NC- Two fake sexual assaults in two days, but false reporting is rare

7-28-2009 North Carolina:

Things are starting to get back to normal for students at Edison State College in Charlotte County.

Thursday, a woman reported being attacked and raped at knife point in a bathroom on campus. Because of the alleged crime, the school was shut down Friday, but later that night, deputies said the alleged victim made the entire thing up.

Both students and staff are trying to get back into their usual routine, but at the same time, the false report could keep real victims from reporting a crime.

"I was a little scared at first," Nicole Soules said. "It was shocking that something like that had happened."

Nicole Soules has been going to school at Charlotte County's Edison State College for two and a half years. She said she's never heard anything even close to a crime happening there.

"We did have a number of people who were traumatized by the thought that this could happen in this environment," Campus President Dr. Pat Land said.

Campus President Dr. Pat Land said that thought quickly turned into something else almost two days later.

"The first thing we were trying to do was reassure people that the charges - the story - was entirely false, and that our campus is indeed a safe learning environment," Dr. Land said.

On Friday, a woman living in Cape Coral said a man broke into her home and sexual assaulted her. Police said she made it up.

The Center for Abuse and Rape Emergencies, Inc. said even though there were two false reports in two days, it's rare for people to make up these kinds of stories.

Mary Baer, Director of Sexual Assault Services said, "Only two percent of rape reports are false, and that is about the same number of false reports of any other crime."

Mary Baer also said false reporting not only wastes time and money, but it could also keep real victims from coming forward - fearing no one will believe them.

"False reports just feed into the myth that women lie about rape, and it's not true," Baer said.

In this case, it has some college students wondering why anyone would make something up, and at the same time, scare hundreds of people.

"I think that is was a really crazy idea on her part," Soules said.

Right now Charlotte County has not pressed any charges against the student, but the school is looking into their Code of Conduct to figure out what to do next.

Cape Coral police have not yet charged the woman who also filed a false report. ..Source.. by Christina Hernandez, WINK News