False Accusers / Wrongly Accused

A Surrey man served four years in jail for a sex assault he may not have committed due to what the criminal justice branch is calling "a miscarriage of justice." Gurdev Singh Dhillon was alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman in 2004 and was sentenced to four years in jail in 2005. Appeals to both sentence and conviction were dismissed in 2006. However, in 2011, Crown counsel learned of the existence of material evidence that had not been disclosed by police.

Only 10 On Your Side questioned Hampton's top cop about evidence that put an innocent man behind bars. Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell did not hold the office when a jury convicted Johnathon Montgomery of sexual assault, but explained the case in an exclusive interview with WAVY.com Wednesday. Elizabeth Coast originally testified Montgomery raped her when she was 10 years old and he was 14, but later admitted she made up the story. Montgomery spent four years in prison before Coast's confession.

HAMPTON -- The woman who was at the center of the case of a wrongly-convicted man was in Hampton District Court Tuesday on a perjury charge. Elizabeth Coast waived her right to a preliminary trial for felony perjury charges. It will now go to the Grand Jury to be certified for trial. Coast recanted her sexual assault allegation against Johnathon Montgomery, saying she lied at the 2008 trial to avoid scrutiny by her parents after she was caught looking for sexually explicit websites. Governor Bob McDonnell issued a conditional pardon for Montgomery in November, 2012 and ordered his immediate release from the prison. Montgomery spent 4 years in Greensville Correctional Center after being wrongfully convicted.

Elizabeth Jones, 22, admitted she lied about the latest rape allegation because she "did not like" the man she accused of attacking her, Southampton Crown Court was told. Her latest victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested and questioned for nine hours before being released without charge. After a judge jailed her for 16 months, it emerged today that she made her first complaint in 2004 aged just 13 before alleging other men had attacked her over the next nine years. In 2009 she was given a ten month detention and training order for a similar offence. Between 2005 and 2007 she had made eight other allegations, which police investigated, but she was never charged.

A 25-year-old man falsely accused of rape says he spent the past 18 months "in a living hell". Gerard Doherty now wants the law changed to protect the identity of men accused of sex offences. He also says that, while he feels sorry for his accuser, women who make false claims of rape should be named and face prosecution. Mr Doherty said he had never been in a police station or inside a court in his life until a woman he was in a hotel bedroom with said she was raped by him. The father of one always denied raping and sexually assaulting the woman and this week a jury in Londonderry agreed that he did not commit the offence.

A House fiscal committee heard public testimony Tuesday on a measure that would allow people who were wrongfully convicted to seek compensation from the state for the years they lost behind bars. If passed, Washington would join 27 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government with similar laws on the books.

Police say a city couple spent weeks carrying out an elaborate plot to frame a man for crimes he didn't commit - until they were undone by their ringing cellphones. Michael Dale Timmons, 39, and Teresa Sandra Knapp, 46, of Henrietta Street, reported to police the man had raped Knapp and broken into their home, among other crimes, city police Detective William Olson said.

False confessions play a major role in two recent documentaries about wrongful convictions. West of Memphis examines the case of three young Arkansas men who were locked up for the horrific 1993 murders of three 8-year-old boys. Perhaps the most powerful piece of the prosecution's case was a confession by Jessie Misskelley describing in graphic detail how he and his two co-defendants beat, raped and mutilated the boys. The documentary, however, showed how the police could - after hours of intense interrogation, heavy with leading questions - manipulate and extract a false story from Misskelley, an unsophisticated young man with a low IQ.

Judge speaks of "nightmare" for men wrongly accused by Emma Blunden A woman who falsely accused four men of raping her has been jailed for two years. Twenty-one-year-old Emma Blunden, sobbed as she was led to the cells at Reading Crown Court this morning (Monday). She initially accused a man named [name withheld] of pinning her down and raping her at Newbury's Two Saints hostel, where both were staying at the time, on July 26 2008. Mr [name withheld] was arrested and detectives launched a thorough investigation, the court was told, before realising that Blunden was lying to prevent a boyfriend discovering that the sex was consensual.

When Melinda Denham lied about being raped, it resulted in two people being placed behind bars. First, the man she accused, [name withheld], was jailed for two months last year before Denham admitted she lied. On Wednesday, a judge threw Denham into prison for six months, a rarity on a conviction for Ohio's lowest-level felony, which usually results in probation. "What you did in this case is, you caused a man to be incarcerated and he had done nothing and the worst part about that was you knew from the very start that he had done nothing," Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Steve Martin told Denham. "What you did was terrible beyond any words."

Two women are now facing felony charges after filing a false rape report this weekend in Fort Smith. Police arrested 19-year-old Heather Smith and her 21-year-old roommate Jeni Melton, after they claimed two unidentified men came into their apartment and raped Smith. Police were called to Roosters Bar on Garrison Avenue around 4:41 a.m. Saturday. Officers spoke with Smith and Melton about the alleged incident. The women told police they had left Roosters around 3 a.m. and shortly after they arrived at their residents on Birnie Avenue, two men came into their home uninvited. According to the report, one suspect pinned Melton to the floor, while the second raped Smith in a back bedroom.

The man who was accused of raping a woman Sunday in Abbeville has been released after police say the woman admitted her accusation was false. Police say a witness came forward yesterday, telling them the alleged victim's history with Clinton Chewing and other sexual activities. When detectives questioned the false accuser, Joell Thiel, they say she broke down and admitted she was at the apartment with Chewning trying to buy drugs from him. Detectives say she then admitted to having sex with Chewning willingly but was upset because he never actually gave her the drugs. Thiell is in the Vermilion Parish Correctional Facility on a $15,000 bond.

Police said a woman lied when she told them she was forced into a van and raped by two men in Cumberland County over the weekend. Silver Spring Township police said Thursday that the woman filed a false report and no assault or rape occurred. The investigation is ongoing and criminal charges will likely be pursued against the woman, police said. The woman had told officers that she was walking in the 6600 block of Carlisle Pike when two men quickly approached her and forced her into the back of a van Sunday afternoon. She said the men then drove to an alley and raped her, according to police.

Two Watauga County 17-year-olds are facing charges after police said they filed a false police report claiming they'd been injured trying to intervene in stopping a sexual assault. Police said Brandon Hicks and Isaiah Romero claimed they'd been injured while trying to stop an attack on a woman near King Street. Both later admitted that there had been no assault and the injuries were suffered while the two were horsing around. They were released after posting $1,000 bail each.

Two friends who falsely claimed they were raped were jailed yesterday because the suspect had photos of them all having a threesome. Jennifer France, 24, and Kelly Weston, a 27-year-old mother, posed for saucy snaps on Enes Gozalan's bed after meeting him in a pub. A court heard they later made the false allegations because both had long-term boyfriends and were ashamed of what they had done.

A girl of seven at the centre of a custody battle was coached by her mum to make fake claims that her father was a paedophile. Former jockey Victoria Haigh, 41, also launched a public campaign against her wholly innocent ex-partner [name withheld], a senior High Court judge said yesterday. After a series of private hearings, Sir Nicholas Wall decided to make his judgment public yesterday because "scandalous allegations" were put in the public domain "via email and the internet".

BARTOW - An inmate is accused of making a false rape allegation against a Polk County deputy in July, leading to a seldom-levied felony charge. Just as unusual as the charge is how the inmate, Sanchez Preston, 26, claimed the deputy performed the act: through the food slot of his isolation cell door. Preston recanted the story when a detective began investigating his allegation, according to an arrest report. The report said Preston told the detective he made the accusation because he was angry the taste of jail food and because he was being held in isolation.

QUEBEC CITY - QUEBEC CITY - A New Brunswick woman whom police say falsely claimed that two black men raped her at knifepoint, triggering a major police investigation, was found fit to stand trial Tuesday. Vanessa Roussel, 21, was charged with criminal mischief after undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. She was freed on $7,000 bail. Roussel is accused of contacting authorities to say she had been raped in a wooded area in Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse, near Quebec City, last month. Police uncovered inconsistencies in her story and turned their investigation towards Roussel last week. If convicted, Roussel faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Her lawyer says she is bipolar, has been seeing a psychiatrist for some time and had talked about suicide.

A former high school football who was wrongfully accused of rape and sentenced to six years in prison now wants the State of California to pay him for every day he had spent behind bars. Attorneys representing 26-year-old Brian Banks said their client is entitled to $100 a day for every day of his incarceration under state law. Banks was exonerated this week after his accuser, Wanetta Gibson, admitted she had made up the whole story of sexual assault ten years ago and had been reluctant to come forward because of a large settlement she received from the school district.

Just one more of the growing reasons why the online registry should be taken offline! Even if the kid did what is claimed, he doesn't deserve to be assaulted by anybody!11/29/2012By GAIL CAMERON A battered paperboy told last nigh...