Hofstra false gang-rape accuser won't be charged

Source: Newsday

In the end, Cohen said, the agreement accomplishes the same thing that a criminal prosecution would, but may send a message to real rape victims that they are safe telling their stories.

Read more: http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/hofstra-false-gang-rape-accuser-won-t-be-charged-1.1475704

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An affidavit and 250 hours of community service. This is a reasonable settlement.

The accused are free to sue her for defamation etc, but it would be fruitless.

In the future maybe the media shouldn't be so quick to post pictures.

but typical. i VERY rarely see prosecutors willing to prosecute people in situations like this. it's just way too politically incorrect. even though they are not victims, they are scumbags, they still have that victim "sheen" on them.

i'm not saying she should be locked up for a long time, but i think a week (at least) of jail time is mandated in a case like this.

people like this woman subvert the entire justice system

Like the accused suing her down to her eyeteeth.

hold news conferences.

just based on the felony accusation.

My only issue is that their mug shots were plastered over the internet denying them a fair trail, if it came to that.

rape investigations are different, but there is still the problem of assuming a crime has occurred simply because one says so.

Not just on the possible victim's say so, but on DNA evidence being obtainable and no one being enough of an idiot to make an accusation when she/he knows the DNA would not be of the accused. Then it comes down to who does the jury believe about it's being consensual or not.

Otherwise you find yourself in the situation of its being open season on victims.

for even simple evidence tests, much less DNA.

I'm not saying there is an easy way to deal with this so everyone's rights, privacy, and interests are taken care of, just that every time there is an accusation of rape, or any crime, someone's life is changed for the worse.

For years we had rape victims held to a standard far too high, so there were few convictions and fewer police complaints. Now that we've solved that, we have to watch out for the accused becoming victims.

BTW, I came across a case in western Pennsylvania where a convenience store clerk was arrested for lying about being robbed and raped at work. Charges were dropped after they caught the guy doing it to another clerk in another county. Yes, she sued, but a Federal judge threw out her suit. Nothing is ever easy, is it?

Hours is plenty of time for a hospital exam. I made it clear in my post that DNA could be collected but not analyzed in that time frame.

There has to be some reason for the police to make an arrest. They use their judgment before it gets to a decision about prosecution. That's the case in any crime.

I suspect the ratio of accurate to false claims of rape is hundreds to one. Probably thousands to one. So I go with the police on this one.

corroborating evidence. I can't understand how you can advocate the immediate arrest of someone who turned out to be innocent. The innocent person shouldn't have to be subjected to that since they did nothing wrong.

By the way, how would you like to be arrested for a crime that you did not commit?

Re: "I can't understand how you can advocate the immediate arrest of someone who turned out to be innocent."

Uh, we have trials. Many people arrested are found innocent at trial. Do you think the police are omniscient?

I certainly wouldn't like to be arrested for a crime I didn't commit, but I would know the prosecution would have to come up with motive, opportunity, evidence of involvement, etc. not all of which they could obtain, since I don't go around committing crimes.

Plenty of innocent people are wrongly convicted. Sometimes their innocence is established after they have already served many years in prison.

My rule of thumb is that it's better to let ten guilty people go free than it is to convict one innocent person.

Often, just being accused of and arrested for rape is enough to ruin a life even though the accused may be eventually exonerated. By the time that happens they have already lost their job and their life is ruined. That's why we shouldn't arrest someone for a crime such as rape unless there is strong corroborating evidence.

I'm glad the accused men can sue her - I'm sure anything they get from this piece of trash won't be worth a bucket of warm spit, but maybe they can settle for a moral victory.

This person - I can't even call her a woman - set a horrible example for screaming rape when it was just cover her own ass, just as the dancer did in the Duke case. Neither were real victims and the damage they caused to how the public at large perceive rape victims is immeasurable. As a real rape victim, I can give my two cents here - and I am disgusted as can be at these 'little girls who cry wolf' when they cry rape as a way to cover up their own behaviour.

A lifetime of embarrassment for her will be enough satisfaction for me.

...for those who she accused

and its also a injustice for REAL rape victims

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done anything like what she did - so I won't complain about her getting a break. I think her life's gonna be pretty messed up for a while, anyway...

Hofstra is a major employer in Hempstead.

The girl's "boy friend" is someone she met only after arriving on campus

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/twisted_motive_behind_rape_story_niSXmOMgjcr2RTJiRkacXJ

The party at which she met the five men involved took place on the Hofstra campus. I can't determine what the connection is between Hofstra University and Hofstra USA, but Hofstra USa does hold a liquor license.

There was a disturbance described as a fight or a brawl at the party.

One of the men involved worked part time for Hofstra public safety.

http://wcbstv.com/national/hofstra.gang.rape.2.1188305.html

So, If I believe all the statements now on record, this woman left a party with one or more men (it's unclear to me who she left with), proceeded to a dormitory rest room, freely and enthusiastically engaged in sexual activity with four men, then returned to her dorm room where upon encountering her "boy friend" she first denied that anything happened, then identified what had occurred as rape, then reported the incident to police only on the boy friend's insistence. (Note: this is the same person she abandoned at the party to go away with the other man).

Admittedly, as the mother of a freshman, I am biased, but this scenario doesn't seem likely to me. It leaves me with all kinds of questions.

Why didn't she drop the "boy friend" for her new acquaintance(s)?

If she is interested in anonymous group sex, why worry about the boy friend she'd just met a few weeks before?

How much pressure was there from all parties to make this go away? If there had been a rape trial, what else would have come out about what was going on at the party, dormitory security, campus security, etc.?

How do you tell from a cell phone image whether someone is enthusiastically and freely engaged in sex, or trying to please her partners out of fear?

Speaking of cell phones, was her cell phone ever out of her possession?

Confronted with a video or the possibility of a video, what are the odds that she decided that no one would believe her when she described what happened before the video footage?

Next to this incident, Rashomon is child's play.

It's called having your cake and eating it too. Common among teens

"Why didn't she drop the "boy friend" for her new acquaintance(s)?

If she is interested in anonymous group sex, why worry about the boy friend she'd just met a few weeks before?"

"gang-rapists" would have received if convicted as a result of her false accusation. But justice and legal are unrelated in these kinds of cases. I'm half surprised the DA didn't produce their confessions anyway, then threaten life to coerce a plea for 20 years on the theory that the seriousness of the allegation justified the prison time.

but it's hard enough to get real victims to come forward as it is. A severe sentence would also discourage others from recanting.

Bad idea.

so we don't discourage actual victims .

Why would a victim of a real rape be discouraged from reporting it because someone who was not raped made a false accusation? If it is a real rape then the accuser has nothing to worry about when they report it. We need to punish false accusers in order to discourage others from making false accusations and ruining the life of someone who is innocent.

What happened to her will probably be recorded as a "false allegation" because the man was acquitted on the rape charge, but it is obvious to everyone close to my friend that she was raped. Her PTSD certainly isn't faked.

They don't report acquittals as false accusations, or rarely. I used to work in the DA's office, and false accusals really do happen. Cheating spouses who have been caught (in the delicate act, disease, pregnancy) sometimes lie; there's a famous case in which a woman who pulled a no-call/no-show at work actually (falsely) claimed rape, which seems a little insane until you realize it's perhaps the ultimate ecxcuse -- no one would dare call her a liar or fire her for something like that. The most common false sexual assault reports, in my personal experience and research, were teenage girls: the two most common reasons were for revenge or because even though they'd had consenual sex, they didn't want friends or family to think they were promiscuous. These cases don't often even make it to court, though, and almost never go public.

False reporting is rare, but it does happen.

That's what makes what the woman at Hofstra so awful. Not what she did to those boys -- they had a couple of shitty weeks in their lives and maybe some legal bills, but in six months nobody will even remember their names. They'll get over it. What that woman at Hofstra has done, though, is make it just a little bit harder for the thousands of real victims of sexual assault who want to see justice done. She'll be in the backs of jury member's minds for years to come.

And on the subject of the original post: the judge got it right in giving her 250 hours of community service. Throwing the book at her would have just made it that much more difficult for victims of sexual assault to come forward, and she's already done enough damage to them.

wonder if they got raped in jail for instance. In addition, this will come up on any criminal backround check and likely lead to people not hiring them.

and she is never allowed to forget what she did.

Her reputation should be permanently destroyed, her ability to have a normal life should be over. She should have to live with this and suffer the accusing stares of everyone she meets.

You know, the same penalty men falsely accused of rape have to deal with.

They ensured the message, you can get away with making false accusations, came across loud and clear. I hope the university throws her out, as they would have undoubtedly done to the male. A guy i worked with in college was falsely accused, he was able to avoid being charged, but was never allowed back into school. I can't see how in the face of DNA reversals, and the few high profile instances of false accusations that people still act like these are freak occurrences. They aren't, my heart goes out to those without access to good attorneys, or video.

If a person out there is raped, and for some reason doesn't report it, is no excuse for overlooking this woman's crime. If you're going to rely on the stereotype of woman as weak waifs than don't be surprised when people roll their eyes at Feminism.

Don't be surprised, when the benefit of the doubt goes to the defendant in rape cases.

Sounds like he would have a case to sue, no? Than again, you did say 'avoid charges', which could mean a few things.

It would serve her right if they retained full distribution rights to the film and sold it for a lot of money. She could live on forever in video.

That's justice.

Never mind some imaginary rape in the future that hasn't occurred. What about the Victims of her crime? Rape victims deserve justice. But not people who are maliciously, intentionally and falsely accused of rape. These people do not deserve justice. These people have no right to a redress of grievance. Never mind what the US Constitution says. This is obviously about establishing a womans absolute right to make false accusations of rape that is not written in law. This DA should not be allowed to practice their unwritten law any where in America. If the Governor does fire the DA. The Governor should be impeached.......or falsely accused of rape. Why the hell not? Apparently a false accusation of rape is better than no accusation at all. Good enough for these boys is good enough for the Governor.

She should be in jail.

I am furious over this not just for what she tried to do to those guys (it sounds like, to push the guilt for a consensual mistake onto others), but for all women are REALLY raped. Lord knows, most of us don't report, because of the perception it's nearly impossible to get a conviction because of the perception that women commonly lie.

Every woman who DOES lie stabs millions of other women in the back.

I have no idea what a proper punishment would be. Perjury? What's the usual punishment for that? Surely it involves jail time, right?

At the very least, some of her community service needs to be in training for a rape hotline or advocacy (maybe not actually doing the work, she's probably not competent to be trusted around actual survivors) so she learns what the R word really means.

it would either take up 25% of her net earnings (post judgement and garnishment) , or part of what she has in her estate minus federal and state exemptions or it would force her to declare bankruptcy which would make have to declare on any crdit petition if she has ever filed for the BK for the rest of her life..it would also ding her credit for the next 6-12 years. It might make others think about what doing that twice...in addition it would force her to be dragged through the mud in court for the press to write about extensively.

Seriously... has anyone seen her picture? It doesn't seem fair that she is protected from that kind of publicity when the falsely accused were not.

Reading through this thread, I'm seeing justifiable outrage about this woman's actions. But I am not seeing much concern for the no doubt numerous rape victims who will not come forward now to make charges or id attackers because if the attackers are found innocent the victim might go to jail or be sued or vilified in public as liars.

How on Earth did you come up with that idea? There is no even an option of being found "innocent" at trial, it's either guilty or not-guilty.

And most people understand the difference between charges being dropped and a not-guilty verdict at trial.

Somehow I don't find anything about rape a laughing matter.

And I am pretty sure I have read of more than one case where people acquitted of rape have filed suit against the victim.

Criminal trials are brought by the state/the people, not an individual. No one is "imprisoned" should a defendant be found not guilty.

But if you can find such a case, plse yes, do post it.

Criminal trials are brought by the state/the people, not an individual. No one is "imprisoned" should a defendant be found not guilty.

But if you can find such a case, plse yes, do post it.

.... are convicted with no more evidence than the testimony of the "victim" and one study that you could probably find if you cared concluded that as many as 40% of rape accusations are false.

As usual, women want equal rights but not equal responsiblity. Like family law, men get screwed in a court of law any time there is a male-female issue.

rather than hypothetical future victims.

Like when katrina came through, most people were worried about the people in it right then, not the construction workers who may die the next year rebuilding.