Man spends 6 years in prison over false rape accusation

[thraashman]

Sounds like two juries screwed up.

Actually, I would think neither jury screwed up. He plea bargained out the criminal prosecution, which means a jury wasn't involved. And since that goes down as a conviction, I'm fairly sure that can be used as evidence in the civil trial. I could be wrong about the second part. His plea bargain probably helped her civil case.

I would say his lawyer screwed up by suggesting a plea bargain.

I'm sure criminal charges are sure to follow this young girl. I'm also sure a review will be made as to why Mr Banks was encouraged to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit with what appears to be no real evidence. Medical malpractice may get all the attention, but there is such a thing as legal malpractice as well.

In addition, man is it just me or are rape claims in this country totally crazy? Why is it that women who are raped in these publicized stories never go to the cops or a doctor right away and have DNA evidence to back it up? I mean, if I was raped (myself being a dude) I'm pretty sure I would immediately be spilling my guts over it rather than waiting 4+ weeks (as many rape cases I've read about state happened) before going in to report the guy.

I mean geez if you were raped and left alive, how long would you take before reporting it? There honestly should be a law stating if you don't report the rape in 2 days so that collection of DNA evidence can occur (without a solid obvious physical reason you could not do so) the case should be immediately thrown out.

The reason for late report or low incidence of report is largely psychological. It's not like it's a small secret or anything. Having never been raped I doubt you could even begin to imagine the psychological trauma it causes. Most rapes actually go completely unreported. Many times rape victims are made social pariahs. If they know their rapist, they may feel it's their own fault because they "allowed" it to happen. If someone witnesses a murder and takes a week to report it, should the murderer be allowed to go free? Your whole argument is one big "blame the victim" scenario without considering what they went through.

 

[Craig234]

There's a lesson about the issue of 'he said, she said' meeting 'beyond a reasonable doubt', making innocent people vulnerable to false conviction - but at the same time, not convicting them making all kinds of real rapists who are caught be found not guilty if they're even charged, because many rape cases will come down to that issue of consent that has no more evidence than 'he said, she said' - it'll be a free pass for date rape. 'Oh, she says I raped her? Well I say it was consensual and she's lying'.

However, in the rare case like this - which sadly might never have been corrected if not for her admitting it privately - she should be punished harshly.

There's also some question about why she got $1.5 million from the school - that money would buy a lot of teachers.

And what's right for him for compensation? No one but the girl clearly did wrong intentionally - so he's clearly been wronged, but is the state liable? Not sure why.

If the state does compensate him, it seems more for a goodwill measure that we want to do something for victims of false imprisonment. Which has some merit.

It's not easy what to do to improve this - except putting the girl in jail.

And even as that sends a message to the next girl not to make a false accusation, it also sends a message to those who do, don't admit it.

 

[Craig234]

His plea bargain probably helped her civil case.

Of course it did. Civil trial standard is 'preponderance of the evidence', and a criminal conviction is normally considered having automatically met that burden.

The questions in the civil trial would be why the school was liable and determining the damages (how do you put a price on being raped?)

I would say his lawyer screwed up by suggesting a plea bargain.

That's not clear. He may have felt a conviction was too likely with a longer sentence.

Sadly, recovering her $1.5 million seems unlikely as well.

 

[woolfe9999]

I'm sure criminal charges are sure to follow this young girl. I'm also sure a review will be made as to why Mr Banks was encouraged to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit with what appears to be no real evidence. Medical malpractice may get all the attention, but there is such a thing as legal malpractice as well.

In addition, man is it just me or are rape claims in this country totally crazy? Why is it that women who are raped in these publicized stories never go to the cops or a doctor right away and have DNA evidence to back it up? I mean, if I was raped (myself being a dude) I'm pretty sure I would immediately be spilling my guts over it rather than waiting 4+ weeks (as many rape cases I've read about state happened) before going in to report the guy.

I mean geez if you were raped and left alive, how long would you take before reporting it? There honestly should be a law stating if you don't report the rape in 2 days so that collection of DNA evidence can occur (without a solid obvious physical reason you could not do so) the case should be immediately thrown out.

According to Banks' website, he had a consensual make out session with her and that same day, she reported him for kidnap and rape. It's a bit unclear what happened here in terms of forensic evidence. Maybe she claimed he used a condom. In truth we don't know if there was other evidence apart from her statement. The plea arrangement was obviously a risk-benefit based on the fact that he faced potentially decades of imprisonment if he had been convicted.

- wolf

 

[woolfe9999]

Actually, I would think neither jury screwed up. He plea bargained out the criminal prosecution, which means a jury wasn't involved. And since that goes down as a conviction, I'm fairly sure that can be used as evidence in the civil trial. I could be wrong about the second part. His plea bargain probably helped her civil case.

I would say his lawyer screwed up by suggesting a plea bargain.

There's virtually no chance there was even a trial in the civil case either. Since he pled no contest, his plea may have been inadmissible in the civil case, but it doesn't matter much. The school district, being aware of his plea, would likely have settled. Probably no jury has ever heard this case.

 

[woolfe9999]

Damn, I just looked into something and it's pretty messed up.

The charge of making a false report to the police, regardless of the crime you are reporting, is only a misdemeanor in California:

http://law.onecle.com/california/penal/148.5.html

You could still be charged with felony perjury IF you give false testimony.

However, there was no trial here, so unless she testified before a grand jury or at a preliminary hearing, a misdemeanor may be the maximum sanction here.

She'll still be civilly liable to the school and Mr. Banks, but unless I'm reading this wrong, the criminal liability might not amount to much.

 

[alzan]

I'm trying to figure out who got fucked here.

Taxpayers?
Prosecution and Defense attys?
The wrongly convicted man?
All of the above?

 

[alzan]

Seems to me that if you do the time you should be able to do the crime. That seems like an acceptable recompense for false accusations of rape.

This from the guy who thinks abortion is a crime?

Yes I know it's Off Topic and not even comparable. Just trying to get a gauge as to the depths of your depravity.

 

[dmcowen674]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...ootball-standout-exonerated-in-rape-case.html

Summary:
Girl cries rape
Man goes to jail and registers as sex offender
Girl collects $1.5million in civil suit
Girl says "lol jk" after man spends 6 years in jail
Girl keeps money and isn't punished for what she did

Ok boys and girls, let's play a game. Who can spot what's wrong with this story? :\

Saw that story on the news.

They didn't mention anything happening to her or her family.

Has she been charged?

Did they strip the over $million dollars they got?

 

[Sunburn74]

Because that's the way it's always done?

Prosecutor: Plead guilty and you're out in 10, otherwise you're going away for life scumbag.

Accused: But I didn't do anything.

Prosecutor: Nobody believe rapists.

N00b State Appointed Defense Attorney: You should probably take it.

Accused: OK.

Prosecutor: Great, now somebody call my publicist and tell him to add my latest win to the article about how I'm running for state representative.

Hey just because it doesn't happen very often and just because you don't hear about it all the time, doesn't mean the possibility isn't there.

Legal malpractice is quite real. You have a case where all you really have against a guy is the word of a girl and he's told to take the plea bargain (even when he denies sex even occurred). [Had this been donald trump or bill gates accused in exactly the same way, do you think they'd have been told to take the plea?]. Again, I don't know the specifics of the case, but pending freedom, it'd be very much in this young man's interest to see what legal avenues are for going after the lawyers who apparently did him such a disservice and probably did not uphold a certain legal standard. Doctors get sued for doing the same all the time (failing up uphold a certain accepted medical standard).

The reason for late report or low incidence of report is largely psychological. It's not like it's a small secret or anything. Having never been raped I doubt you could even begin to imagine the psychological trauma it causes. Most rapes actually go completely unreported. Many times rape victims are made social pariahs. If they know their rapist, they may feel it's their own fault because they "allowed" it to happen. If someone witnesses a murder and takes a week to report it, should the murderer be allowed to go free? Your whole argument is one big "blame the victim" scenario without considering what they went through.

First of all I want to make it clear. I never blame rape victims for anything. Period. Also I stated what I would do if raped (or assaulted, or robbed, and etc) and stick to my guns. Asking that people timely report crimes lest the case never been seen in court is not a horrible and terrible thing. Crimes already have statutes of limitations for prosecution. I simply am asking that the statute of limitation on rapes (these crimes typically hinge on just hearsay and often are gotten wrong by juries, etc) be shortened to periods where actual evidence can be gathered. Otherwise the trial becomes a case of hearsay and too many good men are rotting in prison based on hearsay and their unfortunate lack of credibility in court. Whatever happened to guilty men going free to protect innocent men from going to jail? (I can understand a young girl (<18) claiming psychological trauma as the reason for failing to report, but I cannot accept an adult claiming that to where I would actually believe it).

 

[nehalem256]

The reason for late report or low incidence of report is largely psychological. It's not like it's a small secret or anything. Having never been raped I doubt you could even begin to imagine the psychological trauma it causes. Most rapes actually go completely unreported. Many times rape victims are made social pariahs. If they know their rapist, they may feel it's their own fault because they "allowed" it to happen. If someone witnesses a murder and takes a week to report it, should the murderer be allowed to go free? Your whole argument is one big "blame the victim" scenario without considering what they went through.

Or maybe its because the majority of women who are "raped" dont think they were?

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_campus_rape.html

But the most powerful refutation of Koss’s research came from her own subjects: 73 percent of the women whom she characterized as rape victims said that they hadn’t been raped. Further—though it is inconceivable that a raped woman would voluntarily have sex again with the fiend who attacked her—42 percent of Koss’s supposed victims had intercourse again with their alleged assailants.

 

[amdhunter]

I'd have to splash battery acid in her face after that.

 

[blankslate]

If she has a facebook account out her post the story on her wall etc. etc.

 

[dank69]

How does abstinence prevent a girl from falsely accusing you of rape?

I was running with the false assumption that she had DNA evidence since the lawyer suggested that the client just plead no contest.

 

[MotionMan]

I was going to post the story about him getting NFL tryouts. When I searched I found that this was a Repost.

MotionMan

 

[Atreus21]

This from the guy who thinks abortion is a crime?

Yes I know it's Off Topic and not even comparable. Just trying to get a gauge as to the depths of your depravity.

Yeah. Trying to criminalize the act of killing one's own children. Freaking depraved man.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

The girl-criminal should receive 2x the sentence that the man-victim received and 100% of her assets should be transferred to him.