r/interesting • u/MobileAerie9918 • 4h ago
Context Provided - Spotlight This is the moment captured when former high school football star breaks down in court as rape charge is dismissed after the 16-year-old accuser admits it never happened, following six years in prison.
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u/Business_Fishing_574 4h ago
They made a movie about this, destroyed his life. I'm glad the NFL took him on afterwards
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u/Ancient-Civilization 4h ago
What team?
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u/redditbdum 4h ago
The Seahawks gave him a chance and then the Falcons IIRC. He never made it with either team though.
His name is Brian Banks
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u/Whole_Mongoose1854 4h ago
Not surprised. He missed a lot of crucial development time in sporting terms.
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u/ExpiredPilot 3h ago
Yep. Years of workouts with trained professionals and nutritionists, thousands of hours of potential practice lost. Probably struggled to get the most basic supplements like protein.
He never had a chance after prison
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u/Whole_Mongoose1854 3h ago
And all his peers were improving their skills while he was stuck. He’s stagnating at best and they are playing high level college ball.
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u/12ealdeal 2h ago
He’s stagnating at best
I don’t see how there wasn’t genuine regression carrying the mental and emotional weight of falsely being accused of rape and being punished for it as if it were true. Having a promising life and career stripped away for nothing. Traumatic.
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u/Whole_Mongoose1854 2h ago
Dude will be one of those guys convinced he would have made the nfl and it was robbed of him, and his life would have been different. Only this dude has one of the best cases for that being true. Would keep me up at night
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u/WereTheBrews 2h ago
That level of resentment would test a saint. I know its a hope and dream, but a years worth of twice a week therapy should have been paid for by the state and charged to the accusers life.
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u/ManiacalBeet 1h ago
I hear what you are saying, and his loss is extremely remarkable, but it also would be just as tragic if he didn’t miss out on an NFL career, but time with his family, graduation, prom, College, meeting peers and friends and experiencing life. Robbing someone of time is horrendous even in a more mundane circumstance than this.
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u/RadTimeWizard 3h ago
Someone I knew went away for a couple of years. He had nothing to do but work out and play d&d. He was jacked when he came out.
But there's more than strength training to football, so you're absolutely right. Plus, imagine trying to focus on the ball holder (he was a linebacker) and someone running behind you triggers a prison trauma.
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u/Silver_Original6076 3h ago
He did get a job working for the NFL for some time, just not as a player. He seems to be doing good for himself now.
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u/BitterFortuneCookie 4h ago
Quick Google, preseason games with Falcons. Released before regular season. Then went to work in NFL office.
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u/FrogsMakePoorSoup 3h ago
Well, at least he's got some sort of normality back in his life I suppose. Still makes you angry it could happen at all.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 2h ago
What was her motive to do something like that? To deny her own culpability?
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u/OldMastodon5363 39m ago
Her mom coerced her to do it for money. She got a settlement from the school.
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u/Suspicious_Hand_2194 3h ago
What movie, what is it called?
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u/Business_Fishing_574 3h ago
Movie is called Brian banks. It's has a lifetime movie feel to it but it's still good
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u/Boostedtrash112 4h ago
Did the false accuser then go to jail?
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u/forward_yelps 4h ago
She was ordered to pay $2.6m
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u/enjoythesilence-75 4h ago
And she certainly had that kind of money.
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u/Weary_Position_9591 4h ago edited 2h ago
Maybe not but she will essentially be living with that debt her whole life. Not saying it’s appropriate punishment but better than nothing
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u/FlimsyUmbrella 3h ago
Oh no, how awful for her. The dude lost his entire life in 5 years.
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u/djprofitt 3h ago
IIRC he was about to go to college on a football scholarship. Who knows, he might have turned pro.
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u/Niznack 3h ago
Or at least he would have gotten a college education and gotten him a real leg up in the job market. His prospects now are much bleaker
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u/thederpyderp3 3h ago
Not to mention even if she admitted it didn't happen, there's too large a section out there that go "...what if...?" too much.
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u/Direct_Lawfulness_28 3h ago
Happened to me, was accused of planning to kill someone actually (my ex girlfriend)
The police and cps chose to charge me despite all of the ‘evidence’ actually exonerating me.
E.g - they said they had videos of me walking past her house multiple times a week. Going last at the same time 3 times a week, in gym clothes with a gym bag, then an hour or so later walking back the other way with wet hair and change of clothes and the same gym bag. Turns out I was going the gym! 😂
She said she was going to do this in a Facebook message after I broke up with her and didn’t keep it to myself that it was because she cheated.
I was arrogant in my police interview, I said ‘you’ve confiscated my phone, and she messaged me to say she was going to do this so I’m not worried really you’ll read that and you’ll see it’s all an egregious lie’
Well….they didn’t. They didn’t access my phone and refused to let me show them the message. I couldn’t get it anywhere else because fb messages are end to end encrypted - you need the original device to view them.
A year later, a press release about me later, we get to court and my solicitor manages some wizardry that allows me to access the phone as show the evidence. 20 minutes later I’m acquitted.
No action against her, cps chose not to charge her for perverting the course of justice.
The news articles about me? Deleted. Not amended, no new post to correct the story, just deleted.
I still wonder to this day if people in my life believed it or still believe it due to ‘no smoke without fire’
Despite there being no smoke never mind fire.
As a result I have a serious disdain for police and the unfortunate side effect of viewing any story about a man doing harm to a woman as ‘hmmmm…but did he really do that?’…which I don’t like but how can I help that?
Don’t always trust what you see, justice system is fucked.
She also posted that I was on the run in Grimsby after I was acquitted, claimed I skipped court and was on the run - I responded with my own fb story of me in Edinburgh eating hot cross buns with a mulled beer 😂💪
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u/Layers3d 3h ago
Couldn't you sue her civilly? The burden of proof is much lower.
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u/Hollow_Knight_Raven 3h ago
Depending on where you live, you could sue both her and the police and win with relative ease. Make sure to build a lot of your own case before going to a lawyer, though, then offer to pay them if they win.
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u/hellbugger 2h ago
Women like her are why I, a woman, will never "believe all women". I help run a nonprofit organization with my husband that gives support for fathers dealing with family court/alienation/false allegations (it all goes hand in hand and zero support exists for fathers while there is unlimited help and assistance for mothers) and it is truly disturbing how many mothers openly laugh about making life destroying false allegations about their child's father purely out of spite, desire for control and the upperhand in custody. And even when a father proves they are lying in court, I've never seen any real consequences for the liars wasting systems designed for real victims.I am so sorry you went through that. You sound like a bad ass dude!
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u/LockeClone 3h ago
I have a very different but somehow similar story (mine isn't nearly as bad on all sides). I was so straight and narrow before the incident, but you blow up an innocent kid's life and he learn quickly about the law.
Changed my whole world view over the course of a couple months. Police are not designed to be our friends or solve problems. They should be treated as a threat at all times.
I used to be so helpful.
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u/OverthinkingIdealist 3h ago
I'm pretty sure you hit a jackpot there with the police. Isn't there a case of miscarriage of justice or something like that which you can sue them with?
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u/Head_Midnight666 3h ago
I've never been accused of rape, but I did get in trouble after someone hurt me. I was mad about it and harassed people related to what happened to me. What I saw was that the DA purposefully made it look like I made threats that I didn't make. They would take unrelated parts of sentences and put them together while omitting all the context. They're a filthy bunch.
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u/ThisPerformer6828 2h ago
I had something happen to me along the same lines, albeit to a much lesser extent. A coworker confessed ro a crush on me. Went to her house. We had sex. Then, a few days later her boyfriend found texts with her discussing it. She told him I forced myself on her. But, that's where mine ended. I told him the truth and I never heard a peep from either. A mutual friend told me she joined the military and they were still together. It's scary how easily some people casually toss around those devastating accusations.
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u/FlimsyUmbrella 3h ago
Look no further than Reddit and that woman who killed her own kids. She straight up said she did it and people are saying her husband did it.
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u/1omniXLR8trix0 3h ago
IIRC he signed with the Falcons for a bit. Not saying it means he would have been great, but if he could sign with a team after years in prison, imagine what he could have done taking the normal route
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u/YogSoth0th 3h ago
And now he has to live with all the people who will refuse to believe he was falsely accused and treat him accordingly, too
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u/slappadik 3h ago
he lost his entire life the moment he was taken to court. the 6 years on top of it was insult to injury. I hope it gets expunged from his record and he's able to start a new life away from all of it
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u/EitherSpite4545 3h ago
It almost will guarenteed to be expunged. But sadly that's not going to be enough. Background checks these days aren't just checking criminal records, they are also seeing if your name has been in the news or on big stories like this thread.
Worse there's going to be some hiring managers that basically see that he was accused in the first place and it won't matter if he was ultimately found innocent. Just seeing his story will be enough for them to be convinced he isn't worth the risk. Honestly by karmabots like the OP periodically spreading the topic and by us responding to it we are making it worse in some ways (though by a very negligible amount).
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u/reticulatedtampon 3h ago
Not saying it’s appropriate punishment but better than nothing
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u/BluMqqse_ 3h ago
Lifetime of unpayable debt is good punishment
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u/AYolkedyak 3h ago
No this certainly warrants sitting in a cage for a year minimum. Honestly should be double his time.
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u/KungPaoYa 3h ago
No it’s not and way to be soft. That AND prison time of 6 years like him is ideal.
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u/BluMqqse_ 3h ago
As someone with far less debt, debt fucking sucks. And I hope I don't have it hanging over me the rest of my life like millions would
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u/ProofAd9861 3h ago
I hope her wages are garnished for the rest of her life for ruining his life. She may never pay it back fully but it’s a punishment she deserves.
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u/rnnd 3h ago
nah she won't if she doesn't have the money. and even if she gets the money, you still have to follow up and take steps to enforce the judgment and recover the amount owed. the courts won't do that. it is a really convoluted process. and not all assets is recoverable, so on and so on. there are also exemptions, procedural requirements, and other hurdles involved in enforcing a judgment. That's why it's not worth it to sue individuals most of the time, best to sue institutions and companies.
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u/pouredmygutsout 3h ago
Yep, we all learned that from the OJ Simpson trial, to those of you who were alive back then.
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u/OwlfaceFrank 3h ago
I have a cousin who embezzled a million dollars from his old job. He now has all his checks garnished to pay them back for the rest of his life.
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u/po23idon 3h ago
can this debt be discharged by claiming bankruptcy?
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u/Creepy_Ad_1315 3h ago
No, you cannot claim court settlements on bankruptcy in the US.
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u/Quad_A_Games 3h ago
No, settlements I'm pretty sure can't be erased, at most she will be helped to find a way to pay it and it might make it impossible for government programs
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u/Icy_Intention_8503 3h ago
No, this is a type of non-discharable (criminal restitution) debt. Source: https://www.findlaw.com/bankruptcy/chapter-7/what-is-a-chapter-7-debt-discharge.html
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u/AccurateTheory9872 3h ago
Restitution (along with child support, alimony, criminal fines, student loans , etc) is generally not something that can be discharged in bankruptcy.
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u/ItTakes1Eyedea 3h ago
Nah fuck that she don’t have that money. Put her ass in jail for as long as he was
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u/AideInternal1045 3h ago
Her and her mother spent most of it. She had sued the school for falling to keep her safe and prevent a rape. She won $1.5. The school wasnt able to get most of the $2.6m countersuit back. None of the money went to Brain.
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u/Friendly-Example-701 4h ago
Bro, we all do. It's just lying around the house.
I can grab it from my couch cushion
/s
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u/gibb93 3h ago
To clarify that $2.6M isn’t even for Brian. It’s for the school district. The false accuser & her family sued the school district & won $1.5M. Then in 2013 after it came out she lied the school district sued her & won the $2.6M.
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u/random929292 3h ago
Brian received a pay out of $142,000 in compensation from the state of California. He did not receive any of the 2.6 million judgment.
The Atlanta Falcons signed him for 4 preseason games in 2013 and he attended all their preseason training camps as well. He received about $50K for this.
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u/cindad83 3h ago
I remember this story vividly when I was young Brian Banks was a blue chip recruit out of Long Beach Poly. Like he was easily a top-100 player in the country. When he was charged his senior year it was major college football and HS Football News.
What isn't discussed is when the whole case jumped off there were serious concerns of if the story was true. There were serious questions around the details. But the assumptions were because it involved minors it was tightly controlled regarding the flow of information. The thing was over the years lots of high profile recruits in Football and Basketball have been caught in legal situations, and word leaks nationally pretty quickly what the story is. In Brian Banks situation it was just he was caught forcing himself on a girl at the school during the summer. It was all very bizarre and this was for a player who had no reports of Disciplinary issues. Again, for recruits of his caliber information regarding them is heavily trafficked online. You have to understand how many thousands of people around them know them.
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u/contude327 3h ago
Not to him, to the school district that POS and her family had sued and won. That bitch should have to serve the same sentence he did and pay restitution to him.
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u/DanLim79 3h ago
How is this compensation for the poor guy if she can't afford to pay back? Why isn't she going to prison?
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u/Rescuepets777 3h ago
He'll never see that money. She should serve at least equal prison time
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u/nostalgia4millennial 3h ago
She should have the false accusation charge attached to her record forever for future employers and everyone else to see that gets involved with her so they know what kind of person she is and if they want to take that chance with a liability like that.
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u/Original-League-6094 4h ago
No. No criminal charges ever brought against her. But she had previously sued the school and won several hundred thousand. The school counter-sued and won their money back + legal fees + interest + $1M punitive damage. So I assume is pretty financially ruined.
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u/Kwaku-Anansi 3h ago
If there was the risk of prison, there's pretty close to 100% chance they wouldn't have confessed.
OTOH, if there was the risk of prison, there'd be a higher chance they wouldn't have lied to begin with...
Idk what my point is, beyond curiosity if there'd be a net benefit or not
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u/Tasty_1097 3h ago
It’s a real wrinkle in the justice system, not just in US but everywhere. You have to incentivize victims to come forward while being punitive against those not telling the truth. If anyone has knowledge of intranational law, i’d love to hear your opinion of which countries strike the best balance and by what method
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u/Designer-Serve-5140 3h ago
Not international law, but basic criminology and criminologist here! The absence of prison doesnt increase or decrease offending rates. Deterrence theory is largely bunk. What does happen is that just by having the law, you deter some level of crime, referred to as absolute deterrence, which doesnt substantially differ from when harsh punishments are applied.
Pretty much, increasing the punishment won't deter anybody from committing thr crime, but it might deter people from coming forward. The best means is for it to remain illegal, and potentially civilly liable, but have little criminal recourse to encourage coming forward
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u/HoneyWhiskeyLemonTea 4h ago
She should have spent exactly the same amount of time as he did, down to the hour.
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u/JazzlikeBreakfast495 3h ago
X2
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u/Superj561 3h ago
Yep this was my thought. Serving his exact time would be just if they were somehow both at fault but only one served time. She caused him to serve time that he never should have, so she should serve more than him.
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u/cpthk 3h ago
How did the judge decide on his guilty if nothing ever happened? False evidence?
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u/Guardian-Boy 3h ago
He took a plea deal to avoid trial because they were threatening him with 41 years in prison. So they gave him five years with the requirement to register as a sex offender and wear a monitoring bracelet upon his release.
When you take a plea deal, there is no trial or anything; you're automatically adjudicated as guilty and serve the sentence they give you.
The only reason he managed to get acquitted was the alleged victim contacted him through Facebook and straight up admitted she made it all up. Print Screen, submitted to the California Innocence Project, boom, dismissed.
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u/Responsible-Cap-2799 3h ago
He has to counter sue the government for terrible job on the DA .....
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u/HemaT5656 3h ago
She deserves to face the consequences. Gosh, this is so infuriating. Her false accusation not only made an innocent man’s life miserable but also made it harder for people to believe genuine victims. False accusations like this undermine the credibility of real victims and are deeply unfair to those who are actually suffering. It’s honestly like mocking the struggles of real victims.
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u/OtherUserCharges 3h ago
It’s one of those things that sucks but makes sense. You want liars to admit their mistake, but if they are scared of what happens after they admit it than they just won’t come forward. It’s better to let them face no punishment but let an innocent person go free than for an innocent to stay in jail cause the guilty is incentivized to stay quiet.
I think in this case he recorded her admitting it, but she did choose on her own to approach him to apologize.
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u/Gnome747 3h ago
She stole his youth and the opportunities that went with it. I hope he finds happiness, joy, and purpose with his freedom.
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u/UpperApe 1h ago edited 36m ago
She did. But so did his piece of shit defence attorney.
She basically coerced him into taking a plea deal because the "white jury would just see a big, bad black man", and gave him 10 minutes to decide his life without counsel from anyone, even his mother.
If it went to court, the DNA evidence and the holes in her story would have exonerated him completely. His lawyer didn't give a shit. She said to him: “You can’t talk to your mom. You’re in an adult court now. You have to make adult decisions on your own". She told him he was fucked and a plea deal would save him from a 10 year sentence. He got 6 years on his plea.
Elizabeth Harris was the lawyer and she and Wanetta Gibson both deserve to be dragged through the fucking mud for what they did to this man's life.
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u/-Citizen_Zero_ 43m ago
Is it the woman in the picture?
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u/UpperApe 38m ago
No. These were members of the California Innocence Project who helped him after he was released to overturn the conviction.
He went to prison in 2003 and came out in 2007 on parole but a very strict term for 5 years (ankle monitor and registered sex offender).
This picture is from 2012 when he was exonerated.
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u/BrierBob 26m ago
How is it that he was 16 and tried as an adult? And what later happened to the false accuser after she recanted?
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u/TalleyrandTheWise 2h ago
God I hope so.
This poor man. I can't imagine what he went through in prison.
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u/Captain_CapitalR374 4h ago
False accusations need to be punished.
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u/ac2cvn_71 4h ago
She needs to spend the same amount of time in prison that he spent.
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u/FourDimensionality 3h ago
no, at least quadruple. they should not be equally punished for something she did
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u/iidontknow8 3h ago
I think the reason they don’t make the punishment too high is to try and convince people to admit they made a false accusation, otherwise no one would actually admit it was false…
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u/Street_Estate2342 3h ago edited 3h ago
Yeah, something has to pay here, and really it should be the prosecutors, the courts, the government. They are the ones that botched this case this badly. I don't understand how this can even happen.
The alleged victim claimed that she had been forced to the school’s basement and raped without a condom, but DNA testing did not find sperm on her underwear.
How is it that there is outrage over apparently obvious rape cases (like Brock Turner) avoiding punishment and yet this guy doesn't think he can win at trial and takes a plea deal? I don't understand.
She eventually admitted to him what he already knew—that there had been no kidnap and no rape. She offered to help him clear his record if it didn’t affect the $1.5 million settlement she received from the school district after her family filed a lawsuit about the incident.
She has to pay to the school district, not him, apparently Banks got $142,000, or $28,400 a year without adjusting for inflation or, in the extreme, if the money was put into stocks.
This is just such a massive botch of a case. $142,000 is definitely a low-ball if he was a full on star athlete, and the amount of punitive damages she received for confessing is really high as well. I think if she was more aware of the risks she was taking in trying to clear her conscience she never would have confessed.
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u/luffiiy 3h ago
it's to deter people from making the false accusation in the first place, not come clean.
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u/junonomenon 3h ago
also because admissions of false accusations can be coerced and it just falls into another trap of victims being afraid to come forward, because if people can be convinced that they are lying they can essentially be punished for being raped. anything that can be used to harm another person will be used by abusers as a tool for abuse, whether it be rape, false accusations, or accusations of false accusations. the tough part is that theres no way to get it right all the time-- someone is always going to end up hurt because people who want to abuse others will find a way to do so.
its this fact that makes me personally focus my efforts on supporting resources that would help someone who is a victim of assault, such as psychological treatment, healthcare, and supporting their financial and housing independence which can make it tough to leave. i think there is absolutely value in exposing abuses of power but i am very autistic and very gullible so i know i am pretty vulnerable to manipulation
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u/Legitimate_Ice_3460 3h ago
Moreover, she did it deliberately and with bad intentions.
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u/AleciaG47 3h ago
Yep. False accusations can ruin someone's life and definitely need to be punished. When I was 5 years old, my aunt accused my dad of raping her when she was a teenager because she wanted custody of me and my brother. She got a lawyer and sued my dad. She also got CPS involved and said that my dad was inappropriately touching me (never happened). CPS took me out of school and interviewed me about where my dad touches me, if I touch him, how my dad touches me, how my dad plays with me, if he's ever touched my brother inappropriately, etc. It was pretty scary for a kid. Most of my dad's family believed his sister and stopped speaking to him. After harassing my parents for over a year and forcing us to move to another state and not telling anyone our new address, she finally dropped the lawsuit and admitted that she lied about everything. She never apologized to us and my dad's 5 sisters still refuse to talk to him or invite him to any family events even though he did nothing wrong. Thank god social media wasn't around back then or things could have been even worse for us. Nothing ever happened to my dad's sister for lying and trying to ruin my his life.
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u/Nexus_Knight_ 3h ago
Well, thanks for pissing me off, aunt of random internet stranger. I can't imagine my family abandoning me like that because of someone else's lies.
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u/Western_Taste4587 2h ago
I'm also upset for her dad after reading that. What kind of sibling feels entitled to take their brothers children and make up stories of incestual rape. That is next level fucked up. There definitely needs to be consequences for that.
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u/miserable-failure 3h ago
How are things with your father now? How has he handled this, if you dont mind me asking.
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u/JazzlikeBreakfast495 3h ago
This is really important for everyone who wants justice.
False accusations may only be a tiny fraction of cases, but when there’s no “downside” for lying it makes it tougher for women to be believed.
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u/Wrathful_Hater 3h ago
Yeah but the unfortunate reality is if false accusations are punished, false accusers will never admit to it.
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u/GroinReaper 3h ago
and spiteful people will try to punish women who report sexual assault but aren't able to prove it.
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u/PrizeStrawberryOil 2h ago
More importantly this makes rich people even more immune to the law.
Imagine a poor person raped by a rich person. The rich person hires a fantastic lawyer and he gets away with rape. Then the rich person says it was a false accusation and now the poor person is accused of a crime. Except the poor person can't afford a good lawyer and even a reasonable lawyer would put them in massive debt.
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u/MobileAerie9918 4h ago edited 4h ago
Brian Banks was a standout high school football player at Long Beach Polytechnic, with a verbal commitment to USC, when a classmate accused him of rape in 2002. He was 16. Facing a possible sentence of up to 41 years if he went to trial, he took a plea on his lawyer’s advice and was sent to prison. He served more than five years of a six-year sentence, then spent years on parole as a registered sex offender, and lost his chance at college football.
Years later his accuser contacted him, met with him, and admitted the rape never happened. With help from the California Innocence Project, the case went back to court. In May 2012 a judge dismissed the conviction. Banks broke down in tears in the courtroom as the charge was thrown out.
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u/Life_Argument7820 4h ago
Yeah but did he get any compensation?! Like that chick shoulda been paying this dude for a long ass time. Loss education, loss soooo many opportunities.
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u/Educational_Pay1567 3h ago
He should pursue for civil damages. Fuck that person. Fuck the lawyers too. His life was changed dramatically.
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u/Quad_A_Games 3h ago
Yes, and no? She was sued by the school and ordered to pay 2.6 million
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u/random929292 3h ago
He received $142,000 in compensation from the state of California.
As a goodwill gesture, the Atlanta Falcons signed him for training camps and four preseason games. It is believed he was paid about $50K for that.
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u/nishnawbe61 3h ago
I hope she got jail time in his place
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u/Thysguy 3h ago
In March 2011, Wanetta Gibson, his accuser, contacted Banks on Facebook, met with him, and admitted in the presence of a private investigator that Banks had hired, that she had fabricated the story. Banks secretly recorded Gibson's confession, but she later (according to Banks and his private investigator) refused to tell prosecutors that she had lied so that she would not have to return the money that she and her family had won in court.
In 2013, the Long Beach Unified School District won a $2.6 million judgment against Gibson, recouping $750,000 paid to her along with attorney's fees, interest, and $1 million in punitive damages after Gibson failed to appear in court.
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u/DM-me-naughty-Cats 3h ago
Not enough people angry at this lawyer who tricked the kid into a plea. There couldn’t have been any real evidence
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u/Remarkable-Ad2285 3h ago
He will never recover. The life that could’ve been will haunt him and those he knows and love him. For what purpose?
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u/Friendly-Example-701 4h ago
But was he removed from the offender list.
Also, as a person in jail, was this removed from his record.I do feel like it's too late and his name and rep is tarnished. He will always have this attached to him.
If anything, he can do conferences and educate young men to the dangers of being a star athlete and the trouble it can bring
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u/RGYB 3h ago
The status quo is broken and will remain so if the only remedy that can be imagined is that the victim educates others on the dangers of... being accused of rape??
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u/AlaeOrbis 3h ago
"Dangers of being a star athlete" you're blaming the fact that he's a star athlete? Blame the girl ffs lol. It has nothing to do with him being an athlete and everything to do with that girl being believed with no evidence
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u/averyfinefellow 3h ago
This a completely fucked up response to what happened here. "Sure his entire life is ruined and he lost the opportunity to go to college and maybe even become a pro foot ball player and instead spent those years in a horrifying place but hey! Maybe he can warn others to not let a woman falsely accuse him of rape."
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u/70monocle 3h ago
Wtf. That lawyer had him take a plea deal when he was innocent? That lawyer should be sued as well
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u/redditbdum 4h ago
The fact that someone can spend a decade in prison over a lie is disgusting.
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u/Even-tuallyOdd 3h ago
Unfortunately this is woven into American history, and not just a decade, but affected generations for decades. All liars should be punished. Cops, accusatory victims, perpetrators, lawyers. All of them.
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u/jakeandcupcakes 1h ago
Not only that, but the girl who lied got a payout from the school he attended to the tune of $1.5 Million dollars. She lied, he went to prison, her family became millionaires. Welcome to American "justice"
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u/BlkSabCarpenter 4h ago
His accuser collected 2 million from the school and still ended up on welfare with felonies to her name.
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u/Brave_Inspection6148 4h ago
That's beyond fucked; I can't even imagine having to choose between potentially 41 years and 6 for something I didn't do... innocent until proven guilty is supposed to prevent things like this from happening...
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u/Unable-Dependent-737 2h ago
Only people who have never been charged with anything believe we live in a society where it's innocent until proven guilty
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u/SurveyPrestigious627 3h ago
False accusations like this don't just ruin innocent lives; they also undermine real victims who are trying to seek justice.
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u/juiceboxvillain_1 47m ago
Still stand by the fact that false accusations should be treated and punished as seriously as the thing they accused
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u/montezuma300 23m ago
I agree, but the sad thing is that the accusers would be less likely to admit they lied if they faced years of jail time for doing so.
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u/Happy-Go-Lucky287 3h ago
The worst part is his accuser wasn't prosecuted because the prosecutor thought it would be to hard to get a conviction- despite her admitting she did it. Figure that one out. . .
And it gets worse. The school district that she also sued for not protecting her received a restitution payment from her of $2.6M while all he got for having his life destroyed was a little under $143K. How's that for a broken system? 🤷♂️😡
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u/LefT-NYC 4h ago
Does she go to jail now?
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u/Big_Somewhere_620 3h ago
She should be in jail for the entire time, no plea deals, not 6yrs, the full sentence
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u/Heisenburg42 3h ago
She should. But she was only ordered to pay $2.6mil. Which I'm sure will be paid in full...
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u/ObsessedCoffeeFan 3h ago edited 2h ago
What a shit human being the accuser is. Say her name so we know who the lying sack of shit is.
She makes it harder for actual victims to come forward.
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u/KlatuuBarradaNicto 3h ago
And what did they do to her for stealing six years of a man’s life?
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u/Undead-Chipmunk 3h ago
6 of the most prime years for an athlete. Stole so much from him.
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u/Consistent_Net_2540 3h ago
Sternly worded warning not to do it too many more times, while also consoling her because it was obviously someone else's fault
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u/6000lbs 3h ago
Falsely accusing someone of committing such a disgusting act is genuinely pathetic.
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u/Seis_K 2h ago
Evil is the word I would use.
You know the monstrosity you’re unleashing against an innocent person when you make an accusation like that.
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u/BetteMoxie 3h ago
This was tragic. Sure is interesting this is being posted at this specific time... I'm sure there's no motive at all.
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u/BekSlithers 3h ago
Thank youuu. First thought i had was hmmm... convenient timing posting this considering things going on atm. Almost like trying to put doubt or be like "see this happens cough"
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u/SnooFoxes1831 3h ago
Yeah, the timing is icky as hell. Cornell 7 deserve infinitely worse than the nothing burger they got handed. If the Brian Banks acquittal was in any way recent I'd be saying two things can be true at once, but someone had to go back 14 years to find this.
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u/RedditRBigots 2h ago
/u/MobileAerie9918 yeah why post this given what's going on at Cornell? this is an old case. why post this?
Just for some additional context rape has a very low conviction rate
"A 20-year review of reported rape and sexual assault cases found that 89% were “founded” by law enforcement, meaning police determined that the crime more than likely occurred.
But only 8% of reported rape and sexual assault cases ended in conviction."
source: https://rainn.org/get-information/statistics/reporting-rates
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u/TrueRedditMartyr 3h ago
It's wild how incredibly rare false accusations seem to have any amount of punishment for the accused, and yet people will still act like it's this incredibly common thing that happens all the time
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u/NoPresence4119 3h ago
I'm also very interested to see false accusations based on race, because something tells me the average redditor has nothing to be worried about, but someone the complexion of Emmett Till.......
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u/RussTheBoss 3h ago
They should arrest the woman for giving a false statement and send her to prison
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u/skepdickle 3h ago
love how no one here questions the timing of this post, what is OP trying to say
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u/Past-Ticket-1340 1h ago
Yeah, not shocked at all. Lots of men are coming out of the woodwork to defend the Cornell 7 and bringing up extremely rare cases of false accusations like this.
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u/caffa4 43m ago
Seriously, I am so sorry for what this man (and other men who have had false accusations) have dealt with.
But can you imagine if every single women that had actually been raped and did not get justice (whether she was unable to come forward to report it, that the local DA chose not to prosecute, or that it went to trial and she was not believed) was posted on here? The posts would never stop.
So before anyone comes at me for this, yes, false accusations occur, and it’s horrible, but it’s still nowhere near the scale of rapists straight up getting away with it because very real accusations are brushed away.
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u/InternationalPen3039 3h ago
This is a horrific. But I always question the timing and influence of these posts especially when high profile rape cases are circling. An example of a false accuser and wrongful conviction from nearly 30 years ago.
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u/-pithandsubstance- 3h ago
> But I always question the timing and influence of these posts especially when high profile rape cases are circling.
Yep. Pretty suspicious timing for this post.
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u/Witty-Yard4674 3h ago
The court system is so rigged. Instead of fighting for their clients innocence, attorney advise him to take a plea deal because the courts assume guilt first.
On a much smaller scale, ive been accused of a misdemeanor. The court pretty much doesn’t want you to speak your side. They want you to plead guilt. You really have to fight for your innocence which is what I did. Charges were dismissed eventually. But if I went with a court attorney instead of my own, I probably lose. Accusations really do get the benefit of a doubt with the courts
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u/strangeMeursault2 3h ago
The plea deal system in the USA is completely cooked and seems like it regularly leads to injustices like this. Justice shouldn't be open to using game theory to decide cases.
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u/sheyndl 3h ago
Why tf would she do that to someone? My God, this poor man had a chance at a remarkable life and she robbed him of it.
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u/TickledTaint97 3h ago
A group of women accused me of sexual assault at a bar because I attempted to use the urinal while they were in the men’s restroom. Sometimes women are just shitty or don’t understand the power that they have.
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u/Unoriginal_Pseudonym 3h ago
She was 15 and made out with him at the school. She was afraid that he'd tell people and that her older sister would find out and tell her mom that she had been kissing a boy, so she made up the rape story. Years later, In the confession video the PI got later, she even said she was a virgin at the time and didn't know anything about sex so she didn't realize the consequences of accusing someone of rape. Basically, dude had his life ruined because she was naive kid afraid of her mom.
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u/The_Reluctant_T-Rex 3h ago
This is our injustice system…
You can go to prison on the word of a liar and the liar has absolutely no consequences.
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u/extreme_snothells 3h ago
There seems to be a very strong correlation between the severity of the accusation and the level of guilt that people perceive. This is very concerning. Everybody deserves the right to a fair trial and to be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt (the sixth amendment). This is so sad and messed up.
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u/The_Reluctant_T-Rex 3h ago
If you’ve ever been involved in the criminal justice system, you’ll know that the whole “presumed innocent until proven guilty” is a myth.
First you got to post bail. If you don’t have the cash or family/friends with it, you sit in jail.
When you manage to finally get out, try getting a job while you are fighting charges. Impossible. Oh, and there are pretrial conditions: given to a presumed innocent person. Now, the court process starts. Hearings, motions, back and forth: this part lasts months to over a year. They make plea bargain offers: plead to X and we drop it down to X years. THEN, after say 6 months to a year you FINALLY go to trial. The entire time being an innocent person.But hey, “innocent until proven guilty” sounds great in the movies…
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u/SavageFisherman_Joe 3h ago
And now thanks to dipshits like her, actual rape victims are scrutinized and have a lot more difficulty getting justice
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u/Indie_Light 3h ago
It is unbelievable that cases like this happen when plenty of victims including me were never even close to getting justice.
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u/JediBoJediPrime29 3h ago
It’s fucked how when men actually do the crime, they get no charges yet when the system steps up and arrests someone they pick a fucking innocent dude. Like fuck man. Why is it so hard to get the real bad people??
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u/BigDragonfly5136 2h ago
To be fair, it’s the outrageous cases that we hear about. Most cases just never get any attention, even if there’s a conviction. It just seems like there’s a lot of obviously guilty people getting away with it and lots of false accusations because those are the only cases getting media attention.
In reality, most cases for stuff like this just isn’t obvious and most of them don’t go anywhere, or the expected result quietly happens. People don’t really find that newsworthy, especially outside of wherever it happened
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u/Heisenburg42 4h ago
The accuser should face the remainder of his sentence. Or at least spend an equal amount of time behind bars
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u/Toronto-24 4h ago
Change the fucking law already... if the accuser is found to make false allegations then you serve the penalty you accused.
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u/F-nDiabolical 3h ago
While I agree with you unfortunately it's a bit of a catch-22, she wouldn't have admitted to jack-shit if she knew she was going to jail. If it's found in court that you lied then ya, definitely charges.
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u/gumki 3h ago
How would this work if a real rape victim takes a rapist to court and they don't believe her (many cases btw)? Does she have to serve prison time while also being the victim of a rape? Rape victims would have even a harder time coming forward.
Now lets say this changed law only applies to a dishonest accuser that confesses they lied, would this accuser ever come forward and admit to the false accusation knowing the punishment? It's unlikely she would and this man would still be sitting in prison.
Sometimes there's a reason things are the way they are. It's not perfect, but if you have a better solution then please do share.
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u/Illustrious-Coat3532 3h ago
His movie is on HBOmax I believe. Brian Banks. He had a football scholarship at USC.
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u/ZenPaperclips 3h ago
Innocent people taking plea deals to avoid the threat of long sentences will always break my brain.
Is that what we should consider justice?
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u/earthlingHuman 3h ago
This is from well over a decade ago.
Ask yourself, why is this being publicized at the same time as the Cornell 7 case is rising in societal awareness...
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u/blackdap 4h ago
The accuser should be given the same 6years jail time. You can't buy time and you can't repair your reputation once someone accuses you of rape. People will always think you're a rapist whether its true or not.
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u/Spiritual_Pin9533 3h ago
Start doing shit like that and then the innocent guy never goes free because people don’t speak up.
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u/Electronic_Iron534 4h ago
Sooo we are throwing her in prison for 6 years...right? RIGHT?
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u/Logical-Grab-1363 3h ago
So does she get six years in prison along with the prosecutor
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