When The Criminal Serves Less Jail Time Than Her Innocent Victim
Via Wendy McElroy, a shocking story out of Seattle. A woman who falsely accused a man of rape ended up serving eight days in jail while he served nine. It gets even more sickening. Peyton Whitely writes for the Seattle Times:
(Judge) Nault accepted a guilty plea from Katherine M. Clifton, accused of making false statements to a public servant.Those statements led to the rape charge last summer against the professor who subsequently spent nine days in jail and was placed on leave from his job.
Clifton declined to comment at the hearing but filed a detailed statement saying that she had been sexually abused by her grandfather, who was convicted of rape of a child in 1994.
"In order to understand why, I have to explain what has happened to me in my past that has forever affected me," she wrote.
Clifton, who now lives in Ellensburg, was sentenced to serve 365 days in jail, with 357 days suspended, and to pay a $5,000 fine, with $4,750 suspended, plus other conditions that include probation and community service. Nault also ordered her to pay the professor's attorney fees.
The professor declined to discuss the charges, saying he wants to put the past behind him, and asked not to be identified.
The King County Prosecutor's Office concedes a mistake was made in the original prosecution but said it was acting on the best information available at the time.
"In hindsight, what was presented to us was an allegation of a violent rape," said Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff. "That doesn't mean the investigation stopped."
Clifton was "an extremely articulate and credible victim," said Sgt. John Urquhart, Sheriff's Office spokesman. "There was no reason to suspect she wasn't telling the truth."
She accused him July 5. Detectives talked to him on July 10. He was charged July 12. But, per the story:
But as detectives continued working, it became clear that the text in the e-mails had been changed. None of the professor's fingerprints were found at Clifton's house. A sexual-assault examination found no evidence of rape.
Whoops! Sorry, prof, did we scar you for life? Maybe ruin your life? Guess we shoulda checked into this a little further before we threw you in the pokey for nine days.
Uh, yeah.
Especially in light of how little punishment there is for those who make false accusations of rape -- as this case, once again, shows.
Clifton's attorney, Kelly Faoro, said her client has "extremely deep remorse" for the false statements and realizes that "none of this makes it any better" for the professor.
I'm guessing she'd have much deeper remorse if Washington State followed my suggestion: Make proven false accusers serve the jail time and pay the attorney fees and fines the falsely accused would have, had that person been convicted.
On the bright side, if you could call it that, the falsely accused didn't hang himself.
To true, a false accusation should have a series of penalties that go with it.
First, the false accuser must be to publicly (which is to say televised) admit to the lie.
Second, the accuser should be sentenced to at LEAST the minimum time the accused would have served had the victim been found guilty.
Third, the false accuser should be compelled to pay the victim for any and all lost wages resulting from the accusation, as well as make a statement in person to any and all persons designated by the accused, exonerating the victim and admitting the deception.
Fourth, after prison the accuser should have a mandatory time of community service to assist the victims of real crimes.
I'd say AT LEAST that much. And I'm being generous.
Robert H. Butler at March 25, 2008 6:01 AM
That guy who was falsely accused just can't get his life back to the way it was before -- I think you are forever changed by this. Nobody wants real rapists or criminals to get away. But, until there are punishments that diminish the likelihood of false accusation, the police need to be more careful about rushing to judgement.
I wonder whether those detectives on the case feel a sense of remorse for the real victim here.
Amy Alkon at March 25, 2008 6:08 AM
I would also say they need to revamp/retrain their police force. Arresting and then doing the investigation? sloppy, lazy and stupid. Not to mention embarraassing.
I understand that years ago rape, rape accusations and rape investigations were more hostile to the woman than they are now. I do understand that it was vile he-said, she said stuff and steps were taken to correct that but it has gone too far the other way. um, presumed innocent sound familiar? And with how much investigation technology and techniques have improved it seems much better to me to do the investigation BEFORE arresting, yes?
rsj at March 25, 2008 6:11 AM
Does she realize that she has made life that much more difficult for true rape victims?
This makes me ill.
Jessica at March 25, 2008 6:23 AM
Her excuse is it's because Grandpa raped her? My folks spanked me, but I never claimed my professors assaulted me.
I agree with Robert. People who make false accusations should face harsh consequences.
Kimberly at March 25, 2008 10:48 AM
Actually, it's even worse than the report suggests. Glenn Sacks had someone check, and they found out that the woman was allowed to "serve" her sentence in some kind of restricted-movement program. She never actually did *any* jail time.
Cousin Dave at March 25, 2008 11:19 AM
How about a false accusers registry?
MIOnline at March 25, 2008 12:10 PM
A false accusers registry...now THAT is a great idea!
Robert H. Butler at March 25, 2008 9:20 PM
I'm all for punishing false accusers, but one possible unintended consequence gives me pause. A lot of false rape accusations only come to light because the accuser feels remorse and recants. If she faces serious jail time for telling the truth, she's a lot more likely to stick to her original story.
Rex Little at March 25, 2008 10:57 PM
Wouldn't that effectively legalize rape?
Think about it... you get raped, you bring the guy to court, and if the jury finds him innocent, there is a high chance YOU go to jail.
Wouldn't that stop most people from accusing their rapists? Which would effectively legalize rape.
How does it work with other crimes, say I falsely accuse someone of theft?
Nicole at March 27, 2008 1:35 PM
A good point Nicole/Rex. Those are potential consequences.
Frankly I'm not sure just how far things should go, but I'll say this much, it needs to go a HELLUVA lot farther than:
faker: "yeah...my bad...it didn't really happen, he just never called me back the next morning."
justice system: "oh...okay, don't do that anymore."
Robert Butler at March 27, 2008 10:53 PM
Nicole wrote:
'Wouldn't that effectively legalize rape?
Think about it... you get raped, you bring the guy to court, and if the jury finds him innocent, there is a high chance YOU go to jail.'
Well, that's not quite what's being suggested. The suggestion is to punish proven false accusers - not accusers whose accusations cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be true (at trial) but accusers whose accusations can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be knowingly false - at trial, by confession, or by investigation.
A provably-false allegation of other crimes will sometimes attract a charge of eg filing a false police report. It would be interesting to see how regularly such charges are filed in cases of (alleged) rape vs all other allegations. I suspect that, more-often-than-not, when a false allegation of rape falls apart under investigation, it's allowed to simply die - no charges are filed against anyone, although of course the falsely-accused victim may have spent days/weeks/months in jail.
llater,
llamas
llamas at March 28, 2008 8:11 AM
Yeah, agreed, we don't want to see people run around and falsely accuse people... especially the ones who do it more than once.
Nicole at March 28, 2008 3:53 PM
Lock 'em up and throw away the key, and then make fun of everyone who called for pre-trial castration and/or execution.
Antrodemus at April 17, 2008 10:09 AM
Amanda Crissinger Spohn false accusation in Alaska case 3AN-05-08188CR (Anchorage) - charges dismissed when proved A.C. lied. Details in transcripts of court proceedings
Amanda Crissinger Spohn at October 25, 2009 12:11 AM
If the Jewish law was adhered to it would both convict more actual rapists/sexual molesters AND prevent many false accusations. No one may be convicted on the testimony of only one witness. AND if a witness is proven to have committed perjury (false witness) that person must receive at a minimum the same penalty the person falsely accused would have received if falsely convicted.
The falsely accused person should have the option to petition the court to impose lesser punishment.
Raped women should have a similar option if they do not want the rapist/molester to be punished as severely as the law provides. Many women want some punishment to be imposed but are not extremely vindictive. A public paddling, perhaps? (Amy's flyswatter might be a little mild unless she actually liked the guy but just wanted to teach him a lesson about f**king passed-out drunk women.) A chastity boot (think of a wheel boot for illegally parked cars)? Force him to be her slave? Many options possible.
Harry at March 8, 2015 12:48 AM
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