Two false accusers likely won't be charged.

A woman who admitted in court that she had falsely accused a man of rape is not going to be charged.

Case 1:

The reason:

And another

Case 2:

I bet the local police are real happy about that. And you can bet that a confession of a murder or fraudor such would be acted upon.

Women who make false accusations get supported? So it’s one law for men and another for women in America? No allegedly in either case because both admitted it.

What do Dopers think of this?

This is horrible-It’s not as if men ever lie about raping women, right?
The Scales of Justice are, like, totally unbalanced!

That’s not what the article says- it says

“We don’t charge domestic violence victims who falsely recant. We empathize with them, we support them, and we advocate for them,” the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement to the news outlet. ( my bolding)

  In other word, the people who the DA's office supports are those who truly are victims of domestic violence and later falsely claim they were lying when they made the accusation. It is not at all uncommon for victims to recant due to fear or even threats. I have even seen cases where there was enough evidence to convict even though the victim recanted ( let's just say that if you are accused of domestic violence, and there is an order of protection prohibiting contact with the victim, it's not a good idea to call her from jail  10 times a day alternately threatening and pleading with her not to testify.)

The first case ticks me off, but I’ve seen that happen a lot - women falsely accuse a guy of some crime because they’re angry, and once they calm down they recant. Not only does no one mind about the wasted time and resources put into a phoney claim, the accused is told to just shrug off having been arrested, searched, needing to post bail and retain counsel, having lost your job, etc. because hey, the nice lady stopped short of sending an innocent man to prison in a fit of pique.

The second case, I can understand: the woman technically never filed a complaint about the officer - her false claims were picked up by the media and went viral, but because she never did anything official, there’s no legal basis to charge. The officer may have a civil case, but was he ever named? I don’t recall it being mentioned, so slander or libel is out.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.

I have never been able to understand this “Hey, Group X does bad things, but Group Y does bad things too, or even worse, so Group X’s misconduct is OK.”

It isn’t about two wrongs making a right-It’s about ignoring the elephant in the room so you can focus on the mouse.

To expand further, from the Sacramento Bee:

Whom are you accusing of ignoring the elephant?
Taking real rape and harassment seriously doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get upset about false accusations—it means we should get upset about false accusations.

Dude, that’s nuts. The criminal justice system is more than capable of handling multiple sorts of crimes and a multitude of perpetrators simultaneously. The elephant can get all the attention it needs while also putting in place REAL consequences for people who intentionally and maliciously seek to fuck up someone’s life. And that’s not to mention the damage they inflict to the credibility of actual victims.

You’re not on my radar as a Big Dummy®, I’m assuming your position is more nuanced than its reception suggests. I for one would be interested in hearing where you’re coming from. (It’s easier than recalibrating my radar)

It’s possible to focus on 2 sometimes even three animals at a time.

In case 2 the woman and her attorney made public accusations but never filed a formal report (corrections officers don’t count). I’d sue her and her lawyer for defamation or slander or something but, since all the elements of the crime aren’t there, there is no case.

My preference would be to charge accusers who recant only if there was other evidence which proved that their allegation was false.

IOW, the recanting shouldn’t be a get-out-of-jail card if the accuser could have otherwise been charged with false allegations based on other evidence.

But if the only evidence against the accuser is the recantation itself, then I don’t think they should be charged. Otherwise, false accusers who have second thoughts will be constrained from recanting for fear of being prosecuted. IMO, sparing the victims of false accusations is a higher priority than punishing the accusers.

If we charge women who recant, that is a strong incentive to not recant.

Picture this, the woman has gotten over the fact that her boyfriend dumped her, and she calls up the police.

Woman: “Hi, I would like to remove my accusation that Mr. X raped me.”

Police: “Ok, but do not forget you will get charged and will proably end up in jail/prison.”

Woman: “Oh… Um… Yea, on second thought, he did rape me.” Click

Does this help men that falsely accused?

Arguably there would also be a strong disincentive to file the false charge.

This is the second active thread about false rape accusations. A person might have the impression that men think this happens a lot and Something Must Be Done. To get this out of the way, no one is advocating for false accusations of any crime by anyone. How rarely this actually happens is covered in the other thread, here.

Correct. As in the other thread, this thread is an over-extension for no stated reason to demonstrate that women really do lie about rape.

As has been pointed out, the first case is not a false accusation, but false RECANTATION. Many people recant accusations, particularly those who suffer domestic violence, for a variety of reasons. There goes half your “evidence”.

What is this sudden need to post stories about women making false accusations? At least in this OP, the misogyny is clearer.

Has it been established that this is, indeed, a false recantation?

What evidence are they talking about? The judge in the case did not agree, and

Cite.

I don’t think the evidence that the recantation was false is a slam-dunk.

I understand that accusations of sexual assault and/or domestic violence are not always false, or usually false, or characteristically false. But they aren’t always true either.

Regards,
Shodan

People who think more than two steps ahead tend not to be the ones who make accusations like these.

Ignoring both the virtue signallers and the quasi MRA in this thread. For no crime has it ever been the rule that a prosecution is a necessary outcome of every complaint. A particular proposed prosecution must be in the public interest.

The elements of a murder or fraud do not require that a false statement be published to a particular audience.

I will go out on a limb and say that false rape accusations are bad. Fortunately, we have the civil justice system to deal with them when the criminal justice system can’t.

I’m not sure what you mean by this, but I don’t see suing false accusers as being effective. Generally the accusers don’t have enough money to make a reasonable recovery possible, and the legal fees for the accused would be pretty high.