And some people question why some women come forward to report the assault crimes against them...
'THE REAL CRIME'
In 1994, NYPD Brass Called Her Rape a ‘Hoax.’ In 2018, They Found Her Rapist.
Relying on NYPD sources, future Pulitzer winner Mike McAlary wrote three columns for the Daily News denouncing her as a fraud who ‘probably will end up being arrested herself.’
KATIE ZAVADSKI
01.09.18 10:47 PM ET
On an afternoon in late April 1994, a young woman was raped in broad daylight in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Two days later, the biggest columnist in New York City’s biggest newspaper called her a liar.
The woman—black, a lesbian, and an activist—became the target of a vicious smear campaign by a Daily News columnist and sources within the NYPD, who charged that she had made up a “hoax” to advance a political agenda.
“I have had the misfortune of being raped twice—once in the park and again in the media,” she told her lawyer, Martin Garbus, after the attack.
Twenty-four years years later, her rapist was identified through DNA evidence, according to the NYPD. On Jan. 8, police told Jane Doe they had a match, with James Webb, a career criminal who’d been sentenced to prison for rape before Jane Doe’s assault. He was arrested and imprisoned again in 1995, for still more sexual assaults and is presently serving 75 years to life in prison.
Contemporaneous articles from his 1995 arrest and court filings suggest that Webb had been released on parole from his previous term on Aug. 15, 1995, and raped his next victim just one day later. It’s not clear how he was out of prison at the time of Jane Doe’s assault.
“We are aware of his incarceration and parole history,” the NYPD press office told The Daily Beast Tuesday evening. “He was not incarcerated at the time of the incident.”
Jane Doe was 27 years old when she was attacked. She’d gone from her native Ohio to Yale, where she’d majored in African-American studies, and then on to New York, where she was pursuing her dream of acting.
he woman immediately reported the assault to the NYPD. Two days later, Mike McAlary, a reporter with the Daily News, said she’d made it all up.
“Rape Hoax the Real Crime,” his headline stated.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Jane Doe later told her lawyer. “It was like a sucker punch.”
McAlary claimed the police thought they were “being lied to” and “everyone who heard the woman’s story about the alleged rape was calling it a hoax.”
He wrote that the woman “probably will end up being arrested herself,” because she made up the crime “to promote her rally.”
“Even though it was a long time ago, it’s one of those cases that stands out in your mind as a tragedy on so many levels,” Matt Foreman, then the executive director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, told The Daily Beast. “In addition to the horrible sexual assault, the behavior of the police department toward the survivor, and the leaking of information to the press to discredit the survivor, remains—breathtaking is the wrong word. Unbelievable, frankly.”
The AVP was hosting a march in Park Slope the following weekend, the same rally for which McAlary accused Jane Doe of fabricating her assault. More than 300 lesbians participated in the march. “Violence Against Lesbians: Ain’t Gonna Take This No,” read a banner they carried. “Report it! Record it!”
Follow link for rest of article:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-19...a-hoax-in-2018-they-found-her-rapist?ref=wrap
'THE REAL CRIME'
In 1994, NYPD Brass Called Her Rape a ‘Hoax.’ In 2018, They Found Her Rapist.
Relying on NYPD sources, future Pulitzer winner Mike McAlary wrote three columns for the Daily News denouncing her as a fraud who ‘probably will end up being arrested herself.’
KATIE ZAVADSKI01.09.18 10:47 PM ET
On an afternoon in late April 1994, a young woman was raped in broad daylight in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Two days later, the biggest columnist in New York City’s biggest newspaper called her a liar.
The woman—black, a lesbian, and an activist—became the target of a vicious smear campaign by a Daily News columnist and sources within the NYPD, who charged that she had made up a “hoax” to advance a political agenda.
“I have had the misfortune of being raped twice—once in the park and again in the media,” she told her lawyer, Martin Garbus, after the attack.
Twenty-four years years later, her rapist was identified through DNA evidence, according to the NYPD. On Jan. 8, police told Jane Doe they had a match, with James Webb, a career criminal who’d been sentenced to prison for rape before Jane Doe’s assault. He was arrested and imprisoned again in 1995, for still more sexual assaults and is presently serving 75 years to life in prison.
Contemporaneous articles from his 1995 arrest and court filings suggest that Webb had been released on parole from his previous term on Aug. 15, 1995, and raped his next victim just one day later. It’s not clear how he was out of prison at the time of Jane Doe’s assault.
“We are aware of his incarceration and parole history,” the NYPD press office told The Daily Beast Tuesday evening. “He was not incarcerated at the time of the incident.”
Jane Doe was 27 years old when she was attacked. She’d gone from her native Ohio to Yale, where she’d majored in African-American studies, and then on to New York, where she was pursuing her dream of acting.
he woman immediately reported the assault to the NYPD. Two days later, Mike McAlary, a reporter with the Daily News, said she’d made it all up.
“Rape Hoax the Real Crime,” his headline stated.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Jane Doe later told her lawyer. “It was like a sucker punch.”
McAlary claimed the police thought they were “being lied to” and “everyone who heard the woman’s story about the alleged rape was calling it a hoax.”
He wrote that the woman “probably will end up being arrested herself,” because she made up the crime “to promote her rally.”
“Even though it was a long time ago, it’s one of those cases that stands out in your mind as a tragedy on so many levels,” Matt Foreman, then the executive director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, told The Daily Beast. “In addition to the horrible sexual assault, the behavior of the police department toward the survivor, and the leaking of information to the press to discredit the survivor, remains—breathtaking is the wrong word. Unbelievable, frankly.”
The AVP was hosting a march in Park Slope the following weekend, the same rally for which McAlary accused Jane Doe of fabricating her assault. More than 300 lesbians participated in the march. “Violence Against Lesbians: Ain’t Gonna Take This No,” read a banner they carried. “Report it! Record it!”
Follow link for rest of article:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-19...a-hoax-in-2018-they-found-her-rapist?ref=wrap
