilty of sexually abusing his 2-year-old daughter."

Original Article12/11/2013By CHRISTINE DEMPSEYVERNON - A University of Connecticut student accused of falsely claiming she was raped had her charges dismissed Wednesday in Superior Court in Rockville.Isabella Himmel of Chicago was arrested in Sept...

Video Description: What is a coerced or false confession? Many people think they would never give a false confession. Learn how a coercive interrogation can cause a false confession. The techniques of interview and interrogation taught to law enfo...

Lee James (left) & Stephen Norley Original Article11/28/2013By Steven Morris A man who killed a disabled neighbour in a vicious vigilante attack because he wrongly believed he was a paedophile will serve at least 18 years in prison for what the...