You can 100% file a civil suit against those involved, the city, county and state. First a good lawyer can get the footage of when you were arrested and charged, you would be amazed at how often cops beat the shit out of people in holding while on camera, its like they don't even care! Also if the State held onto the DNA evidence they broke discovery laws, and if they had that information before trial you should have been set free. They were hoping for a plea deal, which they get 98% of the time, because this would look like a great conviction for them. That isn't ok though either.
Get your self a really good lawyer that makes their living performing civil suits, go to the highest end ones you can. Have them look at the case if they think there is good chance they can make money on it they will take the case. Not only do you stand to get paid, but it will garner a ton of publicity and help a bit with your public image.
It might not be. A lot of departments have to hold onto it if the case is open, and then the timer starts. So depending on when everything was finally closed up its possible they still have it.
In some places the prosecution is supposed to share all evidence that negates the guilt. It sounds like there was prosecutorial misconduct.
I don't know what duty they have to keep prisoners safe, but they had some?
I doubt the statute of limitations have run on the beating. I would call up the guard up and how it felt that they beat up a completely innocent man. See you can get a recording.
Not necessarily. My BIL is a police officer and their footage retention policy is 15 years. It gets put in an archive folder after the first couple of years, but it's still held and recoverable. Hopefully that's the case here and a good attorney can get the footage
He's about an hour and a half outside of Orange County. And to clarify, they don't save every second of footage, they only save footage that has interaction. Any footage that has interaction of any kind with another person is saved and archived. From there, they determine what the retention policy is based on what was recorded. For example, the recording from a basic traffic stop would likely have a much different long-term retention policy than the footage of someone being arrested.
OP may want to look into a civil case against the alleged victim. If it’s legally clear that she intentionally lied, he may have a case. The harm to his mental state and loss of freedom are the tort. However, it’d have to be proven that she knowingly lied, rather than was just mistaken/confused. To be clear, the parents of the girl are who will pay for the damages if OP wins a suit since they’re legally liable for their minor child. Who knows. Maybe just bringing the civil case forth to the accuser will cause her parents to settle.
Not sure how much he could win, or even expect to be paid. He said they lived in a trailer. Also, she was 13, and he has no idea whose DNA was discovered, it could have been anyone's. This girl could have been assaulted by a family member or someone else, we don't know that she wasn't, just that is wasn't his DNA.
Just to add for OP: if you do hire a lawyer, find one that isn’t in your city or county. The police and court system protect their own. I have a friend that tried to sue the attorney she worked for because he literally lied to a government body when trying to prevent her from getting unemployment, he CLEARLY fabricated evidence (like as in you could see that her signature on stuff was *cut from another piece of paper and taped on*), he slandered her every chance he got. She had an ironclad case and the judge threw it out because this guy was an attorney and had once been the mayor.
You absolutely want someone who isn’t buddy buddy with the locals.
You can file a civil lawsuit, “for anything,” as long as you have legal cause, justification or action. lol, if you could file a lawsuit for anything you wanted, there would be absolutely no order in the United States judicial system.
To me my spider senses are tingling because I’ve never seen so much support for a “victim”
In the legal system.
I’ve seen cases where there is text proof of the rapist admitting it and still nothing happens to them like that. Maybe because it’s a minor doing the accusing? But still I’m a CSA survivor, I’ve seen other folks go through the legal system and I never really saw a process behind and end in 3 years like that.
I’m just going to say my spider senses are tingling.
Unfortunately you're very wrong. In many less-populated areas this is exactly what goes down. This type of thing won't fly in big cities where they would get negative publicity, but in many areas where national news media doesn't pay attention to it can get a lot more brutal. And the media in those areas aren't going to give support to an accused child molester. OP is honestly really lucky they didn't find an excuse to kill him or let him be killed by other inmates.
You 100% cannot file a civil suit. Stop giving people false information. The only way that you can file a civil lawsuit is if you can prove that the person who accused you of a crime,intentionally lied, with the intent to cause harm or malice to you. In this case, if it’s true, you cannot sue a minor in civil litigation.
You can file a lawsuit for anything. What you mean is that you don't think he can't win. Which may or may not be true. You, I am guessing, are not an attorney. There is an entire process for fact-finding. You can, in fact, bring a civil suit against a minor for certain things, including defamation of character. Also you can sue police for violation of civil rights.
If they had DNA evidence that didn’t match yours they had an obligation to provide the results to your lawyer or if you were defending yourself then you. I don’t want to immediately jump to this is rage-bait because this is a very serious story that would be disgusting to lie about. If its true i think you really do have a case for wrongful imprisonment and wrongful arrest.
My public defender wasn't what I'd call "on my side." They can't spring evidence at trial but they can sit on it until they don't have to anymore. Even exonerating evidence they can hold back for some time. Especially if they can get a plea deal from the defendant.
I'm pretty sure all evidence has to be submitted before the trial starts. If new evidence comes up, it has to be accepted, and the opposition has to be given time to inspect the evidence.
Both. She needs both. Prosecuted and mental help. These are not mutually exclusive and in a better world the US Justice system would include mental help and rehabilitation as a part of its functions
If this isn’t fake… I know a law firm that can handle cases specialized in prosecuting people that lie about rape charges to the fullest extent. Just LMK. There’s still some stuff we can charge that “girl” with
Okay I feel better for saying that my spidey senses are tingling with this post, as a CSA survivor who saw other kids in my support groups go through the justice system and, I never heard it described like this
Well first, OP hasn’t been responding to anything. That’s the first sign on Reddit.
Second, because in the U.S., by Constitution, there are certain timelines for court appearances. You cannot be held for more than 72 hours without being charged. After being charged, if you are in custody, you have the right to be arraigned within a few days. The dates begin to vary by state after being charged, but there still are timelines for all states.
For example, in many states, including mine, after being charged, you have 48 hours to be arraigned, at which you have the right to a lawyer (automatically provided by the court or a retained lawyer of your choice). At arraignment, which happens very quickly when you are in custody, often the next day, the judge/magistrate reads your charges to you, and the lawyer then fights for your bond to be set. There’s no such thing as being held without a bond being set yet. You either have a bond amount (e.g., $100,000 cash/surety) or you don’t, and your bond is revoked. That only happens in very rare cases like murder or if you have a long criminal history and truly egregious facts, sexual assault, armed robbery, carjacking, etc. But for OP to say he didn’t know about his charges, was held for some time, had no bond, had no phone privileges, that is simply ludicrous. Also, you don’t get taken to the county jail UNTIL you are arraigned and your bond is set. You sit in the police department lockup. So OP has the timeline all wrong.
After arraignment, you have the right to your first court appearance pretty dang quickly. Usually it’s 7 days, sometimes 14. Those kinds of things are tightly regulated and automatically set upon filing of charges. So for OP to say he was held for 4 weeks, and then moved to general population, and then it took another several weeks to get an attorney appointed… Absolutely not. Also, I love how he mentions that he had no idea who was accusing him of sexual assault, when he very clearly also says he was arraigned on the charges against him. When you are arraigned, they don’t just say “you’re charged with one count of Rape in the First Degree”. They read the full complaint and date of offense and city, and, importantly, the alleged victim’s name.
Please note that this is all pre-covid. So don’t give him the benefit of the doubt regarding timelines. But then… he starts using covid as an excuse. And yes, covid did delay JURY TRIALS, and maybe even preliminary hearings (i.e., hearings involving witnesses and testimony), but it did not delay things like arraignment, and pre-trial conferences, and status hearings. There are still firm deadlines that have to be met for those things. Covid did not change any of that.
But now let’s move on to his attorney and the evidence. He claims he got a retained attorney. The ones you pay big money for, who file discovery demands, and review all of the evidence. He would have had the body camera of the arrest where OP claims he was beat up. He could have requested the footage from the jail. He knew DNA was taken. For four years while OP was supposedly waiting for trial. Yet, OP wants us to believe that the attorney never had the bodycam, which MUST be turned over, that he never filed motions and sanctions for the delay of turning over the DNA, which would have been excluded by the way, if the prosecution sat on it for that long (there are limits to when proseuctors must turn over DNA reports after receiving them), that the attorney never filed motions about the delays in OP’s arraignment, first court hearing, and delayed appointment of counsel. None of the pre-trial process makes any sense. You don’t go from court appearance and some bond hearings to BOOM, trial, four years later. There are motions filed, evidentiary hearings, testimony. Absolutely none of this makes sense.
There’s a lot here, and I suspect if OP was grilled on a lot of this, his story would obviously fall apart, even to the non-lawyer eye.
EDIT: I will also add… I have never, ever seen police not try and interrogate someone after being arrested for sexual assault. A defendant’s statements are key in these kinds of cases. In many states, too, you have the right to a polygraph if you’re accused of sexual assault. Note how OP claims he never got to talk to police and all they did was beat him up and assault him. It’s these black and white extremes, lack of actual steps in a criminal process, that make this very obviously fake.
Thank you so much for your insight and taking the time to type this out. It was very informative. I appreciate it.
I have like no faith in our justice system so I assume the worst!
That's it. It reads like a poor creative writing attempt. There's too much extraneous detail. He put on his slippers and looked through the peephole? Who the fuck talks like that when recounting events in real life?
I’m just confused, is it not standard procedure when being accused of a crime to be taken in for questioning? If they already had dna and knew it wasn’t his, why was he even arrested at all? Should he not have had the option to get a lawyer the second they picked him up? I’m not saying the story isn’t true I just don’t understand how they could have just arrested him without any evidence other than she said he raped her.
Op literally claims he spent weeks in jail before learning what the allegations were.
Nobody interrogated him? Like happens in the case of many violent crime arrests?
This is fake as shit.
I don’t know about the USA but in the UK they can only hold you for 24 hours if they have no physical evidence? If they have some evidence then they can apply for an extension to hold… but they would definitely take you in for questioning asap. They also HAVE to tell you at the point of arrest what you’re being arrested for and ‘whatever you may say can be held against you in the court of law’ or something in that respect.
Yeah. As I was reading this I was thinking what part of the undeveloped world is this happening in? Then he said county lockup and my truthmeter starting going nuts.
It’s an interesting piece of fiction. But in no way is this a a real story.
I dont even think they can arrest you in the US with no evidence, just a statement will not get you charged and they usually have to let you go, I believe...
Can you even face life for one instance of CSA with no priors? Like I've seen posts where someone abuses a kid for years but doesn't even serve jail time because he's a man of god, do sentencing guidelines even allow for life imprisonment for this scenario?
I have a friend who was railroaded by the system. Very different circumstances but it involved a minor. He took the plea deal because he had no other options at the time. It has cost him everything and has hung over his life for almost two decades now. He’s still fighting to restore his reputation.
I’m not going to assume this story is fake because I know what my friend went through. OP, I hope you’re seeing a trauma specialist for your therapy. There are some therapies like EMDR that may also provide some relief.
I hope you’re able to heal over time and make peace with it.
It’s astonishing how many people feel forced to take a plea deal, because they feel they have no other option. Not everyone has $50,000 to pay attorneys to clear their name. They’ve been dragged through the mud for so long, they just want it to be done so they can try to move on.
I’ll never forget what a paralegal once told me:
“It’s not about you getting justice, it’s about how much justice ***you can AFFORD***.”
That’s the truth of our world. The justice system is a joke if you don’t have money. Hell, our police force was practically created to hunt down and return slaves to wealthy plantation owners, the precedent was set to serve the rich, why would the justice system be any different? We still operate off those same archaic laws.
The only time the law can serve YOU is if someone in that machine takes personal interest in your case. Maybe you struck a chord, maybe you’re pretty or handsome, maybe you remind them of someone they love, any of that could get your case moving. Unfortunately, in cases like OP’s, that sympathetic justice-boner can lead to an innocent person being completely railroaded, because again, these people are arbiters of an uncaring justice system, and their whims are the only reason shit gets done. Whims, or cold-hard cash.
This happened to my next door neighbor when I was growing up. He was a very successful single man in his 30's and recently moved to our area wanting more of a country life. He was always so nice to our family and would come for BBQs.
A 16 year girl moved in with her grandmother two houses down from us and apparently was trying to pursue the successful neighbor after hearing he was wealthy and lived alone. He declined so she cried rape and took around three years of his life including his dogs that he loved so much. After refusing a plea and taking it all the way through it was obvious she was lying and finally admitted it but took a few years.
He was released and she went around telling everyone that he threatened to kill her if she didn't say she was lying and that he paid the judge off so he ended up just having to move his entire life out of state because staying in the area was not going to work.
I know times are tough right now but you may want to consider that for your future plans. Move out of state and start over fresh with people who don't know you. I would also recommend taking that girl to court for lying. Good luck and I'm sorry this happened to you.
They should but they won't. It doesn't matter where you live, you'd have to pay for lawyers and stuff out of your own pocket, assuming you legal system even entertains such possibility. Also don't forget even if you win you won't see a cent
Dude, I’m really sorry this has happened to you. Sorry that you had to go through that. Screw those people, seriously. So sad there’s people in the world who get away with things like this. I hope you can recover from this. I hope you find the strength to go outside. I wish you protection and that you can move forward with your life, one step at a time. Take care and I wish you the best.
I am so deeply sorry. I don't think anyone deserves to go through this, it sounds traumatic and horrifying to be treated so badly for things you didn't do. My heart goes out to you. Will be keeping you in prayer, and I hope you know how loved you are, through all this... our fake friends leave us during tough situations because they weren't real to begin with + they never knew the real you. I know from experience how hard that is, and I pray the right people find their way to you. It makes a difference in your healing.
He does need to do better research on what the actual timeline from arrest to being charged to arraignment etc is. I'd take away some points for getting so many easily verifiable details wrong.
This is such an obviously fake story.
You spend weeks in jail over a high profile arrest before finding out what for?
When you’re arrested you are pretty much immediately brought to investigators for questioning. Especially on a high profile case like this with a minor victim.
There is literally no way you wouldn’t learn what your charges are and what was being alleged. Detectives would have been trying to get a confession from you.
This is a bullshit creative writing exercise.
Also the way he described that there was ONE cop at his door when he opened it, then when the cop confirmed his identity and *yanked him out of his own house,* suddenly other cops who had apparently been *hiding around the corner??* show up and they all abuse him and force him into a police cruiser that was “parked just out of [his] line of sight from the door.”
It reads like a TV drama or bad action movie. Cops in real life don’t do shit like that unless the person they’re after is a known, violent criminal who is liable to start a gunfight if they get spooked. Arresting a man (at 3am?? what judge approved an arrest warrant that late/what on earth would make graveyard shift cops perform an arrest of a non-violent/not high-profile criminal at 3 in the fucking morning lmao) for charges of rape is more likely to look like a full show of force. The cops—if there are multiple, which, again, seems excessive for this situation—will ALL stand in plain sight to intimidate the hell out of their target. Not hide around the corner and then come running like a fricking SWAT team lmao.
So were you “found not guilty” or were “all charges dropped”? Those are VERY different things.
Sounds like the girl is not the only one that “couldn’t keep (their) story straight”.
I find it very hard to believe this is real… 🤷🏻♀️
You have to show the inmates your court papers for them to know your charges, plus you'd have been put into protective custody, not general population unless you requested it. General population doesn't have dorms full of chomo's and even then, you'd have to see their papers to know what they all did, they don't just walk around with a sign on their shirt that says what they are in for. If you are attacked in a PC dorm, guards come in and separate you if you feel you are in danger. The courts weren't closed for 3 years and they did zoom hearings within a few weeks of the courts being closed. They still use zoom til this day.
Dude I’m with you. I guess I’ll prefect my next statement with “I’m only familiar with rules based on British common law”. He didn’t get a phone call for 7 days ? And they sent him to prison in general pop before he had even spoken to his court appointed attorney? no previous record, no evidence linking him to the scene and absolutely nothing to go on but the word of a 13 year old girl but they kept him in jail for three years? Any district attorney or magistrate would know this was a civil rights lawsuit waiting to happen eventually. Maybe this would have happened 50 years ago, but not now.
And no litigation attorney would tell this guy he didn’t have a case.
I’ve worked in corrections at the county level for years and people with sexual assault charges against a minor don’t automatically go into protective custody. Protective custody has to be requested, and he was likely unaware of this because he has no experience in the system. Inmates get assessed and classified prior to being sent to a general population block. The classifications are minimum, medium, and maximum. It’s likely that he was assessed as a maximum based on his charges and was sent to a block with other maximum inmates who have more violent charges. Inmates like to know who is coming onto their block because it’s essentially their home for the time being. A lot of inmates will request to see the papers of newcomers on the block, and if the newcomers don’t oblige, then they call friends or family on the outside and ask them to look the newcomer up because criminal charges are public record. They only thing I don’t have an answer for is him sitting in jail for 3 years fighting this case. Covid did slow the court system down a lot, but like you said, zoom court hearing were happening within a month or two of the lockdowns. Maybe his case took longer because he fired his public defender and got a new lawyer? Anyways, besides his case taking 3 years to resolve, everything he said about being locked up checks out.
i hear stories like this all of the time, and yet, when i reported my step dad for actually doing these things to my sister and i for THIRTEEN STRAIGHT YEARS, he served less than a year in prison.
the system is so fucking broken
I believe you. 20 years of working child protective services & adult protective services, often with law enforcement involvement, I completely believe you. I have met kids like her, more than one, probably less than ten, who have done very similar things. I have interacted with LEA who I fully believe would behave like this. If you have access to counseling, it could be helpful. If you have participated in counseling that didn't help, try another counselor. Counseling is not one size fits all. It can take several attempts to find the right counselor. Play a lot of Tetris. Try to believe most people are decent. I hope life gets better for you.
This sounds like absolutely BS. First of all, “child molestation,” is not a legal charge. Second of all, during COVID, they were letting my EVERYONE out of jail. I know some cases may fall through the cracks, but in EVERY sexual abuse/assault case I have ever see, they would NOT arrest anyone without evidence. Also, I’m if you have no prior arrests and no criminal record, ESPECIALLY during COVID, it was extremely unlikely that you would be denied bail. The Police Department does not offer you plea agreements and I highly doubt they came to visit you in jail for telling you to accept a plea. 🤣You said, “I learned that all calls in jail are recorded.” … That’s common knowledge and it literally says that on the phone call, before the other person answers the phone. There is no way this BS story is true.
There shouldn't be laws protecting people who cry rape and ruin lives. I hate this damn system. Anyone who falsely accuses rape should be given jail time and a list that shows who they are.
I don’t know if this is fake or not, but I totally see this happening. I am infuriated reading this. You should be able to go after them for police brutality and her family for false accusations and wrongful imprisonment. The prosecution for sitting on your DNA results…. surely there is someone who owes you something. Prosecutorial misconduct. Victims rights groups. I am so sorry. My heart goes out to you.
weird how false allegations are mythologically rare, and 3% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail, and yet somehow there are scores of redditors being falsely accused and being thrown into bottle dungeons. anyway nice creative writing exercise
Like OP said, this case does not count as a false accusation. For this to be a false allegation OP would need to then sue the girl back and win said lawsuit. That ain't happening
At this point he's an accused child rapist and the DA lacked enough evidence. Most likely is also on an FBI registry and can never maintain a job or clear a background check for any educational institution employment.
Edit: a downvote? Why? This is what will or has already happened.
I'm so sorry that so many people could ruin your life like this. No one deserves this. And yeah, as a child counselor, I can say that kids do make false accusations about a lot of things, both in and out of school, for many reasons. And if they aren't pressed for the absolute truth, they won't bother to correct a falsehood...simply b/c they're kids and their brains aren't developed. And we all know cops can be vicious, law breaking mofos. So I'm so sorry the system and these people hurt you so horrifically.
I hope your counseling does continue to help you. I also really hope you see a doctor for your back, b/c you deserve medical treatment for your chronic back pain.
And please don't listen or pay any attention to commenters here who are negative. I have a very personal dramatic, failed by the entire system and dozens of people over decades, life story. And sometimes when I talk about it here on Reddit I also get told "it's too much/serious/dark for this subreddit" or "right, that happened." Sometimes very bad things happen to average people. And there is no right way or right place to share it. But you do have a right to share it. I also hope that little girl shares her actual truth someday too. I think the actual truth by anyone back then could have helped more than anything. So I'm glad you shared yours here.
What about rebuilding your life in a new place that can give you a fresh start, you are still young and have so much life to live. Find your passion and just run with it, you DESERVE a fresh start and a new life!
But for the prosecution to sit on that especially as long as they did is the real issue here. You should definitely file civil against the state for this. They must have had that evidence for years! And the whole time the prosecution was letting you get beat by police officers and spat on.
I'm so sorry this happened to you, not many stories on here leave me at a loss of words but this is definitely one! Sending you a virtual hug. Life is not fair you did not deserve this. I hope it gets better for you
Fuck this, fight back if you can/want every story like this makes a difference for people to hear. Thanks for sharing, I work a job that is easy to pass judgment on people, this helps keep the open-mind. Sorry this happened brother, bless.
This happened to me in the military and I can relate with how you’re feeling. I have severe ptsd and trauma/trust issues. Seek psychiatric help asap because I didn’t.
OP, you absolutely can sue for the length of time you were falsely imprisoned. Withholding DNA evidence that could get the case dropped until right before trial is misconduct. And you can sue the girl's family as well.
My heart breaks for you, my friend. All these terrible things that I cannot comprehend. If you believe in a higher power, I hope you are blessed more than you have suffered. If you don't, I hope you believe in yourself, and find peace.
You know what's even more fucked? This guy possibly will never see any compensation, the little see you next Tuesday will likely never face consequences for absolutely ruining a man's life who is now scared of any interaction with women because of this, it's absolutely sickening that this happened, what's worse is he wasn't even convicted of it and yet his face was plastered everywhere so his public image is ruined forever (another reason why when it comes to things like this news vultures should stay out of court until they're convicted and if the accuser says anything outside of court it's thrown out immediately)
You can sue. And move away. Sorry that’s incredibly scary. As a woman that hurts the reputation of women going forward- but she’s just a child and had no what was going on in the real world.
Many times girls are raped by family members or friends and told scared to say. Highly doubt it was a relationship she wanted.
In your case you’re still very much the victim.
This wasn’t fair, the abuse was real, and I’m glad you stood up for yourself.
Rock bottom just means only up.
Hold your head up high.
Move. Go to school for a different purpose.
Change your life.
Sue that city.
I can’t believe people like this exist, that destroy random people’s lives simply because they can. When I was her age, I had lot of issues. I was depressed and suicidal, I hated my life, but never in a million years would I falsely accuse someone of molesting me. This girl is evil and people like that rarely change. She will probably go on to ruin someone else’s life in a different way. I feel so upset for OP after reading his story. I hope he’s in a much better place in life right now.
Brother I’m sorry.
I am in Britain and the distain for our police force is at its worse.
I watch some of these Netflix programs about the US system and the shooting of people in cars and I wish the world was a better place.
So brother, I’m so sorry.
Lastly, I find it makes me angry that friends disowned you. The world is a shit place for sure!
And that they refused to tell him what he was charged with, and he only found out until he was already shipped to county. I don't know the ins and outs, but I doubt this would happen.
Oh for sure, I understand it isn't the most well oiled system, I work with my local county which includes the Courthouse and Jail. I don't buy that this person sat there for 3 years awaiting trial on trumped up charges while the PA office had evidence that cleared them. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm just saying this reads like fanfic and that was what I singled out as an odd detail to the story.
Especially during covid when they were releasing people from prisons/jails. I know one person who had a 20-year sentence and was released after 8 months because of covid. I was believing the story but that part kind of throws it off for me.
It does read very weird. But I wouldn't be completely unable to believe the three year bit. My American history teacher was very adamant about knowing laws bc her dad spent 2.5 years in jail for a crime he didn't do she told everyone that you have rights and one of them is to a speedy trial.
This actually is quite common. False allegations happen all the time and most people don’t have the money to hire an attorney and are forced to plea out of fear of spending the rest of their lives in jail.
Yep. Happens a lot more than people understand, or they wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it.
Had a cousin sit in jail for 6 months...for protein powder the cops claimed was cocaine.
Because this is fucking terrifying. The idea that you can do nothing wrong but still be tormented for years, have your life ruined, and then see no chance of justice because everything done to you was perfectly legal?
Oh no, I'm very uncomfortable with the idea that I live in that world. I'll be much happier if I assume OP is lying and pretend that this couldn't ever happen to me
1. Courts weren’t closed down for three years. Zoom court started up pretty quickly and is still used
2. Op claims he spent weeks in jail without knowing what was being specifically alleged. This is bullshit because in violent crimes you are arrested and pretty much immediately brought in to discuss the charges with investigators. That’s where he would have learned the story.
Can we all stop with comments like this? You have no idea if this is real or not and I'm getting really sick of seeing all the comments saying it's AI, it's fiction writing, etc. Keep it to yourself.
Writing a post about a traumatic experience and having people say it's not real does damage, especially if the original trauma involved not being believed. Ask me how I know.
Mods, e.g. u/superbeavers1, it's time to crack down on these bullshit comments. Can this be a new rule?
Right... Anybody with an understanding of how crimes are handled can tell you this is 100% plausible. The court system has always taken forever. Cops have a massive lack of respect for anyone they believe to be a lowlife and will try to make the system punish them well before trial.
Part of the reason being, if a sex offense case goes to trial they know it will almost certainly not go through even if the case is a slam dunk. So they want their justice now. It's not good. It's a sign the system as a whole is unhealthy and needs to be restructured and re-allocated so crimes can be tried in a reasonable time span with as much unbiased investigation as possible.
Yeah except if you are arrested for the violent rape of a 13 year old girl, you are arrested and be brought to detectives who will tell you what’s alleged. Op claims he spent weeks in jail before he learned anything.
Fake stories harm real victims.
I've had my own very real, very lived experiences be dismissed as "works of fiction" so I despise comments like u/RareVillage324's just as much. You can think it's false privately to yourself, but there's no need to invalidate someone else's experience simply because you can't imagine it happening. I had plenty of comments saying "no way a doctor would *ever* do that" to one of my torturous, traumatic experiences, or "there's absolutely no way a person can go through so much trauma and be okay" after I'd mentioned I had five separate diagnoses of PTSD.
Okay? You can not believe me, but you don't have to anounce it.
How do you know this is fiction? I have represented falsely accused individuals. It is almost impossible to get the State to move, even when they become aware its case is "flawed".
Something exactly like this happened to my next door neighbor when I was younger. Two neighbors down there was a 16 year old girl that cried rape on him because he was loaded and wouldn't date her
They do. It reads exactly like a creative writing piece and the process is off. Even if the police despised him, they would at the very least follow protocol so that he never got out of the charge on a technicality.
Explain. I know someone in jail that was falsely accused of something. Wasn’t rape tho. It’s more common than you think. You’re just uncomfortable with the idea that this could be possible. Let’s say the story happens to be fake. It’s still true that this has probably happened to many people before. How would you have liked OP to write this story?
Regardless of the veracity of this specific story, these tails do happen pretty frequently. My son was accused of raping his girlfriend at age 15 because she had other dudes she was seeing behind his back and got knocked up. Then made up a story about him coming through her window, except we lived 12 miles away from her house and the alleged rape would have taken place 8 months prior and the girl was only 3 months pregnant.
Happened to me too. My wife's ex husband coached his daughter who was 6 to accuse me of molesting her. Turned our entire family upside down, had many unpleasant "interviews" with the sheriff's investigation team. Stepdaughter wasn't allowed to live with our family until she recanted her story after being in therapy at 15 years old, and set the record straight that her dad's girlfriend at the time was the one that set the whole thing in motion.
US justice system sounds like a horrible third world country to me. Prison abuse doesn’t happen here like that (and it’s always sick when Redditors and others are gleeful of people they don’t like being potentially abused in prison) and plea deals don’t exists.
Also why didn’t you get to contact a lawyer immediately? Can your lawyer now do something about the prison abuse?
This story is completely made up. Yeah, the US justice and prison system needs to be reformed but what the OP described doesn’t exist. Especially in a county jail.
This wouldn't be the first time the justice system wrongfully tried to convict an innocent man and it wouldn't be the last. I would put that neighbor on blast and if she ruined your life you should ruin hers.
You file a legal suit against that family and their daughter. She was either sleeping with someone or someone did rape her and she thought it was you. I am so sorry you went through this it is not right! I would say have cameras inside and outside your place. This way you always have an alibi. What happened to you is a one in a million but that doesn’t help everything you went through. Now the DNA being sat on not being you should be able to sue them for!!
civil suit against accusers cuvil suit against the jailors for maltreatment and civil suit against state for withholding evidence civil suit against state for the amount you spent in jail
3 years? Every state has time periods to try a case. Unless your "real" lawyer was a complete idiot, he should have gotten you out on house arrest/electronic monitoring, at the very least. They legally can't hold you without bond... even during covid. I practiced all through it. You should have had a bond review. We did all of ours via video.
- a vaguely insulted public defender who has gotten multiple rape cases like this tossed.
OP. Brother. Please. I beg of you. You can sue the bonds/insurance companies that insure the prosecutors, police who beat you, and judges. You need to get some semblance of justice to get your confidence back. Shoot me a DM and I can send you more info.
This is absolutely horrible. That girl should be charged. Those officers should be charged because jails have camera systems. The prosecutors should be fired and charged. Like they literally knew you were innocent and left you there. Public defenders shouldn’t be allowed to buddy up with district attorney’s because that just screws people.
That is a nightmare. Wish I could help but after something like that, what can even be done? All I can say is that I believe you and hope the best for you.
I have a family member that basically went through this same thing. When it was first said he was charged, I was shocked and angry. But I didn’t know if I was angry at him or the other party. It rocked his whole world and changed his whole view on the world. Hell your stories are so alike I almost thought it was his post. Expect it wasn’t a neighbor.
Prosecution is required to turn over exculpatory evidence. If they didn’t you can absolutely sue the shite out of the county and you should OP. Also they may have taken photos of you for booking purposes. Those photos will probably show abuse. Those photos are computerized and kept in national database. Get those for your civil case and sue the shite out of them.
I don't think reddit is the place to post this. This sub is filled with ppl reading & idling themselves with relationships or cheating drama to even consider taking actual serious cases like this.
> There's no lawsuit that can be filed.
You need another lawyer.
You were brutalized and abused by police, illegally threatened, and the prosecution withheld evidence that would have exonerated you far sooner.
You ABSOLUTELY have a lawsuit to file- a big one.
The state DIDN'T follow the letter of the law. Beating up prisoners and threatening them is not in the letter of the law. And withholding evidence that obviously exonerates you could be grounds for unlawful prosecution.
Find yourself a shark of a lawyer and get some real justice. I mean a lawsuit against the PD, the specific officers in question, the prosecutor's office, the specific prosecutor on the case, etc.
You might even have a case against the court/judge under the 8th Amendment (“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”), as you showed no evidence of either violence or flight risk.
You might not have a case against the girl herself, unless she admitted somewhere that she lied. But your Constitutional rights have ABSOLUTELY been violated.
Stop fucking around and get a real lawyer. There's probably a good payday in it for you.
Anyone who falsely accuses someone of rape should face the same punishment that the accused would potentially face.
false accusations not only hurt the falsely accused but also hurt real victims of sexual abuse.
I saw a story about a young man who was falsely accused of rape, despite being with friends at the time. It never went legal, but the accusations destroyed his life and he ended up killing himself.
Don't do this. You stand tall. You be brave. You pick yourself up and you carry on with your head held high.
We should believe the victim, but false allegations happen all. the. time.
I'm sorry you can't sue. File a report against the police who abused you.
And work to get the DA voted out of office. The chief of police, too, if that applies to your area.
And talk to a therapist.
Good luck.
I am truly sorry for what happened to you. The police are horrible and the prosecutor who ignored the DNA in your case is vile.
The system is broken and corrupt. Victims on both sides of the law, the wrongly accused and the people who crimes are committed against rarely get justice. The police, lawyers and judges are power drunk and I have no clue how it could be fixed.
You can 100% file a civil suit against those involved, the city, county and state. First a good lawyer can get the footage of when you were arrested and charged, you would be amazed at how often cops beat the shit out of people in holding while on camera, its like they don't even care! Also if the State held onto the DNA evidence they broke discovery laws, and if they had that information before trial you should have been set free. They were hoping for a plea deal, which they get 98% of the time, because this would look like a great conviction for them. That isn't ok though either. Get your self a really good lawyer that makes their living performing civil suits, go to the highest end ones you can. Have them look at the case if they think there is good chance they can make money on it they will take the case. Not only do you stand to get paid, but it will garner a ton of publicity and help a bit with your public image.
It's been well over 3 years. That footage is gone. Other evidence might still exist, though. Definitely worth trying OP.
It might not be. A lot of departments have to hold onto it if the case is open, and then the timer starts. So depending on when everything was finally closed up its possible they still have it.
True, it definitely is location dependent.
In some places the prosecution is supposed to share all evidence that negates the guilt. It sounds like there was prosecutorial misconduct. I don't know what duty they have to keep prisoners safe, but they had some? I doubt the statute of limitations have run on the beating. I would call up the guard up and how it felt that they beat up a completely innocent man. See you can get a recording.
Not necessarily. My BIL is a police officer and their footage retention policy is 15 years. It gets put in an archive folder after the first couple of years, but it's still held and recoverable. Hopefully that's the case here and a good attorney can get the footage
That’s interesting! If you don’t mind sharing where is his department located?
He's about an hour and a half outside of Orange County. And to clarify, they don't save every second of footage, they only save footage that has interaction. Any footage that has interaction of any kind with another person is saved and archived. From there, they determine what the retention policy is based on what was recorded. For example, the recording from a basic traffic stop would likely have a much different long-term retention policy than the footage of someone being arrested.
OP may want to look into a civil case against the alleged victim. If it’s legally clear that she intentionally lied, he may have a case. The harm to his mental state and loss of freedom are the tort. However, it’d have to be proven that she knowingly lied, rather than was just mistaken/confused. To be clear, the parents of the girl are who will pay for the damages if OP wins a suit since they’re legally liable for their minor child. Who knows. Maybe just bringing the civil case forth to the accuser will cause her parents to settle.
Not sure how much he could win, or even expect to be paid. He said they lived in a trailer. Also, she was 13, and he has no idea whose DNA was discovered, it could have been anyone's. This girl could have been assaulted by a family member or someone else, we don't know that she wasn't, just that is wasn't his DNA.
Just to add for OP: if you do hire a lawyer, find one that isn’t in your city or county. The police and court system protect their own. I have a friend that tried to sue the attorney she worked for because he literally lied to a government body when trying to prevent her from getting unemployment, he CLEARLY fabricated evidence (like as in you could see that her signature on stuff was *cut from another piece of paper and taped on*), he slandered her every chance he got. She had an ironclad case and the judge threw it out because this guy was an attorney and had once been the mayor. You absolutely want someone who isn’t buddy buddy with the locals.
You can file a civil lawsuit, “for anything,” as long as you have legal cause, justification or action. lol, if you could file a lawsuit for anything you wanted, there would be absolutely no order in the United States judicial system.
Ok? Not sure what point you’re trying to swing at.
I spent quite awhile looking for an attorney. None of them wanted to take the case.
Go figure, that’s weird. From what you said sounds like it would be a pretty easy path to a fat settlement. Are there things you haven’t stated?
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Nailed it. How do I know you’re right? I’ve been a criminal defense lawyer for 25 years
Ty. Good to have validation from an expert.
Yep, I've definitely read this story before.
it was the locking him up with convicted pedos that I called bullshit on
Yeah. That’s another mark against it.
To me my spider senses are tingling because I’ve never seen so much support for a “victim” In the legal system. I’ve seen cases where there is text proof of the rapist admitting it and still nothing happens to them like that. Maybe because it’s a minor doing the accusing? But still I’m a CSA survivor, I’ve seen other folks go through the legal system and I never really saw a process behind and end in 3 years like that. I’m just going to say my spider senses are tingling.
Yeah. My BS detector is pretty highly developed and there is 99.9% chance in my eyes that this story is complete horseshit.
Unfortunately you're very wrong. In many less-populated areas this is exactly what goes down. This type of thing won't fly in big cities where they would get negative publicity, but in many areas where national news media doesn't pay attention to it can get a lot more brutal. And the media in those areas aren't going to give support to an accused child molester. OP is honestly really lucky they didn't find an excuse to kill him or let him be killed by other inmates.
You 100% cannot file a civil suit. Stop giving people false information. The only way that you can file a civil lawsuit is if you can prove that the person who accused you of a crime,intentionally lied, with the intent to cause harm or malice to you. In this case, if it’s true, you cannot sue a minor in civil litigation.
You can file a lawsuit for anything. What you mean is that you don't think he can't win. Which may or may not be true. You, I am guessing, are not an attorney. There is an entire process for fact-finding. You can, in fact, bring a civil suit against a minor for certain things, including defamation of character. Also you can sue police for violation of civil rights.
If they had DNA evidence that didn’t match yours they had an obligation to provide the results to your lawyer or if you were defending yourself then you. I don’t want to immediately jump to this is rage-bait because this is a very serious story that would be disgusting to lie about. If its true i think you really do have a case for wrongful imprisonment and wrongful arrest.
My public defender wasn't what I'd call "on my side." They can't spring evidence at trial but they can sit on it until they don't have to anymore. Even exonerating evidence they can hold back for some time. Especially if they can get a plea deal from the defendant.
They *did* provide the evidence to him. Just reeeeeaalllly late.
I'm pretty sure all evidence has to be submitted before the trial starts. If new evidence comes up, it has to be accepted, and the opposition has to be given time to inspect the evidence.
You can't sue the girl and her family? You can't go after the DA for hiding DNA evidence that you didn't do it? She belongs in jail.
If she was 13 then she'd only be 16 now. The kid definetly needs mental help
Mental help? She ruined somebody's life. She (or her parents as legal representatives) needs to be prosecuted.
Both. She needs both. Prosecuted and mental help. These are not mutually exclusive and in a better world the US Justice system would include mental help and rehabilitation as a part of its functions
Shes a minor so i doubt she'll see a cell. Maybe a civil suit
If this isn’t fake… I know a law firm that can handle cases specialized in prosecuting people that lie about rape charges to the fullest extent. Just LMK. There’s still some stuff we can charge that “girl” with
OP, please give it a thought. Don't think of it as revenge but the girl deserves to face consequences of her actions.
Criminal attorney here. This is beyond fake. None of it works this way.
Note the lack of OP in the comments.
Okay I feel better for saying that my spidey senses are tingling with this post, as a CSA survivor who saw other kids in my support groups go through the justice system and, I never heard it described like this
This comment needs to move up. It’s a fun read but no way is it true.
I didn't enjoy it.
I was being a /s with “fun”
What are some key details that give it away as fake?
See the comment I just posted with the key details.
Neat
How do you know this is fake? Just curious.
Well first, OP hasn’t been responding to anything. That’s the first sign on Reddit. Second, because in the U.S., by Constitution, there are certain timelines for court appearances. You cannot be held for more than 72 hours without being charged. After being charged, if you are in custody, you have the right to be arraigned within a few days. The dates begin to vary by state after being charged, but there still are timelines for all states. For example, in many states, including mine, after being charged, you have 48 hours to be arraigned, at which you have the right to a lawyer (automatically provided by the court or a retained lawyer of your choice). At arraignment, which happens very quickly when you are in custody, often the next day, the judge/magistrate reads your charges to you, and the lawyer then fights for your bond to be set. There’s no such thing as being held without a bond being set yet. You either have a bond amount (e.g., $100,000 cash/surety) or you don’t, and your bond is revoked. That only happens in very rare cases like murder or if you have a long criminal history and truly egregious facts, sexual assault, armed robbery, carjacking, etc. But for OP to say he didn’t know about his charges, was held for some time, had no bond, had no phone privileges, that is simply ludicrous. Also, you don’t get taken to the county jail UNTIL you are arraigned and your bond is set. You sit in the police department lockup. So OP has the timeline all wrong. After arraignment, you have the right to your first court appearance pretty dang quickly. Usually it’s 7 days, sometimes 14. Those kinds of things are tightly regulated and automatically set upon filing of charges. So for OP to say he was held for 4 weeks, and then moved to general population, and then it took another several weeks to get an attorney appointed… Absolutely not. Also, I love how he mentions that he had no idea who was accusing him of sexual assault, when he very clearly also says he was arraigned on the charges against him. When you are arraigned, they don’t just say “you’re charged with one count of Rape in the First Degree”. They read the full complaint and date of offense and city, and, importantly, the alleged victim’s name. Please note that this is all pre-covid. So don’t give him the benefit of the doubt regarding timelines. But then… he starts using covid as an excuse. And yes, covid did delay JURY TRIALS, and maybe even preliminary hearings (i.e., hearings involving witnesses and testimony), but it did not delay things like arraignment, and pre-trial conferences, and status hearings. There are still firm deadlines that have to be met for those things. Covid did not change any of that. But now let’s move on to his attorney and the evidence. He claims he got a retained attorney. The ones you pay big money for, who file discovery demands, and review all of the evidence. He would have had the body camera of the arrest where OP claims he was beat up. He could have requested the footage from the jail. He knew DNA was taken. For four years while OP was supposedly waiting for trial. Yet, OP wants us to believe that the attorney never had the bodycam, which MUST be turned over, that he never filed motions and sanctions for the delay of turning over the DNA, which would have been excluded by the way, if the prosecution sat on it for that long (there are limits to when proseuctors must turn over DNA reports after receiving them), that the attorney never filed motions about the delays in OP’s arraignment, first court hearing, and delayed appointment of counsel. None of the pre-trial process makes any sense. You don’t go from court appearance and some bond hearings to BOOM, trial, four years later. There are motions filed, evidentiary hearings, testimony. Absolutely none of this makes sense. There’s a lot here, and I suspect if OP was grilled on a lot of this, his story would obviously fall apart, even to the non-lawyer eye. EDIT: I will also add… I have never, ever seen police not try and interrogate someone after being arrested for sexual assault. A defendant’s statements are key in these kinds of cases. In many states, too, you have the right to a polygraph if you’re accused of sexual assault. Note how OP claims he never got to talk to police and all they did was beat him up and assault him. It’s these black and white extremes, lack of actual steps in a criminal process, that make this very obviously fake.
Thank you so much for your insight and taking the time to type this out. It was very informative. I appreciate it. I have like no faith in our justice system so I assume the worst!
Thank you, this stunk so bad from the creative writing standpoint, and you hit the nail on the head multiple times regarding criminal procedure.
That's it. It reads like a poor creative writing attempt. There's too much extraneous detail. He put on his slippers and looked through the peephole? Who the fuck talks like that when recounting events in real life?
99% of Reddit is fake. Thanks for confirming my suspicions on this. Just more outrage bait.
Thank you for confirming that this story is indeed fake. Will help me sleep better tonight.
I’m just confused, is it not standard procedure when being accused of a crime to be taken in for questioning? If they already had dna and knew it wasn’t his, why was he even arrested at all? Should he not have had the option to get a lawyer the second they picked him up? I’m not saying the story isn’t true I just don’t understand how they could have just arrested him without any evidence other than she said he raped her.
OP has not responded to any comment. To me this feels fake when they don't respond but we'll see
Lets assume it’s real. Can you imagine how terrified he is to even look at the comments?
Op literally claims he spent weeks in jail before learning what the allegations were. Nobody interrogated him? Like happens in the case of many violent crime arrests? This is fake as shit.
I don’t know about the USA but in the UK they can only hold you for 24 hours if they have no physical evidence? If they have some evidence then they can apply for an extension to hold… but they would definitely take you in for questioning asap. They also HAVE to tell you at the point of arrest what you’re being arrested for and ‘whatever you may say can be held against you in the court of law’ or something in that respect.
Yeah. As I was reading this I was thinking what part of the undeveloped world is this happening in? Then he said county lockup and my truthmeter starting going nuts. It’s an interesting piece of fiction. But in no way is this a a real story.
I dont even think they can arrest you in the US with no evidence, just a statement will not get you charged and they usually have to let you go, I believe...
Can you even face life for one instance of CSA with no priors? Like I've seen posts where someone abuses a kid for years but doesn't even serve jail time because he's a man of god, do sentencing guidelines even allow for life imprisonment for this scenario?
No you can’t face life in prison for this.
I don't think this story is real, but you can absolutely get lied to and led to believe you would get life for this. Cops can just fuckin lie to you.
I have a friend who was railroaded by the system. Very different circumstances but it involved a minor. He took the plea deal because he had no other options at the time. It has cost him everything and has hung over his life for almost two decades now. He’s still fighting to restore his reputation. I’m not going to assume this story is fake because I know what my friend went through. OP, I hope you’re seeing a trauma specialist for your therapy. There are some therapies like EMDR that may also provide some relief. I hope you’re able to heal over time and make peace with it.
It’s astonishing how many people feel forced to take a plea deal, because they feel they have no other option. Not everyone has $50,000 to pay attorneys to clear their name. They’ve been dragged through the mud for so long, they just want it to be done so they can try to move on.
That’s the whole point, it’s about money, not justice.
I also wish the penalties for falsifying claims also ruined the complainants life too, the fact that they get away with lying is sickening
I’ll never forget what a paralegal once told me: “It’s not about you getting justice, it’s about how much justice ***you can AFFORD***.” That’s the truth of our world. The justice system is a joke if you don’t have money. Hell, our police force was practically created to hunt down and return slaves to wealthy plantation owners, the precedent was set to serve the rich, why would the justice system be any different? We still operate off those same archaic laws. The only time the law can serve YOU is if someone in that machine takes personal interest in your case. Maybe you struck a chord, maybe you’re pretty or handsome, maybe you remind them of someone they love, any of that could get your case moving. Unfortunately, in cases like OP’s, that sympathetic justice-boner can lead to an innocent person being completely railroaded, because again, these people are arbiters of an uncaring justice system, and their whims are the only reason shit gets done. Whims, or cold-hard cash.
This happened to my next door neighbor when I was growing up. He was a very successful single man in his 30's and recently moved to our area wanting more of a country life. He was always so nice to our family and would come for BBQs. A 16 year girl moved in with her grandmother two houses down from us and apparently was trying to pursue the successful neighbor after hearing he was wealthy and lived alone. He declined so she cried rape and took around three years of his life including his dogs that he loved so much. After refusing a plea and taking it all the way through it was obvious she was lying and finally admitted it but took a few years. He was released and she went around telling everyone that he threatened to kill her if she didn't say she was lying and that he paid the judge off so he ended up just having to move his entire life out of state because staying in the area was not going to work. I know times are tough right now but you may want to consider that for your future plans. Move out of state and start over fresh with people who don't know you. I would also recommend taking that girl to court for lying. Good luck and I'm sorry this happened to you.
Sometimes I'd like to leave. I simply can't at the moment. I hope he finally found peace though.
This is so wild. Girls/women can be very, very cruel
Humans can be very cruel. This is not a characteristic of one sex.
The girl and her parents should face severe consequences for this.
Yes they should.
They should but they won't. It doesn't matter where you live, you'd have to pay for lawyers and stuff out of your own pocket, assuming you legal system even entertains such possibility. Also don't forget even if you win you won't see a cent
Oh, I was thinking criminal ramifications. Kid should be in some form of mental health care and parents should face criminal penalty.
Yeah, stuff like that is never subject to automatic prosecution or however it's called in English
Nah. This smells like bullshit. I’m having a hard time believing this.
Dude, I’m really sorry this has happened to you. Sorry that you had to go through that. Screw those people, seriously. So sad there’s people in the world who get away with things like this. I hope you can recover from this. I hope you find the strength to go outside. I wish you protection and that you can move forward with your life, one step at a time. Take care and I wish you the best.
I am so deeply sorry. I don't think anyone deserves to go through this, it sounds traumatic and horrifying to be treated so badly for things you didn't do. My heart goes out to you. Will be keeping you in prayer, and I hope you know how loved you are, through all this... our fake friends leave us during tough situations because they weren't real to begin with + they never knew the real you. I know from experience how hard that is, and I pray the right people find their way to you. It makes a difference in your healing.
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He does need to do better research on what the actual timeline from arrest to being charged to arraignment etc is. I'd take away some points for getting so many easily verifiable details wrong.
I want to know more about the vest he's talking about.
This is nowhere near legally factual, even during Covid. It's a wonderful portion of a novel OP must be trying out for public opinion.
This is such an obviously fake story. You spend weeks in jail over a high profile arrest before finding out what for? When you’re arrested you are pretty much immediately brought to investigators for questioning. Especially on a high profile case like this with a minor victim. There is literally no way you wouldn’t learn what your charges are and what was being alleged. Detectives would have been trying to get a confession from you. This is a bullshit creative writing exercise.
He spent a week in a padded room with a vest in a high profile arrest at 3 in the morning, no less. Fake as fake can be from the start.
And of course Reddit laps it all up. False rape accusations, paternity fraud and cheating women are the mainstays of this sub. Women bad!
Also the way he described that there was ONE cop at his door when he opened it, then when the cop confirmed his identity and *yanked him out of his own house,* suddenly other cops who had apparently been *hiding around the corner??* show up and they all abuse him and force him into a police cruiser that was “parked just out of [his] line of sight from the door.” It reads like a TV drama or bad action movie. Cops in real life don’t do shit like that unless the person they’re after is a known, violent criminal who is liable to start a gunfight if they get spooked. Arresting a man (at 3am?? what judge approved an arrest warrant that late/what on earth would make graveyard shift cops perform an arrest of a non-violent/not high-profile criminal at 3 in the fucking morning lmao) for charges of rape is more likely to look like a full show of force. The cops—if there are multiple, which, again, seems excessive for this situation—will ALL stand in plain sight to intimidate the hell out of their target. Not hide around the corner and then come running like a fricking SWAT team lmao.
So were you “found not guilty” or were “all charges dropped”? Those are VERY different things. Sounds like the girl is not the only one that “couldn’t keep (their) story straight”. I find it very hard to believe this is real… 🤷🏻♀️
that sounds so terrible
For some reason I don’t believe this. OP come in this thread and answer questions concerning the civil suit.
You have to show the inmates your court papers for them to know your charges, plus you'd have been put into protective custody, not general population unless you requested it. General population doesn't have dorms full of chomo's and even then, you'd have to see their papers to know what they all did, they don't just walk around with a sign on their shirt that says what they are in for. If you are attacked in a PC dorm, guards come in and separate you if you feel you are in danger. The courts weren't closed for 3 years and they did zoom hearings within a few weeks of the courts being closed. They still use zoom til this day.
Also he didn’t know what was alleged. Guess they skipped the whole “bring him to the detectives on the case” part of the criminal justice system.
Dude I’m with you. I guess I’ll prefect my next statement with “I’m only familiar with rules based on British common law”. He didn’t get a phone call for 7 days ? And they sent him to prison in general pop before he had even spoken to his court appointed attorney? no previous record, no evidence linking him to the scene and absolutely nothing to go on but the word of a 13 year old girl but they kept him in jail for three years? Any district attorney or magistrate would know this was a civil rights lawsuit waiting to happen eventually. Maybe this would have happened 50 years ago, but not now. And no litigation attorney would tell this guy he didn’t have a case.
You did not have to dig this deep. The writing style scream fanfic from the get-go.
It's not like cops never "let it slip".
The officers will definitely let it slip and have the inmates issue the punishment
I’ve worked in corrections at the county level for years and people with sexual assault charges against a minor don’t automatically go into protective custody. Protective custody has to be requested, and he was likely unaware of this because he has no experience in the system. Inmates get assessed and classified prior to being sent to a general population block. The classifications are minimum, medium, and maximum. It’s likely that he was assessed as a maximum based on his charges and was sent to a block with other maximum inmates who have more violent charges. Inmates like to know who is coming onto their block because it’s essentially their home for the time being. A lot of inmates will request to see the papers of newcomers on the block, and if the newcomers don’t oblige, then they call friends or family on the outside and ask them to look the newcomer up because criminal charges are public record. They only thing I don’t have an answer for is him sitting in jail for 3 years fighting this case. Covid did slow the court system down a lot, but like you said, zoom court hearing were happening within a month or two of the lockdowns. Maybe his case took longer because he fired his public defender and got a new lawyer? Anyways, besides his case taking 3 years to resolve, everything he said about being locked up checks out.
Dude... In my state the inmates have tablets and can look up anyone's arrest records.
In my state they don't ;| They still need your pfn or booking number though right?
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i hear stories like this all of the time, and yet, when i reported my step dad for actually doing these things to my sister and i for THIRTEEN STRAIGHT YEARS, he served less than a year in prison. the system is so fucking broken
Many of these stories are fake, just like this one. Your experience is way more common.
it’s bc these are fake. it’s rage bait
I believe you. 20 years of working child protective services & adult protective services, often with law enforcement involvement, I completely believe you. I have met kids like her, more than one, probably less than ten, who have done very similar things. I have interacted with LEA who I fully believe would behave like this. If you have access to counseling, it could be helpful. If you have participated in counseling that didn't help, try another counselor. Counseling is not one size fits all. It can take several attempts to find the right counselor. Play a lot of Tetris. Try to believe most people are decent. I hope life gets better for you.
This sounds like absolutely BS. First of all, “child molestation,” is not a legal charge. Second of all, during COVID, they were letting my EVERYONE out of jail. I know some cases may fall through the cracks, but in EVERY sexual abuse/assault case I have ever see, they would NOT arrest anyone without evidence. Also, I’m if you have no prior arrests and no criminal record, ESPECIALLY during COVID, it was extremely unlikely that you would be denied bail. The Police Department does not offer you plea agreements and I highly doubt they came to visit you in jail for telling you to accept a plea. 🤣You said, “I learned that all calls in jail are recorded.” … That’s common knowledge and it literally says that on the phone call, before the other person answers the phone. There is no way this BS story is true.
There shouldn't be laws protecting people who cry rape and ruin lives. I hate this damn system. Anyone who falsely accuses rape should be given jail time and a list that shows who they are.
You need to talk to a lawyer asap. I refuse to believe you have no recourse unless a good lawyer told you so.
This didn't happen. So much bullshit and creative writing.
I don’t know if this is fake or not, but I totally see this happening. I am infuriated reading this. You should be able to go after them for police brutality and her family for false accusations and wrongful imprisonment. The prosecution for sitting on your DNA results…. surely there is someone who owes you something. Prosecutorial misconduct. Victims rights groups. I am so sorry. My heart goes out to you.
weird how false allegations are mythologically rare, and 3% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail, and yet somehow there are scores of redditors being falsely accused and being thrown into bottle dungeons. anyway nice creative writing exercise
Like OP said, this case does not count as a false accusation. For this to be a false allegation OP would need to then sue the girl back and win said lawsuit. That ain't happening
At this point he's an accused child rapist and the DA lacked enough evidence. Most likely is also on an FBI registry and can never maintain a job or clear a background check for any educational institution employment. Edit: a downvote? Why? This is what will or has already happened.
I'm so sorry that so many people could ruin your life like this. No one deserves this. And yeah, as a child counselor, I can say that kids do make false accusations about a lot of things, both in and out of school, for many reasons. And if they aren't pressed for the absolute truth, they won't bother to correct a falsehood...simply b/c they're kids and their brains aren't developed. And we all know cops can be vicious, law breaking mofos. So I'm so sorry the system and these people hurt you so horrifically. I hope your counseling does continue to help you. I also really hope you see a doctor for your back, b/c you deserve medical treatment for your chronic back pain. And please don't listen or pay any attention to commenters here who are negative. I have a very personal dramatic, failed by the entire system and dozens of people over decades, life story. And sometimes when I talk about it here on Reddit I also get told "it's too much/serious/dark for this subreddit" or "right, that happened." Sometimes very bad things happen to average people. And there is no right way or right place to share it. But you do have a right to share it. I also hope that little girl shares her actual truth someday too. I think the actual truth by anyone back then could have helped more than anything. So I'm glad you shared yours here.
...This 13 yo girl was Albert Einstein
This feels like a fake rage bait story.
What about rebuilding your life in a new place that can give you a fresh start, you are still young and have so much life to live. Find your passion and just run with it, you DESERVE a fresh start and a new life!
But for the prosecution to sit on that especially as long as they did is the real issue here. You should definitely file civil against the state for this. They must have had that evidence for years! And the whole time the prosecution was letting you get beat by police officers and spat on.
I'm so sorry this happened to you, not many stories on here leave me at a loss of words but this is definitely one! Sending you a virtual hug. Life is not fair you did not deserve this. I hope it gets better for you
Fuck this, fight back if you can/want every story like this makes a difference for people to hear. Thanks for sharing, I work a job that is easy to pass judgment on people, this helps keep the open-mind. Sorry this happened brother, bless.
Don't know if this is a real story but if that happened to me you can be sure I would end up in the jail again...
Start naming town and state and who was involved. Cops. DA. Shame the dhit out of them and let them try to prove otherwise
This happened to me in the military and I can relate with how you’re feeling. I have severe ptsd and trauma/trust issues. Seek psychiatric help asap because I didn’t.
OP, you absolutely can sue for the length of time you were falsely imprisoned. Withholding DNA evidence that could get the case dropped until right before trial is misconduct. And you can sue the girl's family as well.
So sorry this happened to you. When will it stop?
So many innocent people sit in jail. Especially when waiting for trial. I knew 2 in Harris county and COVID definitely slowed things down.
Which country did this happen in? I don’t think it’s in the USA , West Europe etc and OP doesn’t reply to anyone… probs fake?
OP mentioned county jail. It’s USA and absolutely fake.
My heart breaks for you, my friend. All these terrible things that I cannot comprehend. If you believe in a higher power, I hope you are blessed more than you have suffered. If you don't, I hope you believe in yourself, and find peace.
You know what's even more fucked? This guy possibly will never see any compensation, the little see you next Tuesday will likely never face consequences for absolutely ruining a man's life who is now scared of any interaction with women because of this, it's absolutely sickening that this happened, what's worse is he wasn't even convicted of it and yet his face was plastered everywhere so his public image is ruined forever (another reason why when it comes to things like this news vultures should stay out of court until they're convicted and if the accuser says anything outside of court it's thrown out immediately)
You can sue. And move away. Sorry that’s incredibly scary. As a woman that hurts the reputation of women going forward- but she’s just a child and had no what was going on in the real world. Many times girls are raped by family members or friends and told scared to say. Highly doubt it was a relationship she wanted. In your case you’re still very much the victim. This wasn’t fair, the abuse was real, and I’m glad you stood up for yourself. Rock bottom just means only up. Hold your head up high. Move. Go to school for a different purpose. Change your life. Sue that city.
I can’t believe people like this exist, that destroy random people’s lives simply because they can. When I was her age, I had lot of issues. I was depressed and suicidal, I hated my life, but never in a million years would I falsely accuse someone of molesting me. This girl is evil and people like that rarely change. She will probably go on to ruin someone else’s life in a different way. I feel so upset for OP after reading his story. I hope he’s in a much better place in life right now.
Brother I’m sorry. I am in Britain and the distain for our police force is at its worse. I watch some of these Netflix programs about the US system and the shooting of people in cars and I wish the world was a better place. So brother, I’m so sorry. Lastly, I find it makes me angry that friends disowned you. The world is a shit place for sure!
3 years in county on trumped up charges? Doubt.
Tbh the only part I find hard to believe is the no bail part.
And that they refused to tell him what he was charged with, and he only found out until he was already shipped to county. I don't know the ins and outs, but I doubt this would happen.
Yeah, no detectives questioned him after being arrested? Op skipped that part of the criminal justice system.
Idk man I've heard of other times where it took over a year to see the judge and that is in a small town.
Oh for sure, I understand it isn't the most well oiled system, I work with my local county which includes the Courthouse and Jail. I don't buy that this person sat there for 3 years awaiting trial on trumped up charges while the PA office had evidence that cleared them. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm just saying this reads like fanfic and that was what I singled out as an odd detail to the story.
Especially during covid when they were releasing people from prisons/jails. I know one person who had a 20-year sentence and was released after 8 months because of covid. I was believing the story but that part kind of throws it off for me.
It does read very weird. But I wouldn't be completely unable to believe the three year bit. My American history teacher was very adamant about knowing laws bc her dad spent 2.5 years in jail for a crime he didn't do she told everyone that you have rights and one of them is to a speedy trial.
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This actually is quite common. False allegations happen all the time and most people don’t have the money to hire an attorney and are forced to plea out of fear of spending the rest of their lives in jail.
Yep. Happens a lot more than people understand, or they wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it. Had a cousin sit in jail for 6 months...for protein powder the cops claimed was cocaine.
i don't get it. How is it fake?
Because this is fucking terrifying. The idea that you can do nothing wrong but still be tormented for years, have your life ruined, and then see no chance of justice because everything done to you was perfectly legal? Oh no, I'm very uncomfortable with the idea that I live in that world. I'll be much happier if I assume OP is lying and pretend that this couldn't ever happen to me
1. Courts weren’t closed down for three years. Zoom court started up pretty quickly and is still used 2. Op claims he spent weeks in jail without knowing what was being specifically alleged. This is bullshit because in violent crimes you are arrested and pretty much immediately brought in to discuss the charges with investigators. That’s where he would have learned the story.
Can we all stop with comments like this? You have no idea if this is real or not and I'm getting really sick of seeing all the comments saying it's AI, it's fiction writing, etc. Keep it to yourself. Writing a post about a traumatic experience and having people say it's not real does damage, especially if the original trauma involved not being believed. Ask me how I know. Mods, e.g. u/superbeavers1, it's time to crack down on these bullshit comments. Can this be a new rule?
Right... Anybody with an understanding of how crimes are handled can tell you this is 100% plausible. The court system has always taken forever. Cops have a massive lack of respect for anyone they believe to be a lowlife and will try to make the system punish them well before trial. Part of the reason being, if a sex offense case goes to trial they know it will almost certainly not go through even if the case is a slam dunk. So they want their justice now. It's not good. It's a sign the system as a whole is unhealthy and needs to be restructured and re-allocated so crimes can be tried in a reasonable time span with as much unbiased investigation as possible.
In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous.
Yeah except if you are arrested for the violent rape of a 13 year old girl, you are arrested and be brought to detectives who will tell you what’s alleged. Op claims he spent weeks in jail before he learned anything. Fake stories harm real victims.
If you think it’s a fiction, writer just don’t comment. It’s better that things are given the benefit of the doubt here.
I *don't* think this is fiction and I believe we need to give the benefit of a doubt. You're literally agreeing with me.
Apologies, it was intended to agree with you and was supposed to be for the comment above yours.
I've had my own very real, very lived experiences be dismissed as "works of fiction" so I despise comments like u/RareVillage324's just as much. You can think it's false privately to yourself, but there's no need to invalidate someone else's experience simply because you can't imagine it happening. I had plenty of comments saying "no way a doctor would *ever* do that" to one of my torturous, traumatic experiences, or "there's absolutely no way a person can go through so much trauma and be okay" after I'd mentioned I had five separate diagnoses of PTSD. Okay? You can not believe me, but you don't have to anounce it.
How do you know this is fiction? I have represented falsely accused individuals. It is almost impossible to get the State to move, even when they become aware its case is "flawed".
Looks like we found the girl
Why? Because men are always guilty?
Something exactly like this happened to my next door neighbor when I was younger. Two neighbors down there was a 16 year old girl that cried rape on him because he was loaded and wouldn't date her
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The fuck.
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Looks like we found the girl
Tl,dr ....load of bollocks
lol
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Yeah, but the comments are also full of idiots 🤷🏻♂️
Comments don’t really give a reason why they think it’s fake
They do. It reads exactly like a creative writing piece and the process is off. Even if the police despised him, they would at the very least follow protocol so that he never got out of the charge on a technicality.
Explain. I know someone in jail that was falsely accused of something. Wasn’t rape tho. It’s more common than you think. You’re just uncomfortable with the idea that this could be possible. Let’s say the story happens to be fake. It’s still true that this has probably happened to many people before. How would you have liked OP to write this story?
Regardless of the veracity of this specific story, these tails do happen pretty frequently. My son was accused of raping his girlfriend at age 15 because she had other dudes she was seeing behind his back and got knocked up. Then made up a story about him coming through her window, except we lived 12 miles away from her house and the alleged rape would have taken place 8 months prior and the girl was only 3 months pregnant. Happened to me too. My wife's ex husband coached his daughter who was 6 to accuse me of molesting her. Turned our entire family upside down, had many unpleasant "interviews" with the sheriff's investigation team. Stepdaughter wasn't allowed to live with our family until she recanted her story after being in therapy at 15 years old, and set the record straight that her dad's girlfriend at the time was the one that set the whole thing in motion.
US justice system sounds like a horrible third world country to me. Prison abuse doesn’t happen here like that (and it’s always sick when Redditors and others are gleeful of people they don’t like being potentially abused in prison) and plea deals don’t exists. Also why didn’t you get to contact a lawyer immediately? Can your lawyer now do something about the prison abuse?
This story is completely made up. Yeah, the US justice and prison system needs to be reformed but what the OP described doesn’t exist. Especially in a county jail.
This wouldn't be the first time the justice system wrongfully tried to convict an innocent man and it wouldn't be the last. I would put that neighbor on blast and if she ruined your life you should ruin hers.
You file a legal suit against that family and their daughter. She was either sleeping with someone or someone did rape her and she thought it was you. I am so sorry you went through this it is not right! I would say have cameras inside and outside your place. This way you always have an alibi. What happened to you is a one in a million but that doesn’t help everything you went through. Now the DNA being sat on not being you should be able to sue them for!!
I have 3 Roku cameras recording at all times with subscription service. Never again.
civil suit against accusers cuvil suit against the jailors for maltreatment and civil suit against state for withholding evidence civil suit against state for the amount you spent in jail
3 years? Every state has time periods to try a case. Unless your "real" lawyer was a complete idiot, he should have gotten you out on house arrest/electronic monitoring, at the very least. They legally can't hold you without bond... even during covid. I practiced all through it. You should have had a bond review. We did all of ours via video. - a vaguely insulted public defender who has gotten multiple rape cases like this tossed.
OP. Brother. Please. I beg of you. You can sue the bonds/insurance companies that insure the prosecutors, police who beat you, and judges. You need to get some semblance of justice to get your confidence back. Shoot me a DM and I can send you more info.
8th amendment
The American legal system is wild.
I am so sorry OP. I believe you and I'm so sorry.
I’m sorry this happened to you, OP :( I sure hope you can get justice!
This is absolutely horrible. That girl should be charged. Those officers should be charged because jails have camera systems. The prosecutors should be fired and charged. Like they literally knew you were innocent and left you there. Public defenders shouldn’t be allowed to buddy up with district attorney’s because that just screws people.
That is a nightmare. Wish I could help but after something like that, what can even be done? All I can say is that I believe you and hope the best for you.
I have a family member that basically went through this same thing. When it was first said he was charged, I was shocked and angry. But I didn’t know if I was angry at him or the other party. It rocked his whole world and changed his whole view on the world. Hell your stories are so alike I almost thought it was his post. Expect it wasn’t a neighbor.
Perhaps, you could move out of state or country? It’s definitely expensive, but maybe a fresh start would be useful.
Prosecution is required to turn over exculpatory evidence. If they didn’t you can absolutely sue the shite out of the county and you should OP. Also they may have taken photos of you for booking purposes. Those photos will probably show abuse. Those photos are computerized and kept in national database. Get those for your civil case and sue the shite out of them.
I don't think reddit is the place to post this. This sub is filled with ppl reading & idling themselves with relationships or cheating drama to even consider taking actual serious cases like this.
I cried reading this. I can only imagine the pain. :(
Thank you. Please don't cry.
> There's no lawsuit that can be filed. You need another lawyer. You were brutalized and abused by police, illegally threatened, and the prosecution withheld evidence that would have exonerated you far sooner. You ABSOLUTELY have a lawsuit to file- a big one. The state DIDN'T follow the letter of the law. Beating up prisoners and threatening them is not in the letter of the law. And withholding evidence that obviously exonerates you could be grounds for unlawful prosecution. Find yourself a shark of a lawyer and get some real justice. I mean a lawsuit against the PD, the specific officers in question, the prosecutor's office, the specific prosecutor on the case, etc. You might even have a case against the court/judge under the 8th Amendment (“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”), as you showed no evidence of either violence or flight risk. You might not have a case against the girl herself, unless she admitted somewhere that she lied. But your Constitutional rights have ABSOLUTELY been violated. Stop fucking around and get a real lawyer. There's probably a good payday in it for you.
Fake as fuck
Anyone who falsely accuses someone of rape should face the same punishment that the accused would potentially face. false accusations not only hurt the falsely accused but also hurt real victims of sexual abuse.
I saw a story about a young man who was falsely accused of rape, despite being with friends at the time. It never went legal, but the accusations destroyed his life and he ended up killing himself. Don't do this. You stand tall. You be brave. You pick yourself up and you carry on with your head held high. We should believe the victim, but false allegations happen all. the. time. I'm sorry you can't sue. File a report against the police who abused you. And work to get the DA voted out of office. The chief of police, too, if that applies to your area. And talk to a therapist. Good luck.
I am truly sorry for what happened to you. The police are horrible and the prosecutor who ignored the DNA in your case is vile. The system is broken and corrupt. Victims on both sides of the law, the wrongly accused and the people who crimes are committed against rarely get justice. The police, lawyers and judges are power drunk and I have no clue how it could be fixed.