Anatomy of how a boy's rape lie, and the media's rush to judgment, can turn an innocent life upside down

8-26-2011 National:

There is a villain in the false rape milieu who is rarely blamed.

He or she is typically pretty, articulate, and damn scary.

The villain is your local television news journalist reporting on a rape claim, and he or she often does more harm to the accused than the actual rape liar.

This is an important, and almost entirely overlooked phenomenon that can and needs to be corrected.

A 48-year-old Kentucky man, who had no prior criminal record aside from some traffic tickets, was falsely accused of rape by a 12-year-old boy. The boy had been swimming with two girls and another boy in a lake near their homes when they saw an old, white former police car circling the neighborhood before parking near a wooded area that surrounds the lake. "I seen the white car keep going up and down the street, like three or four times," said the young accuser.

The man got out of the car, and the boy yelled to his friends "run, run, run." Apparently the boy's friends took off and left the scene. The boy described the alleged rape: "He put his hand over my eyes and covered my eyes then drug me to the woods and pushed me into the dirt, then pinned me down," the boy said. The boy claimed that when the man let go of him, the boy turned around and caught a glimpse of his face. That's how he was able to supposedly identify the man.

A television news reporter had the boy tell his frightening story on the air. "This is like my worst nightmare," the boy confided to the entire viewing area.

Police said they linked the man to the crime through a vehicle description and a positive identification by the "victim." Within hours, before any forensic evidence was collected, and based solely on the word of the boy, the man was arrested and charged with first-degree rape.

The man's attorney said he had an alibi. "Given the opportunity, we had evidence showing exactly where he was at the time this was taking place," he said. "He was ordering a home movie from his telephone number."

For the remainder of this story: by The False Rape Society