False Rape Conviction, 17 Years In Jail

**Dylan MacVillain** · 17th-June-2009

Wrongfully jailed man sues Houston
Houston Chronicle - United States

George Rodriguez’s lawyer asked a federal jury Monday to make the city pay “tens of millions of dollars” for the disgraced Houston Police Department’s crime lab’s pivotal role in the wrongful conviction that put his client behind bars for 17 years.
“What was taken away from him was his youth,” said attorney Barry Scheck, whose Innocence Project works on behalf of convicts in similar circumstances. Rodriguez went to prison wrongly at age 26 and walked out at 43 to find his three daughters grown and his father dead, the lawyer said.
In opening statements Tuesday afternoon, Scheck told jurors about the loneliness, fear and depression his client suffered in prison after being wrongly convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl.
This happened, he said, because policy makers at the city of Houston were deliberately indifferent to rampant under funding, under staffing and a lack of supervision at the crime lab that created a high risk an innocent person could be convicted or the guilty one could go free.
“We will prove that a false and misleading serology report violated (Rodriguez’s) constitutional right to a fair trial,” Scheck told jurors in U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore’s court.
A key piece of evidence in the criminal case was a pubic hair found in the girl’s underwear. A Houston police crime lab specialist testified falsely that the serology report on that hair eliminated another suspect, Isidro Yanez, but not Rodriguez. The case was tried before DNA evidence was used in court. DNA tests done 17 years later showed the hair belonged to Yanez.
Brown, Holmes blamed

Scheck said evidence will show the lab specialist had a pattern of changing findings to match what the police and prosecutors wanted.
One of the policy makers Scheck blames is Lee P. Brown, the former Houston mayor who was police chief in 1987 when Rodriguez was convicted....

**Celtic Druid** · 18th-June-2009

Quote from AKUUS

A key piece of evidence in the criminal case was a pubic hair found in the girl’s underwear. A Houston police crime lab specialist testified falsely that the serology report on that hair eliminated another suspect, Isidro Yanez, but not Rodriguez.

I've noted a disturbing number of cases where staff working in crime labs have deliberately tampered with evidence and given false testimony. That's before you factor in evidence that's deliberately withheld from the defense!

In one case, I recall a woman who worked for the FBI falsified evidence in 500+ cases against men. Think how many mens lives can (have!) be ruined by some misandrist/feminist in such a position? And, just how commonplace is this?

The whole system seems to be just rotten to the core, and in need of a major overhaul, free from ideological contamination.

**rohara** · 18th-June-2009

Quote from Celtic Druid

The whole system seems to be just rotten to the core, and in need of a major overhaul, free from ideological contamination.

The system is rotten to the core and that is because the general public is so accepting of false crime statistics and bigotry towards men. The type of woman that you speak of who falsified evidence is quite common. Remember, there has been over 40 years of feminist indoctrination with the whole "men are at fault for every ill in the world and should be punnished. I bet she thought she was doing her duty.
Was she ever punished?
Probably not.

**Celtic Druid** · 19th-June-2009

Quote from rohara

Was she ever punished?

Not that I recall.

**yohan** · 20th-June-2009

Forensic evidence is collected in USA with the police department, which controls also their own laboratoriums. Plenty of complaints.

As far as I know, in case such evidence is required within the EU, samples are sent to 2 different located private institutes.

These institutes do not know what sample is for what criminal case. They have only code numbers. They have to research and answer the questions given to them.

I never heard about major problems related to forensic evidence in laboratoriums within the EU.

It seems to be an US-management problem, US justice has many controversial issues.

**Diogenes** · 5th-March-2010

who was this female FBI investigator exactly who dealt with over 500 cases? I've been searching for such a thing so far haven't found a resemblance.

**Percy** · 5th-March-2010

In Oz we had a famous case of a family out camping at Ayers Rock when a dingo took the baby from their tent. The mother was arrested for murder and a 'forensic expert' ( a woman) testified that she had found blood splatters in the mother's car.

Lyndy Chamberlain was jailed.

It was later revealed that the 'expert' was totally wrong and had invented the blood splatter evidence.

Meryl Streep later played the part of Lyndy in a film of it.

**Diogenes** · 27th-May-2010

*BUMP

this thread should be a sticky

**Marx** · 27th-May-2010

Quote from Percy

In Oz we had a famous case of a family out camping at Ayers Rock when a dingo took the baby from their tent. The mother was arrested for murder and a 'forensic expert' ( a woman) testified that she had found blood splatters in the mother's car.

Lyndy Chamberlain was jailed.

It was later revealed that the 'expert' was totally wrong and had invented the blood splatter evidence.

Meryl Streep later played the part of Lyndy in a film of it.

Isn't it nice how the one time a woman gets fucked over, a hi-profile film is made with a big-name star playing the victim. When men deal with this on a weekly basis, everyone is silent.

Quote from Diogenes

*BUMP

this thread should be a sticky

Why? It's a perfectly common situation, hence it's under the 'false allegations' forum.

**Kargan3033** · 27th-May-2010

Quote from Celtic Druid

I've noted a disturbing number of cases where staff working in crime labs have deliberately tampered with evidence and given false testimony. That's before you factor in evidence that's deliberately withheld from the defense!

In one case, I recall a woman who worked for the FBI falsified evidence in 500+ cases against men. Think how many mens lives can (have!) be ruined by some misandrist/feminist in such a position? And, just how commonplace is this?

The whole system seems to be just rotten to the core, and in need of a major overhaul, free from ideological contamination.

Tell me about it Bro I do not trust the whole DNA system or the goverment , I always knew that the evidence in sex crimes has been tampered with but I had no idea to what degree it takes place and I am enraged and sickend to the core by it.

**Ambiorix** · 27th-May-2010

Society is appaled by a guy like Fritzl, who locked up innocent persons for years in a place where they are raped.

We should look at the rotten apples in the justice system with the same eyes.

**shaazam** · 28th-May-2010

Quote from Celtic Druid

In one case, I recall a woman who worked for the FBI falsified evidence in 500+ cases against men. Think how many mens lives can (have!) be ruined by some misandrist/feminist in such a position? And, just how commonplace is this?

.

""In one case, I recall a woman who worked for the FBI falsified evidence in 500+ cases against men. Think how many mens lives can (have!) be ruined by some misandrist/feminist in such a position? And, just how commonplace is this?""

yes ! when the police and prosecution connive to falsely imprison an innocent man - the classic case was the infamous Duke Lacrosse outrage

but does the state hand out compensation with the same verve and vigour to the falsely accused and imprisoned !!!