False Accusers / Wrongly Accused

A man who spent 20 years in prison before being cleared of rape and murder charges by DNA evidence has won an initial battle in his bid to hold Lake County police and prosecutors financially responsible. Ruling on motions to dismiss Juan Rivera's lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber let almost every allegation in the suit go forward. The ruling allows Rivera to keep trying to hold prosecutors liable for his ordeal. A successful lawsuit against prosecutors is rare because they enjoy broad legal immunity, experts said. Leinenweber also declined to dismiss a defamation claim, meaning authorities could still be liable for publicly insisting on Rivera's guilt even after DNA indicated he didn't kill 11-year-old Holly Staker in Waukegan in 1992. At issue are quotes from police and a prosecutor reported in the media, including an officer's assertion, reported by The New York Times shortly before Rivera was freed, that he was "guilty as the day is long."

Beverly Troupe Original Article10/09/2013By Maurice Chammah One morning in late 1986, Beverly Troupe approached her mother and said she felt a burning sensation when she urinated. This wasn't the first time. LaVern Troupe had taken her 8-year-o...

FORT WORTH - When Ruby Cole Session met with Gov. Rick Perry in April 2009, some people told her it was a waste of time. Her son Tim Cole had been wrongly convicted of sexual assault and died in prison, and there were those who said Perry wouldn't be sympathetic to her cause. But after that first encounter, Mrs. Session was confident that Perry would sign the Tim Cole Act, which compensates wrongly convicted people and also created the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, which was designed to help reverse other wrongful imprisonments. "My mother said: 'No, no, no. I felt his heart. He'll sign it'," said her son Cory Session of Fort Worth. Mrs. Session died Thursday at her home in Fort Worth of an aneurysm, Cory Session said. Her 77th birthday was Sunday.

Original Article10/10/2013 A teenager has spoken of his nine-month hell in jail awaiting trial after being accused of rape and kidnap. _____ was freed on Tuesday after being cleared by a jury of tying a 16-year-old girl to his bed and attacking ...

Vanessa S. Pierce Original Article10/08/2013 An Alexandria woman who accused another person of rape Monday now is facing a charge of filing a false claim, according to police. Police were called to the 1400 block of Hardtner Street Monday after...

Rachel Ashworth Original ArticleAnd yet another reason the online hit-list should be offline and used by police only, and extortion / mugshot websites should be taken offline and the people in charge arrested.10/07/2013By TOM GARDNER A mother-t...

Video Description: Karen Newirth, a staff attorney from the Innocence Project who focuses on eyewitness identification explains that although witness identification seems to be the gold standard for prosecution, 75% of 300 exonerations the Project...

Original Article10/01/2013A woman who falsely claimed she had been raped in a park in Margate has admitted wasting police time.Charmaine Ripley, 26, of Leslie Avenue, Margate, sparked a large-scale police investigation after claiming she was raped...

Nikita Aitken Original Article 09/17/2013 By KATHRYN CAIN A woman has appeared in court charged with falsely accusing a man of raping and then imprisoning her in her home. Nikita Aitken, 20, of Spenser Road, Bedford, is charged with three counts o... Nikita Aitken Original Article09/17/2013By KATHRYN CAIN A woman has appeared in court charged with falsely accusing a man of raping and then imprisoning her in her home.Nikita Aitken, 20, of Spenser Road, Bedford, is charged with three counts o...

Original Article09/12/2013WHITEFORD - Police in Harford County are investigating a case in which a 40-year-old woman filed an apparent false rape report on Wednesday. At about 2:30 a.m. ET, officers responded to the 1600 block of Main Street in Wh...

Original Article09/13/2013 A Wymore man falsely accused of rape will appeal the dismissal of his lawsuit against Gage County and several of its deputies, his lawyer said Friday. _____, 50, sued the county and law enforcement officials over his 2...

Original Article09/13/2013By Bruce FischerJeffrey Havard currently sits wrongfully convicted on death row in Mississippi for the sexual assault and murder of his girlfriend's six-month-old daughter. The truth is the infant slipped from Jeffrey's...

Kristin Johnson Original Article09/11/2013BENTON - A woman who told police she had just been raped is now facing a felony charge. According to the Benton Police Department (BPD), 24-year-old Kristin Johnson was arrested Tuesday after filing a f...

Original Article08/28/2013By JORDAN MICHAEL SMITH On a summer day in 1980, 19-year-old Andre Davis stepped off a train 125 miles south of his native Chicago. He expected his visit would last the summer. Little did he know he wouldn't return home...

Police say a woman has recanted her claim of being raped by a hitchhiker she picked up in Douglas County on Saturday. The investigation determined the woman's statement couldn't be supported and she then admitted making a false report of the sexual assault, according to a news release from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. The 32-year-old woman originally said she picked up a man who was hitchhiking while she was driving between Arcola and Mattoon Saturday afternoon. According to the sheriff's office, she said she had the man sit in her vehicle's back seat because the front was full packages. Then, she said, he put a rope around her neck and began to strangle her, then ordered her to stop in a location between two grain bins where the attack took place.

Shane Peake Original Article10/16/2013By Morwenna Blake A conman who fooled social services into thinking he was a vulnerable 17-year-old boy before stealing from his foster carers and "destroying" the life of a charity boss with a false allega...

Original Article11/15/2013TUSCOLA (JG-TC) - A Mattoon woman has been charged with disorderly conduct for reportedly making a false claim to police that she was raped in a rural Douglas County location last month.Kimberly M. Binnion was served wi...

Mindy Rickerson Readdy Original Article11/14/2013By Valerie Rowell An Appling woman was arrested Wednesday and charged with falsely accusing two men of sexually assaulting her, authorities said.Mindy Rickerson Readdy, 32, was charged with makin...

Original Article11/13/2013 Here's a fascinating tidbit from the latest newsletter of the National Exonerations Registry with the same title as the headline of this post: In most known exonerations, the wrong person was convicted of a crime that ...

Natasha Foster Original Article11/11/2013 A young Ballymena woman who falsely cried rape two years ago then spilled the truth to police said she is "ashamed" of herself. Young mum Natasha Foster (23) told police in November 2011 that she had be...