NY - “Bathroom Cops” Arresting Men in Public Bathrooms After “Shaking Off” When Done Urinating

Original Article

10/09/2014

By John Vibes

A string of recent complaints filed by alleged victims of wrongful arrest are bringing question to NYPD practices of arresting men in public restrooms. There are currently undercover cops posted up in public restrooms across New York City, waiting to catch “sexual predators” in the act.

However, according to dozens of alleged victims, average men are becoming entrapped by these undercover agents, when they have done nothing wrong. Many of the victims have claimed that after urinating, “shaking off” and zipping up their pants, they were accused of “simulating masturbation” in view of the police officer.

The New York Times recently reported that police have been standing in public restrooms and staring down everyone who passes through, while they use the urinals. If the person makes any movements that the officer does not approve of, they can be arrested for “lewdness” with no evidence aside from the testimony of the officer. Since police have been stationed in public bathrooms, lewdness arrests have increased 7-fold. In the past year alone, over 60 people were arrested in one bus terminal restroom, many of them for alleged “lewdness” in the bathroom stall.

Dozens of the people who have been arrested in this trap have sought legal representation from The Legal Aid Society and other independent sources. Many of these people reported that the police made them feel uncomfortable by staring at them while they used the restroom, and it seems that if anyone is guilty of lewdness it was actually the undercover officer.

It is not clear why undercover agents have been placed in these bathrooms to begin with, even Capt. John Fitzpatrick, the Port Authority police commander who oversees the bus terminal, admits that complaints of lewdness in public bathrooms are “few and far in between”.

Although, Fitzpatrick is still standing by the actions of his officers, claiming that the dozens of men who have now filed complaints were in fact being lewd in the restroom, otherwise, he says, they would not have been arrested.

“They are not sidling up to somebody, trying to sneak a peek and misrepresenting what the person is doing, there is no mistaking their behavior,” he said.

One man, accused of “simulating masturbation” says that he was simply “shaking off”, a near instinctual act that is not at all lewd or uncommon.

“I wasn’t committing a lewd act, I was peeing in the beginning, but I was shaking off when the guy stepped back and looked at me,” Mr. Holden, a 28-year-old baker, said of his police encounter.

After Holden walked out of the bathroom he was arrested by police and taken to jail. When Holden was being processed in the jail he overheard one of the other cops refer to his arresting officer as “the gay whisperer”. This was a fairly offensive comment for Holden, consider the fact that he is a gay man, and feels that may be the reason why he got arrested.

“I wore a leather jacket, fitted clothes. I guess that fits the description of a homosexual male, I was like, O.K., although I’m gay, I wasn’t doing anything,” he said.

Holden’s story is just one of dozens, and although there may be a few perverts in the bunch, it is safe to say that a vast majority of these people are innocent.

Who's Lying, Who's Self-Justifying? Origins of the He Said/She Said Gap in Sexual Allegations

Video Description:
The Woody Allen sex scandal of 2013 triggered a national conversation on who to believe, with people lining up on each side as if they knew what really happened. Based on recent research on how people navigate the often tricky waters of sexual negotiation, Dr. Carol Tavris shows that it is entirely possible in some sexual assault cases neither side is lying, but instead both sides feel justified in their positions. This talk was considered one of the best ever given at The Amazing Meeting.

FL - Florida cop (Javier Perez) doesn’t like being filmed, has activist falsely detained for public masturbation

Javier Perez

Original Article

06/04/2014

By David Edwards

A Florida activist has said that he discovered that he was framed for public masturbation by one officer who did not like the idea of police being recorded on video.

In a video posted to his YouTube channel late last week (Below), Cop Block Central Florida activist Michael Burns explains that he was watching Lakeland police officer Javier Perez as he worked an off-duty shift at Hookah Palace in January.

During the filming, an on-duty police officer arrives, and tells him that he has been reported for doing something in his vehicle that he “should be doing in private.” That officer releases Burns after quickly concluding that he was only recording police.

Burns later obtained an audio recording of the person who reported him, who tells the dispatcher that he thinks a “suspicious person” is “masturbating.” He also obtains the telephone number of the caller. An Internet search determined that the number belonged to officer Perez.

“I did a Spokeo search and it came back to a Javier Perez,” Burns told the Photography Is Not A Crime Blog.

Perez’s sergeant also confirmed to Burns on camera that an officer was being investigated for making false reports, but he refused to give the officer’s name.

Photography Is Not A Crime’s Carlos Miller, however, doubted that an internal investigation would result in justice.

“But we already know that when cops investigate cops, it usually leads to cops protecting cops,” he wrote. “But since it’s already been confirmed the calls were made to the department’s non-emergency line, we can already see where they are going with this; essentially preparing to sweep this under the carpet by informing Burns that no law or policy was broken because the calls were not made to 911.”

Burns pointed out that Florida Statute 817.49 does not limit false reports to the 911 emergency line.

Burns was scheduled to meet with the sergeant who was conducting the internal investigation on Tuesday night, and he planned to record the meeting.

LA - Drunk lawyer (Jennifer Gaubert) tries to seduce a cab driver

Jennifer Gaubert

Original Article

04/15/2014

She tried, pleaded and used every trick in her book — but ultimately left frustrated after failing to seduce a cabbie, who rebuffed her multiple attempts, saying he was loyal to his girlfriend.

Now video of that 2012 incident has been released to the public after the encounter sparked a dramatic legal battle.

Initially after the incident, the woman, Jennifer Gaubert, 33, contacted the New Orleans Police Department alleging cabbie _____, 39, attempted to blackmail her after secretly recording her in compromising sexual positions.

The 39-year-old driver was arrested, though later released and never charged. In September 2013, Gaubert was charged with making false statements to investigators, according to WDSU-TV.

However, after viewing the video at a trial last week, a judge convicted the 33-year-old lawyer of simple battery, the Times-Picayune reported. She is appealing.
- That's all?  What if a man was doing this to a woman?

Now, the man is suing the police, contending he was falsely imprisoned and suffered emotional distress because officers didn’t verify Gaubert’s claims before detaining him. According to the Times-Picayune, _____’s lawsuit claims he was victim of a false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and kidnapping. The cabbie lost his job and his mugshot appeared on several news outlets connecting him to the incident.

According to the lawsuit, Gaubert aggressively attempted to seduce him and refused his orders to leave the cab.

The video starts after the two both concede they kissed. It shows Gaubert in the front seat with her legs open and dress lifted up.

“Please,” she asks, tugging on her underwear as she begs _____ to “come here.”

The taxi driver, however, refuses saying he is loyal and dedicated to his girlfriend.

“Can you chill out for two seconds? You’re hot. You’re a f***in hot guy. I’m a girl. It happens,” Gaubert is heard saying in the video.

“No, I’m a faithful man,” _____ counters.

Eventually, the 39-year-old is able to convince the promiscuous lawyer that he is not interested. He later drops her off at her house.

“Your girlfriend is a lucky girl,” Gaubert quips as she exists the taxi.

AUSTRALIA - False abuse claims are the new court weapon, retiring judge says

Justice David Collier

Original Article

07/05/2013

By Harriet Alexander

Allegations of child sexual abuse are being increasingly invented by mothers to stop fathers from seeing their children, says a retiring Family Court judge.

Justice David Collier, retiring from Parramatta Family Court at the end of the month after 14 years on the bench, sees unprecedented hostility infiltrating the Family Court, and a willingness by parents to use their children to damage one another.

”If a husband and wife really get down to it in this day and age, dirt flies,” Justice Collier said.

The worst are those mothers who direct false allegations of abuse against former partners.

”When you have heard the evidence, you realize that this is a person who’s so determined to win that he or she will say anything. I’m satisfied that a number of people who have appeared before me have known that it is one of the ways of completely shutting husbands out of the child’s life.”

”It’s a horrible weapon.”

Such cases are fraught for Family Court judges. Once an allegation has been made it is impossible to ignore. The court must deem whether there is an ”unacceptable risk” of abuse occurring in the father’s care.

Sometimes the allegations are obviously fabricated, other times they are probably true.

”It’s that grey area in the middle that you lose sleep over at night, and you do lose sleep,” Justice Collier said.

”They’re difficult to disprove. The allegation lingers there.”

Barrister Esther Lawson, who sits on the family law committee at the NSW Bar Association, said anecdotally there appeared to be an increase in allegations of sexual abuse coming before the court, but the reasons were unclear.

She also warned that the consequence of false allegations could return to haunt the accuser, including the loss of time with their children.

”Clearly there are cases where there is reliable evidence that sexual abuse has taken place and these matters need to be properly ventilated,” Ms Lawson said.

”But if the court finds that allegations have been maliciously motivated then there may be potential consequences, including a change in the child’s primary residence.”

It is rare for Family Court judges to speak publicly about their views. Many are still haunted by the 1980 murder of Justice David Opas and 1984 bombings of the Parramatta Family Court building and homes of two judges.

Judgments are now more involved, partly so the losing party can understand the reasoning behind decisions. Justice Collier said the cases were also more complicated, as litigants raise more matters and run each of them to Earth. Facebook pages are frequently called into evidence.

”A mother declares she lives a chaste and modest life and then on Facebook says, ‘Guess what I did last night’, and Dad’s only too happy to put it before you.”

He puts much of the venom down to a generation of people more assertive of their rights, and now entering relationships.

But it disheartens him to leave the court so, after a satisfying career. He used to keep a magic wand, which he has now passed on to his colleague Justice Bill Johnson.

”I wished I could wave that magic wand and say, ‘Be nice to each other’,” Justice Collier said. ”That’s the only order I would have to make.”

MN - Big win for college coach wrongly accused of child porn

Original Article

Whatever happened to being innocent until proven guilty?

04/10/2014

MANKATO - An emotional saga that began with a child pornography accusation 18 months ago ended in final victory Thursday for the ex-football coach of Minnesota State University-Mankato who was fired even though the charges against him were found groundless and dismissed.

A state arbitrator ruled the university wrongfully terminated football coach Todd Hoffner last May for videos found on his school-issued cellphone of his nude and partially clothed young children acting playful after bathing at home.

The arbitrator ordered Hoffner’s reinstatement to his four-year contract along with back pay for lost earnings from his six-figure salary.

Hoffner was suspended in August 2012 when a school technician noticed the videos on his phone while repairing it. He was arrested four days later on child pornography charges, but three months later a judge threw out the charges, ruling the videos did not meet the legal definition of child pornography.

“The videos under consideration here contain nude images of defendant's minor children dancing and acting playful after a bath,” said Judge Krista Jass. “That is all they contain."

But Hoffner never regained his coaching job. Upon dismissal of the charges he was assigned to administrative duties in the athletic department, and then fired six months later. He was hired by Minot, N.D., State University as head football coach in January.

Hoffner insisted all along there was nothing inappropriate in the videos. He said his children – then ages 9, 8 and 5 – were simply acting silly. He said he was an innocent victim of authorities acting overzealously in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal at Penn State University.

Christopher Madel, Hoffner’s arbitration attorney, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune the overseers of the Mankato university should now “clean house” and remove those officials who pursued the pornography charges and then fired Hoffner.

Read the rest of the story

UT - Woman (Sarah Rutz) pleads guilty to false rape report

Sarah Rutz

Original Article

03/12/2014

By Kevin Jenkins

ST. GEORGE - A woman accused of filing a false police report that she was raped on a jogging trail under Sunset Boulevard last year pleaded guilty to the charge Wednesday as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

Sarah Rutz, 27, pleaded guilty to a felony count of making a fraudulent claim to the crime victim reparations fund and a misdemeanor count of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.

Two other counts of false information to an officer were dismissed under the agreement.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 7, but Judge James Shumate allowed the attorneys to dictate the terms that the court will commit to because a new judge will preside over the final hearing after Shumate’s retirement at the end of this month.

Under the terms of the plea and sentencing agreement, Rutz will serve 30 days in the Washington County jail on a weekends-only schedule and must complete restitution payments to the victim fund.

After completing her jail term, she will serve a period of court-ordered probation. Once the probation is finished successfully, Rutz can file a motion to have the felony count reduced to a misdemeanor, but Shumate warned Rutz that if she violates her probation she could end up doing additional jail time.

“Judge (G. Michael) Westfall will be bound to those terms … if you successfully complete your probation,” Shumate said.

In May 2012, Rutz reported she was attacked by a stranger on the path that crosses below street level near Sunset Boulevard and Dixie Drive, touching off a temporary closure of the trail amid a police investigation and search for the suspect in the community.

Male DNA samples not belonging to Rutz’s husband were collected during a sexual assault response at the hospital, and Rutz twice reported seeing her alleged attacker in the community while she received more than $25,000 in financial assistance from the crime victim fund for recovery-related services.

But in September 2012, police reported Rutz’s story had unraveled after her husband found evidence she had contacted a man she met through the personals section of Craigslist. Police contacted the man, who said he and Rutz had a relationship, and the DNA collected during the investigation was found to match a sample he provided.

WA - Ray Spencer’s Fight For Justice

Original Article

In 1984, the five-year-old daughter of Clyde “Ray” Spencer, a Vancouver, Washington police officer allegedly suggested that he had molested her.

The ensuing investigation lasted eight months and ultimately Clark County authorities charged Spencer, 37, with sexually abusing the girl, her nine-year-old brother, and Spencer’s five-year-old step-son.

In February, 1985, Spencer pled no contest (an Alford plea) to seven counts of first-degree statutory rape and four counts of complicity to statutory rape, arising from allegations that he made the children perform sex acts with each other as he watched. He was sentenced to two life prison terms, plus 14 years.

Spencer later said he entered the plea only after learning that his defense attorney had prepared no defense for the case. His subsequent appeals to set aside the plea were denied and he was denied parole five times because he refused to admit guilt and get sex offender treatment.

After about a decade in prison, Spencer hired Seattle attorney Peter Camiel, who, along with a private investigator, discovered that prosecutors had withheld medical exams showing that there was no physical evidence of abuse, even though the child’s mother contended they had been repeatedly raped. Also withheld was evidence that at the time, the children’s mother was having an affair with the detective supervising the investigation.

The discovery prompted Washington Governor Gary Locke to commute Spencer’s sentence in 2004, although Spencer was placed on supervision for three years.

Not long after, Spencer’s two natural children came forward to say they were never molested or raped by their father. Both of the children testified at a hearing in 2009 that the abuse never occurred. The boy testified that after being repeatedly and extensively questioned, he finally agreed to say he was abused so that the police would leave him alone. The girl testified that she doesn’t recall what she told police, but she did remember getting ice cream. The step-son refused to recant and contended he had been molested.

In October, 2009, based on the Brady violations and recantations, a court of appeals vacated the plea, saying, “The recantations that remained consistent through direct and cross-examination coupled with the significant irregularities in how the case was prosecuted…require that we grant Spencer’s petition and remand for withdrawal of his plea.” On September 29, 2010, Spencer withdrew his plea and at the same time, Clark County prosecutors dismissed the charges.

In June 2011, Spencer, who moved to Sacramento, California to live with the woman he married while in prison, filed a federal lawsuit against Clark County as well as police and prosecutors involved in the case. In February 2014, a jury awarded Spencer $9 million in damages.

See Also:

• Ray Spencer’s Fight For Justice (Video Available)
• How Ray Spencer, Falsely Accused of Molesting His Children, Finally Cleared His Name (Video Below)

VA - Life forever changed by sex-offender list

Edgar Coker

Original Article

03/01/2014

By PAMELA GOULD

At the age of 22, Edgar Coker thinks it’s normal to go straight to work and then straight home every day to spend all of his free time hidden behind closed doors.

It’s a frame of reference the former North Stafford resident forged from living nearly one-third of his life with the undeserved label of rapist and having that information available to all via Virginia’s online Sex Offender Registry.

Coker’s perspective is one Nicole Pittman has seen repeatedly in studying how children and teens are impacted by being listed on sex offender registries across the country. Pittman, a national expert on the topic, authored the 2013 Human Rights Watch report “Raised on the Registry: The irreparable harm of placing children on sex offender registries in the U.S.”

Juveniles on sex offender registries must continually re-register, are limited in where they can go and are publicly ostracized, all of which create a sense of imprisonment, Pittman said.
- It's the same for adults as well.

“It’s almost an institutionalized feeling,” she said.

Like a prison without walls.

It took a team of attorneys five years of legal battles to correct the injustice that began in June 2007 when a 14-year-old girl told her mother that Coker raped her inside their Aquia Harbour home.

After he was sentenced, the girl admitted she lied to avoid getting in trouble for having sex with her friend.

The legal team’s efforts resulted in a Feb. 10 ruling by Judge Designate Jane Marum Roush, who vacated Coker’s convictions and ordered his name removed from the state’s Sex Offender Registry.

But nothing can erase the 19 months he was confined in juvenile detention, or the nearly seven years he and his family have endured harassment and the fear of making some misstep that leads to additional charges.

And while they celebrate the legal victory, neither Pittman nor Coker’s team expect he will ever recover from being labeled a rapist.

“That damage has been done,” Pittman said. “It’s sort of a lifelong sentence that will be with him.”

A ‘HAPPY-GO-LUCKY’ CHILD

Growing up in a household with five siblings, Edgar Coker was outgoing and “a little jokester,” his mother, Cherri Dulaney, said during an interview shortly after his exoneration.

Read the rest of the story

See Also:

• Edgar Coker’s name to be taken off Va. sex offender list years after false accusation

UK - Father tells of ordeal after woman (Sharlene James) falsely accused him of Brighton rape

Sharlene James

Original Article

02/21/2014

By Anna Roberts

A woman who falsely accused an innocent man of dragging her into gardens and raping her has been jailed for two years.

The innocent man Sharlene James alleged attacked her was arrested on suspicion of rape.

He was held at a police station in Sussex for more than 14 hours where he was stripped naked and subjected to intimate medical examinations and grueling questions.

As police on the ground cordoned off a huge area of Kemp Town, Brighton, he wept as officers asked him why he raped the woman.

At the same time James had claimed she was raped, police were already investigating a series of similar attacks in the Kemp Town area.

Police yesterday said her lies prompted fears a “serial attacker was at large”.

But the couple only shared a taxi and did not kiss - let alone have sex.

Yesterday - more than two years after the original 'rape' was alleged - James, now 26, of Parham Close, Brighton, was convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

She had claimed at Lewes Crown Court yesterday she had suffered temporary amnesia and forgot what had happened during the early hours of November 9, 2011, when she claimed she was dragged into a bush in New Steine Gardens by a man she had just met and subjected to a violent attack.

She named the man as her attacker, despite the pair - who had only met briefly - sharing a short taxi ride and engaging only in brief conversation.

The man, who has children, said he had been at a nightclub in Brighton with friends on the night of Tuesday, November 8, 2011, when he bumped into James who he had never met before.

They got chatting and he, her friend and his friend shared a taxi to Kemp Town. They passed the gardens where she alleged the rape occurred, but nothing happened.

Recounting the story exclusively to The Argus yesterday, he said: “I just thought it was a normal night, nothing untoward.”

“We were just chatting and having a laugh.”

“We did not have sex, or kiss, nothing happened.”

Two days later the man, now 29 and living in Brighton, was out when his girlfriend's father called him and said the police wanted to talk to him.

He said: “My father-in-law, that is what I call him, said, 'the police have been looking for you'.”

“I laughed it off at first. I could not think why they wanted me.”

“They had asked for me by my first name, but that was all.”

“I thought that was weird. I phoned up the police and they said they needed to speak to me urgently.”

“They said, 'It's a case of rape'.”

“I felt cold all over. I knew I needed a solicitor.”

“I went in and they arrested me on suspicion of rape.”

“I was so scared. I was thinking, 'I haven't done anything'.”

“I was stripped naked and they did medicals on me. They did swaps on me.”

“The questioning was grueling and intense.”

“It felt unreal. I was so upset and angry.”

“I was in the station for 14-and-a-half hours and then my girlfriend told me I couldn't go home.”

“My girlfriend initially believed it. She didn't think another woman would make it up.”

He said since then his girlfriend had come to terms with the fact he was not lying. But he has not told her about the ongoing case to prosecute James for her false claim.

He added: “I kept it from my loved ones - I did not want them to have to live through it again.”

“Sharlene's story was ludicrous - she said she had amnesia.”

“But she tried to wreck my life.”

“I would not wish it on my worst enemy.”

He explained the case against him was dropped within a week after CCTV evidence proved he was not in the area at the time of the alleged attack.

“But it has still had an impact,” he said. “The mental impact has been ridiculous.”

“If I had been found guilty I would have been looking at ten years.”

“She has got two. It is good that she is jailed but it should have been for longer. It should have at least been four.”

“Women are raped and they are raped violently. Lying about it makes a mockery of genuine rape victims.”

He said the false allegation has also cost him about £800 in lost work and staying in hotels while the case was being investigated.

Detective Chief Inspector Carwyn Hughes said: “Police were already investigating a number of incidents in the Kemp Town area when this allegation was made.”

“As in all cases we took this report very seriously and were quick to respond.”

“On launching an extensive investigation we quickly concluded that this offence did not take place and aside from raising unnecessary anxiety and alarm, many hours were wasted that could have been put to better use investigating genuine reports of crime.”

“I would like to stress that this will not affect in any way our response to reports of sexual offences and I would urge anyone who is a victim to contact us, even if the incident happened a while ago.”

“We will take your report seriously and it will be dealt with sensitively and confidentially.”

“Call us on 101 or email 101@sussex.pnn.police.uk.”

FL - Woman (Tammy Hamilton) stole her date's SUV, then falsely accused him of rape

Tammy Hamilton

Original Article

02/17/2014

By Carlos E. Medina

A Valentine's Day tryst ended with an Ocala woman in jail, accused of stealing her date's car.

_____, 48, called police Saturday to report that Tammy Hamilton, 47, had stolen his Ford Explorer, according to Ocala Police Department reports.

When officers arrived at Hamilton's home, _____ told them he picked her up Friday and they spent Valentine's Day together. He said she spent the night at his apartment, reports state.

When he awoke on Saturday, _____ said, Hamilton and his Explorer were gone. He called a friend who drove him to Hamilton's residence and a short time later she reportedly drove up in the Explorer._____ said that, when she saw him, Hamilton tried to put the vehicle in reverse but he was able to reach through the passenger side and remove the keys, according to reports.

Hamilton went inside the house while _____ waited outside for police to arrive. When officers spoke to Hamilton, she denied using the vehicle and blurted out that _____ had paid her for sex, reports state.

Hamilton then accused _____ of rape. After further investigation, including a trip to the hospital, Hamilton admitted she made up the rape claim, according to reports.

Hamilton was booked at the Marion County Jail on one count each of grand theft auto and giving a false report to law enforcement. She was being held Monday in lieu of a $5,500 bond.

FL - Woman (Alexandra Westover) faked rape after skipping work: authorities

Alexandra Westover

Original Article (Video available)

02/16/2014

By DOYLE MURPHY

A Florida woman wasn’t raped after all — she just didn’t want to get in trouble for missing work, authorities said.

Alexandra Westover, 21, of Boca Raton, had reported a frightening, broad-daylight attack to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.

The tale, which authorities now say is fake, was full of details.

She told detectives she had a flat tire about 9 a.m. on Tuesday and pulled over in the side of the Florida Turnpike.

A white man in a white vehicle soon pulled over and asked if she needed help, Westover reportedly told authorities.

The man supposedly asked for a sharp object to pry the hubcap loose. When she opened her passenger door and leaned in, the man attacked, shoving her from behind and sexually assaulting her in the car, Westover reported, according to police.

Crime fighters launched a full-scale search for the phantom rapist, wasting more than 100 man hours before Westover finally admitted the hoax, according to a sheriff’s office statement.

Detectives were already growing suspicious of the woman’s tale of a rush hour rape, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The Florida Highway Patrol reviewed turnpike video and couldn’t find images Westover’s vehicle anywhere on the recordings.

Her dad eventually called the sheriff’s office and told them Westover had admitted to making up the story, the paper reported.

A deputy followed up and Westover admitted she lied because she didn’t want to get in trouble for skipping work at her great-uncle’s house, the paper reported.

Westover didn’t respond to phone calls from the Daily News.

She was arrested on Thursday on a charge of falsely reporting a crime and a misdemeanor perjury count.

She was released Friday on her own recognizance, according to jail records.

NY - Man haunted by sex offender with same name & birthdate

Original Article

02/12/2014

By Lou Raguse

BUFFALO (WIVB) - Imagine not being able to land a job because you have the same name and birth date as a convicted sex offender. A Buffalo man is facing that very tough situation right now.

It is an indescribable frustration facing _____, a North Buffalo man with family to provide for, who says he’s not giving up until his name is cleared.

When your name is _____, you know you’re not the only one out there.

“I told my mom I wanted to change it. She said no, I gave you that name,” _____ said.

Unfortunately for this _____, there is another man in Buffalo who shares the same name, the same date of birth, and just happens to be a registered sex offender.

“There is no way I should be associated with this guy. We don’t look the same,” he said.

They don’t have the same middle name either. But that doesn't matter. Because _____ the sex offender is now haunting _____ the father of 5, who’s never been convicted of a serious crime.

“Being wrongly accused of being a sex offender is the worst. It’s worse than being accused of being a felon,” _____ said.

_____ waited ten years to be accepted for rental assistance, but his acceptance was short lived. When Belmont Housing Resources pulled his criminal history and it said he was a sex offender, they denied him.

“I needed this to be able to provide for my family. And it was taken away from me for something I didn’t do myself. I didn’t do that,” _____ said.

_____ printed off a copy of his criminal history report. And sure enough, that sex offender part is in there.

According to Erie county central police services, it is an unfortunate result of how these NCIC background checks work. They search by name and date of birth, and if no one asks a follow-up question, mistakes like this can happen.

That’s not good enough to _____, who feels like his identity has been stolen.

“You guys made this mistake. Why can’t you guys fix it?” _____ said.

_____ says he hasn't been able to land a job for the last two years — even fast food jobs. Two years ago is when _____ was added to the sex offender registry by the Buffalo Police Department.

Belmont Housing Resources will keep his case open and work with him to get assistance.

AK - Nunn Cleared of Any Wrong Doing After Arrest for Sexual Abuse of a Minor

Original Article

02/12/2014

By DAVE BENDINGER

"It just kind of sucks," said Nunn, now 21, after being falsely accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl two years ago.

How do you get your reputation back after being falsely accused of a sexual crime against a minor … that’s the question Kameron Nunn, 21, is asking himself, after prosecutors recently dismissed a second degree sexual abuse of a minor charge against him.

The case dates to May 2011, after the Office of Children’s Services reported to Dillingham Police an allegation that a 14-year-old girl had had sexual relations with an adult male. Nunn believes the girl gave police his name to cover for her boyfriend at the time. Two and a half years later he was arrested, long after he says the girl told authorities a different version of the story.

VA - Edgar Coker’s name to be taken off Va. sex offender list years after false accusation

Edgar Coker

Original Article

02/12/2014

By Susan Svrluga

A Stafford County judge has ordered a Virginia man’s name removed from the state’s sex offender registry and his conviction vacated after the court ruled that he received ineffective counsel from his attorney.

Edgar Coker Jr. was 15 in 2007 when his attorney, Denise Rafferty, advised him to plead guilty to raping a friend rather than risk being sentenced to years in an adult prison. Two months after he went into juvenile detention, the then-14-year-old girl recanted her accusation. Nonetheless, Coker spent 17 months in a juvenile prison and his name was added to the sex offender registry.

But it’s not easy to undo a conviction.

“It took a team of half a dozen attorneys, dozens of law students, a pro bono law firm, a legal aid justice center and two clinics at U-Va. law school,” said Matthew Engle, director of the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law, which helped Coker.

“And several private investigators,” added Deirdre Enright, the co-director of the clinic.

“It took that team six years,” Engle said, “to undo what happened in 15 minutes in juvenile court.”

Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush ruled that Coker’s court-appointed attorney failed to give him effective assistance because she had done “little or no investigation of the facts of the case” before advising him to plead guilty. Roush cited concerns about Rafferty’s work, including not finding the taped interview with a detective in which Coker said that the girl had invited him into her house and that the sex was consensual and not investigating the accuser’s reputation for honesty.

“The court does not believe Ms. Rafferty’s testimony that [Coker] made a ‘full confession’ to her,” Roush wrote.

Rafferty did not return a call seeking comment. In a July hearing, she told the judge that the family had not cooperated with repeated requests for school records or people who would defend him.

Roush gave Stafford Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Olsen 60 days to decide whether to re-prosecute Coker. A staff member at Olsen’s office said he had no comment on the case. The assistant attorney general and Coker’s attorneys have 21 days to file an objection to the ruling. A request for comment to the attorney general’s office was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.

Enright said that Coker, 22 and living in Orange County, Va., has had trouble getting good jobs because his name is on the list and that his family moved repeatedly to avoid neighbors concerned that he might be a predator. After he was released from detention, he went to high school, where he was a track star. But when he returned to watch a football game after graduation, he was arrested because convicted sex offenders are not allowed on school grounds.

Michele Sousa, the mother of the girl who had accused Coker, said she was very happy “because there’s finally closure — this finally has come to an end.” When her daughter told her that she had lied, “I thought there was some sort of a way to just reverse everything, click the ‘undo’ button and — I didn’t expect to have to go through every court in Virginia and go on and on for years.”

When some of Coker’s attorneys reached him by phone to tell him about the judge’s ruling, he was relieved and pleased, Engle said. “This is all very overwhelming to him, and he is only just now beginning to understand . . . that he’s won, and the end is at least in sight.”

NH - False rape claim gets woman (Cassandra Nickerson) deffered year in jail

Cassandra Nickerson

Original Article

02/12/2014

By Elizabeth Dinan

PORTSMOUTH - A Somersworth woman received a deferred jail sentence on Tuesday when she admitted to falsely claiming she was raped by a specifically named man.

Cassandra Nickerson, 25, of 16C First St., pleaded guilty in the Portsmouth Circuit Court to a misdemeanor charge of making a false report to law enforcement. Her plea was part of a negotiated agreement with police prosecutors who dismissed a companion charge of unsworn falsification.

According to a police affidavit, Nickerson told investigating detective Rochelle Jones that a named man pushed her onto a bed in a Gosling Road motel, removed her clothing, then raped her. She alleged the rape occurred Feb. 23, 2013, and made the false report at the local hospital, police said.

During a subsequent interview, Nickerson told the detective she “made up” the story because she was “embarrassed” by her consensual sexual conduct with the man she accused of rape, the affidavit states.

Nickerson was given a 12-month jail sentence, which is deferred for a year providing she remains of good behavior and continues counseling. After the year, Nickerson is required to petition the court to suspend the jail time for an additional year.

She was also convicted for a charge of breaching bail conditions and given an identical sentence of one year in jail, first deferred, then suspended. That conviction was due to Nickerson’s guilty plea to a charge of theft in Newington, while under bail conditions mandating she remain arrest-free.

UK - Brother of Hull sex offender beaten after 'being mistaken for jailed paedophile'

Leigh Hemingway

Original Article

Once again and innocent person is attacked due to the online (hit-list) registry. This is exactly why the registry should be taken offline and used by police only.

02/12/2014

The brother of a convicted serial sex offender claims he was beaten by four men in his own home after being mistaken for his jailed sibling.

Leigh Hemingway, 32, claims he was called a “paedophile” and beaten over the head with a guitar and punched by four men who had burst into his flat unannounced.

His brother is currently serving four years behind bars for filming up a schoolgirl’s skirt in 2012 after a string of other sex-related offences, including exposing himself to a nine-year-old girl at a city leisure centre in 2007.

Mr Hemingway said: “I just feel like I am being tarred with the same brush as him.”

“I have no convictions for anything like that but just because I have a Hemingway name, I am living in fear.”

On Friday, Mr Hemingway was about to leave his flat when he claims four men burst into his flat unannounced and refused to leave despite his pleas.

Then, they allegedly said: “Aren’t you that paedophile?” before smashing a guitar over his head and repeatedly punching him in the face. His mobile phone and £20 were also stolen.

Mr Hemingway, who had lived at the hostel for a year after months of living on the street following arguments with his parents, said: “You expect something like that from a horror movie but it was really happening. I have had nightmares ever since.”

“There was blood all over the room, the living room and the kitchen. It was like a murder scene.”

“My head just went black and felt dead inside. One minute I was watching Father Ted, the next I was being smacked.”

Mr Hemingway was knocked unconscious and taken to Hull Royal Infirmary, where his head was stitched up.

He is likely to be scarred for life.

The police were called and he told them of his ordeal.

Police have arrested and charged a man in connection to the incident.

He has appeared at Hull Magistrates’ Court charged with grievous bodily harm with intent, affray and theft.

Now, Mr Hemingway is too scared to return to the hostel for fear of being attacked again.

He has also been branded a grass by friends of the men because he went to the police.

He said: “I have been called a paedophile before and I have brayed people for saying it.”

“I feel like I am a vulnerable person just because of who my brother is and now, I am even more vulnerable.”

“I just want some help.”

Since _____ was convicted, Leigh has had nothing to do with his brother.