So, How Will It Turn Out?

[mrjarrell]

Here's a terrible story. A woman is tied up, tortured and supposedly raped. She says the assailant is her ex, who she's had issues with before, (primarily custody of their son). She tells the cops where they can find him and they go and arrest him. He's thrown in jail and charged with an array of crimes. No bail is allowed. The lead cop is convinced, in his gut, that the man is guilty, despite a decided lack of evidence. The man says he's innocent and he's facing prison. Then his defence team gets involved. How will the story turn out? Was he guilty? Or innocent? I have my guess as to his guilt or innocence. Maybe we'll find out on Tuesday when part 2 comes out.

A man's nightmare made real - latimes.com

 

[Rob377]

I cheated and looked it up.

But based on the writing style and tone, I kinda knew how it was going to end up. I personally think the at fault party should have been slammed much harder.

 

[mrjarrell]

Cheater!

 

[rambone]

Gonzalez's alibis sound pretty tough to dispute, and the only evidence that the woman and her boyfriend have to offer are their word against Gonzalez. If they can't prove his guilt, beyond a reasonable doubt, then he needs to walk free.

If there was a concerted effort to frame this guy then there should be serious consequences for the woman and her accomplice.

 

[NYFelon]

She's lying. I don't know if this man was found guilty or not, but she's unquestionably deranged. I think her and her new boyfriend did it, and blamed him. Though, this being modern America, a man standing accused by a woman of a sexual assault is almost always automatically guilty in the eyes of a jury. Just like the Detective in this story thought, "Too much CSI.", or other shows like it.

If he was found not guilty and that the mother had lied, she hopefully was incarcerated in a mental health facility. She's obviously a few cans short.

 

[tv1217]

I cheated too


This was pretty F'd up, can't say I'm surprised though.

 

[KG1]

Man that was a long article. I gave up about half way thru. My guess is though that he's innocent. I'll check back later for updates

 

[nawainwright]

The problem here is, this woman is hardly being held accountable for RUINING this man's life! As someone who has had false allegations leveled against me by evil parties, once it was shown the whole thing was fabricated, did the police lend the same vigor to investigating the lies? Nope. Never do. They hunt you down, assume you're guilty, and when its shown that you aren't, they ignore the whole thing. They withhold evidence that shows the impossible nature of the allegations and they drop it without resolution. And don't get me started on District Attorneys, they won't even officially reject the case! They'll just sit on it, knowing the whole while its BS. They'll tell people its BS, but they won't dismiss it. They'll wait until the SoL runs out, or just decline to prosecute, but they won't come out in your defense. As you can tell, this kind of prosecutorial misconduct really PISSES me off. We've got too many Nifong's in the courts and too many Gottlieb's on the beat!!

 

[mrjarrell]

And now, part 2. Much as we might have expected it to, it turns out that Mr. Gonzalez was innocent (and has the paper to prove it). Of course the prosecutors still don't see it that way and won't press charges against his accuser for her crimes. The "justice system" is broken. It takes very little to get you thrown behind bars, and it takes a great deal to get you out. Kudos to the cop in this story, he had the courage to actually examine the evidence and overcome his gut.

A man's nightmare made real: In assault case, the puzzle pieces don't fit - latimes.com

 

[Rob377]

You got a better system?

 

[rambone]

You got a better system?

Innocence until proven guilt.

 

[mrjarrell]

How many people who are arrested and imprisoned (falsely) don't have their arrests expunged? The majority. And that arrest follows them around for the rest of their lives, affecting their employment and other facets of their lives, (like getting a LTCH). The prosecutor int his case didn't even want to drop it, despite the evidence. He'd rather ruin a man than pursue true justice and exoneration. There need to be penalties levied against this type of behaviour. Our system does not favour the innocent and we no longer operate on the concept of innocent till proven guilty.

 

[rugertoter]

If he is guilty, then he should be tied up and raped, slowly.

 

[NYFelon]

Jeezus Kryste, that woman is still on the loose? What a disgusting miscarriage of justice that is. A factual basis of innocence is issued, and this woman goes on stand in court and testifies that Gonzalez did it? How is she at least not incarcerated for perjury, as insubstantial that is in reference to what she did? Our system of justice is so cock-eyed. All that's required to divest a man of his freedom is an accusation by a woman, but in order to even charge a woman we need 100% certifiable fact?

I'm taking my net, stick, and puck and I'm going home.

 

[dross]

These cases are particularly scary. The system is biased towards women - we're supposed to believe they never lie about things like this - and it's also biased towards the the "obvious" answer.

The hero of this story is the cop who changed his mind.

 

[Fletch]

You got a better system?

Reason magazine has been examining the system and making reasonable, rational recommendations for improvement for over a decade and probably longer. Of course, such recommendations would stifle the political points factory that the criminal "justice" system has become, so they're never taken seriously.

 

[dross]

You got a better system?

I think we have a good system, but it can certainly be improved.

Many people are overly worried about criminals getting off all the time on "technicalities" or slick lawyers confusing juries and getting people off who should go to jail. Some of that happens, sure. It's much more rare than the other side of the fence, however, which is what happens when the awesome power and resources of the State are turned on you.

The State has unlimited resources and a huge investigative team at its service: the police.

The police are investigating to find evidence AGAINST you. The prosecuters are analyzing all the evidence in the light of your GUILT. If you want witnesses interviewed, you have to pay for that. If you want your lawyer to work as hard as the prosecution - you have to pay for that. If you can't afford it, you don't get it.

The prosecution can also stack many charges against you so that if you don't make a plea deal you might be facing many years in prison when a plea gets you out in just a couple. How many innocent people do you think plead guilty so they can get probation or a couple of years rather than face many years in jail?

Even if you're innocent, you're out big bucks. You walk into a criminal defense attorney's office, come with a checkbook. You don't pay AFTER, you pay a retainer up front.

I had a friend a few years ago who was quite a lady's man. He specialized in seducing lesbians - don't ask, it was just his thing. He slept with a woman while traveling for work in AZ. She got home and her jealous girlfriend questioned her and apparently found some evidence. The woman broke down and to get out of it she claimed my friend forced her. The girlfriend escalated and insisted on calling the police.

My friend found himself arrested. His girlfriend got him an attorney, but had to write a 5K check for a retainer. He got out of jail and this hung over him for a year. Finally, after a year, they were able to obtain the security tapes to the parking lot of the hotel he was staying at, which showed her giving him a kiss and a hug goodbye after he supposedly raped her.

Even then they didn't close the charges, they left them pending.

He was out the money and his job, and an extremely harrowing year, wondering if he was going to spend some serious time in jail as a rapist.

I have other stories. You do not want to get caught on the wrong side of our system, good as it may be.

 

[nawainwright]

Jeezus Kryste, that woman is still on the loose? What a disgusting miscarriage of justice that is. A factual basis of innocence is issued, and this woman goes on stand in court and testifies that Gonzalez did it? How is she at least not incarcerated for perjury, as insubstantial that is in reference to what she did? Our system of justice is so cock-eyed. All that's required to divest a man of his freedom is an accusation by a woman, but in order to even charge a woman we need 100% certifiable fact?

I'm taking my net, stick, and puck and I'm going home.

My point exactly.

 

[jbombelli]

Anybody who tries to frame another person should get whatever sentence that other person would have gotten had they been convicted. Period. I don't care who they are. They should suffer the fate they tried to unjustly visit on another.

It wasn't hard to read the rest of the story... there's a link at the bottom of the article posted.

 

[rich8483]

i was so pissed while i was reading the first part of the article. it kept mentioning how gonzalas had to prove his innocence.
what evidence did they have to prove his guilt?? shouldnt they start there? isnt that how its supposed to work.

otherwise, i can watch my nieghbors schedule, figure out when he doesnt have an alibi (middle of the night) and claim he stole my 55 inch tv and surround sound that i sooo totally paid cash for, thats why i dont have a reciept.

now go! prove your innocence.