Annals of Really Stupid Criminals: DNA Innocence, Well Maybe Not

A report by Peter Busch at KPHO CBS 5 News is worth considering.  Timothy Boles, a convicted rapist demanded DNA testing and you guessed it--he was guilty.  But more than guilty, the DNA evidence linked him to an unsolved 1991 rape of a twelve year old.  Good one, Tim.  Enjoy your life sentence.

Falsely Accused of Rape

A former St. Paul, Minnesota resident, Justin Sallis, has filed a federal lawsuit allegeing violations of his civil rights, false arrest and imprisonment.

He was accused of raping a woman he in fact dated and with whom he had consensual sex.  He did not rape her, and she did not accuse him of raping her.  According to the story at the Minnesota Star Tribune, on March 15 (of last year), the day after her date with Sallis; the woman called 911 and reported that she had been raped by someone she described as looking nothing like Mr. Sallis.  In fact the age cohort she gave the police for her violent assailant was 20 years older than Mr. Sallis.  Already weird?  It gets weirder, on March 16, she and Sallis have consensual sex again;  okay, got that?  Justin Sallisa and his friend have sex on the March 14, his friend is allegedly raped on the 15th, and finally she and Sallis have sex on the 16th. 

So the rape kit comes back in June with with Mr. Sallis' DNA, he's arrested and he spends 39 days in jail. 

This story goes to prove the point that weird shit happens.  Not that any reader of Bad Lawyer had doubts.  Let me add that Justin Sallis is lucky this didn't go down in Texas, Georgia, Tennesses and a few other venues we look at, eh?

Once, and For All Keanu Reeves, Is Not Your Babies' Daddy!

A Toronto, Canada Judge has ruled that an Ontario woman's laswsuit claiming that Keanu Reeves disguised himself as her husband and fathered her four adult children--is simply not capable of belief.  The DNA evidence probably contributed to the Judge's decision to dismiss Karen Sala's paternity suit, uh, since the evidence demonstrates that Reeves was not the father.

The story at the Canadian Press is bittersweet, although certainly not for Keanu Reeves.  The Judge sounds like a real sweetheart.

35 Years for a Crime He Didn't Commit!

In 1974, James Bain, then 19, went to prison for kidnapping and raping a 9 year old boy.  James Bain didn't do it.  Today he was released from a Florida prison following DNA proof that he could not have committed the crime.

Please keep two thoughts together when thinking about Mr. Bain--not that many years ago, the abutting state of Georgia still put rapists, particularly black men to death for rape; secondly, there is at least one US Supreme Court justice who thinks actual innocence should excuse a death row inmate from his date with the executioner. 

James Bain spent 35 years in prison, according to news reports he isnot angry.  That's ok, James, I'm angry for you.  Have a very good life.

Source:  http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/dec/17/florida-man-exonerated-after-35-years-behind-bars/

Wrongful Imprisonment-False Allegations-Part 2

I take seriously the suggestion that I mischaracterize a case that I take from the news to Blawg about, here, which is why I link to the stories that resonate for me.  It is true that reporting about legal matters often lacks the dimension of comprehension and that claims are made in news stories that upon greater scrutiny do not bear up.  So the other day I wrote about Robert Doyle based on a report from Alabama Online.  According to the news account Doyle who had been convicted of molesting his own daughters stemming from allegations arising out of a divorce was exonerated shortly before his death from congestive heart failure.  A reader commented that this was inaccurate and that Doyle in fact was a molester--I offered to correct the post if she would provide me with a source.  She has not responded.

I confess that it is my natural bias to believe allegations of sexual abuse even though I know that false allegations do happen.  When I encounter a case of false allegations I try to publicize it;  and, here is a sad case out of New York.   A construction worker was sent the prison for the violent rape at knife point of a 22 year old womand, that did not happen.  The conviction of construction worker William McCaffrey was thrown out following DNZ evidence that cleared him of the crime and more importantly a confession by Biurny Peguero that she perjured herself in a bid to win sympathy from girlfiriends she was trying to impress.  McCaffrey spent several years in prison on a twenty year sentence for the kidnapping and rape he did not commit.  Ms. Peguero is facing 7 years on the guilty plea for perjury. 

Congratulations to Innocence Project and NYC lawyer, Glenn A. Garber for persistence and outstanding lawyering. 

See:  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579928,00.html