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  1. #561
    Epic! Blockygame's Avatar
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    They should make an example out of her, rape is a serious accusation to put across and it can and does send innocent people to jail. It wouldn't discourage people from coming forward at all, what a weak fucking excuse, the tosser that said that should be fucking ashamed. All this does is say it's OK for people to be sent prison on the word of a lie, she pretty much ruined a mans reputation and let him stay locked up for 9 years.

    It's OK girls, it's OK to lie about being raped because guess what, even if the person goes to jail for the rest of his life, nothing will happen to you and you won't be held accountable if you're found to have lied. Legitimate fear of a person, or the prospect of thinking people would look down on them or feeling ashamed I guess would be the main reasons for not reporting rape, how would holding someone accountable for basically ruining someone life stop anyone from coming forward?

    Who cares how old the person was that reported it, in fact, the age of the person would have most surely helped in the lie, all because her parents marriage fell apart and don't even begin to try to tell me that "she was only 11 years old, she didn't know any better", she knew very well what she was doing and knew that nobody would ever think that a child could lie like that, convincing too.
    HOOKED ON DIABLOL, GOOD TIMES ARE BEING HAD

  2. #562
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    i have to wonder what the last nine years have been like for the father after being convicted of raping his own daughter. I mean pedos get eaten alive in prison but his own daughter? is there any senario where he wasnt beaten/raped repeatedly for the last 9 years?

  3. #563
    Since apparently no one has access to google, here is an article with more detailed information on how this story went down.

    http://tdn.com/news/local/local-girl...a4bcf887a.html

    ---------- Post added 2012-11-24 at 06:23 AM ----------

    Also, this is from the prosecutor's own mouth:

    "In an interview, Baur said her office declined to file charges against Cassandra Kennedy because she wants to encourage other victims and witnesses who may have lied to come forward and tell the truth."

    The reason had nothing to do with how real rape victims might react.

    I have to say, I like this reasoning. If you are found by the police to have committed perjury which caused grievous harm to another, than you should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. But if you come forward on your own and confess your crimes, your punishment should be lighter.

    I think instead of letting her off, her punishment could have been community service in a crisis center.

  4. #564
    Quote Originally Posted by Auloria View Post
    .
    Actually, how about we let them read the entire story.

    In early 2001, an 11-year-old Kalama girl named Cassandra Ann Kennedy told police her dad raped her on at least three occasions. Her father, Thomas Edward Kennedy, denied the allegation, but he was convicted by a jury and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

    In January, Cassandra Kennedy, now 23, told Longview police she made it all up. So after serving more than nine years in prison, her father was released last week and the charges against him were dismissed.

    "I did a horrible thing," Cassandra told detectives in January, according to a police report. "It's not OK to sit and be locked in this horrible place for something you didn't do. It's just not right."

    Cowlitz County Prosecutor Sue Baur said Friday she's never seen a case quite like it. The innocent are sometimes freed after years in prison by the work of pro-bono legal teams and new DNA evidence. But Baur said she's never known a child to return to authorities a decade later and recant, certainly not with enough credibility to scuttle a case.

    "This is something my whole office is talking about," she said. "This is the kind of thing that shouldn't happen."

    Reached Friday, Thomas Kennedy, now 43, declined to comment, saying he's simply trying to get on with his life. Longview police, who investigated both the initial allegations in 2001 and the details that later exonerated Kennedy, also declined to comment and referred questions to Baur.

    In recent months, Cassandra Kennedy has been staying at Mountain Ministries, a Christian addiction treatment center near Kelso, according to police reports. Gary Miller, the organization's director, said Thursday evening that she is in Mexico doing missionary work and can't be reached.

    Baur said Cassandra Kennedy will not be prosecuted for her apparent lies about her father, partly because prosecutors do not want to discourage people in similar circumstances from coming forward.

    'I needed to do what was right'

    Cassandra Kennedy called Longview police on Jan. 23, saying she wanted to talk about her father's 2002 conviction, according to investigative reports. She sat down with a pair of detectives at the department three days later.

    "I need to do what is right," she told them, according to a report.

    No, Cassandra told police, her father never touched her. For nearly a decade, she said, her father had been sitting in prison based on her lies.

    "I just want him to be out and freed," Cassandra said in her interview with the police. Then, she said, "I will be free on the inside."

    Cassandra said she got the idea of setting up her father from a friend whose stepfather was sent to prison for a child sex crime. "I thought that is what I would do to make my dad go away," she told police in January.

    In her recent interviews with police, Cassandra recalled testifying against her father during his trial and "having to point at him and look at him and say who he was — and how bad I felt, all the guilt, thinking, 'Can I take it all back?' "

    "I remember being so unhappy and scared that they were going to convict him," Cassandra told the detectives in January.

    Police reports tell the story of an angry little girl who felt neglected by her father and, by her own admission, took "vengeance" on him.

    Thomas Kennedy and his wife divorced around 1991, and their daughters, Cassandra and her older sister, began spending one weekend a month with their father, according to court documents. The girls slept on foam mattresses in the living room of Kennedy's Longview home.

    'I took vengeance'

    As a child, Cassandra Kennedy liked Rollerblades, camping and swimming — typical kid stuff. But she told police her fellow Kalama Elementary students made fun of her clothes and her "buck teeth." She began experimenting with alcohol, she said.

    The girl wrote in her journal, a copy of which is part of the court record, that her teacher "isn't nice and she never calls on me and she gives me mean looks." In 2000, a few months before she accused her father of incest, Cassandra was expelled from school for saying in a letter to her teacher that she was thinking about bringing a gun to school and shooting "everyone," according to a medical report. Cassandra had a couple of sessions with a counselor following the incident.

    She attended Kalama High School until her junior year, when she dropped out, according to investigative reports. Cassandra said she became addicted to pills in her late teens and worked a few odd jobs, for just a month or two, at McDonald's and PetCo. By 2010, she was using meth and had felony convictions for burglary and theft, the reports said.

    In January, Cassandra told police she still has fond childhood memories of sitting on her father's lap as he drove his pickup to collect wood pallets and wire to scrap.

    "I was daddy's girl," she said. "I was with my dad!" But, she said, her father wasn't around much when she was little and that he drank heavily, smoked pot and partied.

    "I wanted him to love me, and I didn't think he did at that time," she told the detectives.

    So, Cassandra said, she made up the rape story, largely because her father disappointed her. "He wasn't showing up. I wanted him away so he would stop hurting me," she said this year. "I took my own vengeance."

    In a 2001 interview with police, Cassandra said she wanted her father to take a lie detector test. When an investigator asked her what questions her dad should be asked, none of her suggested queries involved sexual abuse. Instead she wanted police to ask Kennedy: "Do you still smoke pot? Do you like to your kids? Do you still drink?"

    Kennedy never took a lie detector test on the advice of his attorney, according to investigative documents.

    Cassandra said this year that, as a child, she didn't understand the consequences of her lies. She told police she hadn't thought Kennedy would go to prison if he was convicted. "I just thought he would go away, you know, go to jail for a little bit, be out of my life," she said.

    Baur, who was the prosecutor during the case, recalled Friday that all of the pieces in the investigation seemed to fall into place.

    "It just totally made sense," she said.

    Most startling, Baur said, was that Cassandra told the story of the abuse again and again with amazing consistency. Yet, Baur said, "she did not appear to me to be the most precocious 11-year-old."

    'Peace' a code word for abuse

    Cassandra first told her teacher about the alleged incest in early 2001, according to reports. Teacher and student worked out a code word to signal that the abuse was continuing — "peace." Cassandra told police it wasn't long before she called the teacher: "It happened again," she said. "Peace."

    Cassandra also wrote about the alleged abuse in a journal that included among its pink and purple pages other mundane entries about boys, Cassandra's slipping grades and her older sister's annoying behavior. On the cover, written in a little girl's haphazard letters, were the words "Confidential. No taking peeks."

    Later in 2001, in an interview with Longview police investigators, Cassandra used stuffed animals to illustrate what her father had allegedly done to her, reports said. She also drew a picture of a bathroom where she said one of the rapes happened. Police later measured and photographed the room.

    Cassandra's account included frightening detail, according to police reports. But if it wasn't true, police wanted to know this year, how could an 11-year-old know so much about sex? Cassandra told police in January that she began engaging in sexual activity as a second-grader. She also said she may have known what to tell police from watching a movie or from walking in on adults having sex.

    In March of 2001, Cassandra was examined at a Vancouver clinic where she told a doctor about the alleged abuse. "She looked at me and said, 'Are you telling the truth?" Cassandra said this year of her appointment with the doctor. "I lied to her and said, 'Yes.' "

    The doctor found trauma in Cassandra's groin area, according to a report.

    Police described Cassandra's allegations during an interview with Kennedy in March of 2001. Kennedy, who was at the time a laborer and equipment operator at Metro Metals Northwest in Kelso, "denied doing anything," a Longview investigator wrote in a report. "He was very upset. He told me he would do anything to prove he didn't do anything."

    A jury convicted Kennedy of three counts of first-degree rape of a child in 2002, and now-retired Cowlitz Superior Court Judge Jim Warme sentenced him to more than 15 years in prison.

    Until then, Kennedy's criminal record had included convictions in the 1990s for fourth-degree assault, reckless driving and driving with a suspended license.

    Cassandra's family members recalled to police this year that, during a 2002 trip to the beach, Cassandra told her mother she'd lied about the rape allegations, according to reports. However, Cassandra took back the statement a day later and insisted she'd been telling the truth all along, family members told police.

    Kennedy, who was serving his sentence at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, appealed his conviction, alleging his defense attorney had been incompetent, but the appeals failed. Kennedy wasn't scheduled to be released until 2016.

    On Feb. 15, after Longview police told prosecutors that Cassandra Kennedy was recanting, Baur wrote an urgent letter to Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning. "I need to inform you that I have been made aware of new, credible material evidence that potentially creates a reasonable likelihood that Mr. Kennedy is innocent of those crimes," Baur wrote, adding that her staff was "continuing to work with investigators to uncover the truth."

    Kennedy was brought from Stafford Creek to the Cowlitz County Jail in late February, Baur said. During a hearing last Monday, Judge Warning ruled that Cassandra's statements to police this year are credible. He also found that the physical trauma reported by a doctor in 2001 may have been caused by a sexual experience that took place before the dates of the alleged abuse, Baur said.

    Asked if there had been missteps in the initial investigation, Baur said she has recently reviewed a recording of the little girl's testimony and has been rethinking every detail of the case. She noted that 12 jurors found enough evidence at the time to convict Kennedy and that the conduct of prosecutors, defense attorneys and Judge Warme was upheld by the appeals court.

    "There should be no indictment of the system," she said.

    Instead, Baur said, it's simply a case of a victim withdrawing her story.

    "Unfortunately, a man spent 10 years in prison before that happened," she said.

  5. #565
    Here's an interview with the father by a local reporter.

    http://tdn.com/news/local/rape-convi...a4bcf887a.html

    He is definitely traumatized by prison, is so afraid of being accused again that he doesn't want to be around his family or anyone, and is having trouble adjusting to real life. But he's forgiven his daughter.

    This is a real tragedy.

  6. #566
    Quote Originally Posted by Auloria View Post
    Here's an interview with the father by a local reporter.

    http://tdn.com/news/local/rape-convi...a4bcf887a.html

    He is definitely traumatized by prison, is so afraid of being accused again that he doesn't want to be around his family or anyone, and is having trouble adjusting to real life. But he's forgiven his daughter.

    This is a real tragedy.
    And the saddest part, he's just starting the nightmare, his life is permanently fucked by what his offspring and the DA did.

  7. #567
    Bloodsail Admiral sscavenger's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Haarvald View Post
    And the saddest part, he's just starting the nightmare, his life is permanently fucked by what his offspring and the DA did.
    Even though he has been cleared people will still say he did it, the court of public opinion doesn't change it's mind often when it is set. Does anybody know if he will be getting any kind of compensation for the time he served? Or will he be like many others that have been wrongly convicted and not given anything due to red tape?

  8. #568
    Quote Originally Posted by Haarvald View Post
    And the saddest part, he's just starting the nightmare, his life is permanently fucked by what his offspring and the DA did.
    It's hard for me to blame the DA. There was evidence of intercourse, her accounts were very detailed and very consistent, and that's very hard for a child to fake. My feeling is that she either (1) had been abused by someone and subbed in her dad's name or (2) another child who had been abused was teaching her. Second graders who grow up in healthy environments aren't having sex, that is quite alarming and a red flag of abuse somewhere.

    I was glad for the interview with the father. You never hear about what the accused have to suffer. I think it's important for people to hear their side of the story, and maybe some future angry person will have to pause and decide that whatever injustice they might have suffered, this is the wrong path for retribution.

  9. #569
    Old God Grizzly Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Auloria View Post
    Here's an interview with the father by a local reporter.

    http://tdn.com/news/local/rape-convi...a4bcf887a.html

    He is definitely traumatized by prison, is so afraid of being accused again that he doesn't want to be around his family or anyone, and is having trouble adjusting to real life. But he's forgiven his daughter.

    This is a real tragedy.
    Well, he is a better man than I am. I don't think I would ever be able to forgive her.

  10. #570
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vinho View Post
    I agree 100%, however, she was an 11 year old girl at the time being upset from her parents divorcing, can't really slam the ban hammer on her now for being emotionally scarred from when she was little. Parents divorcing can be fairly traumatic for a child. Not to say what she did was right by any means though...
    My parents divorced when I was about 13. I never claimed to be raped by either parent. At age 11 she is old enough to understand the consequences of her actions and should be punished accordingly. She took a decade of freedom from her father, he can never get those years back and to not punish her is saying that it didn't matter and who cares if someone is locked up for a decade for doing nothing.

    It also amazes me how a man can get convicted of a crime he did not commit. There was obviously no physical evidence since it never happened and yet a bunch of people decided beyond a reasonable doubt that an 11 year olds word was the truth and that he should spend 15 years in prison. The justice system in the USA is horrible.
    Last edited by Kyocere; 2012-11-24 at 07:26 AM.

  11. #571
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Auloria View Post
    "In an interview, Baur said her office declined to file charges against Cassandra Kennedy because she wants to encourage other victims and witnesses who may have lied to come forward and tell the truth."
    Oh wow, this is so unjust.
    It's a very bad idea to signalize others that they can do such things and get away with it...
    Also, this case shows exactly why there should never ever be a verdict of guilty as long as ones guilt isn't 100% proven, without any doubt.

    At the very least she should be sentenced to pay him a shitload of money for the rest of his life.
    Last edited by mmocc02219cc8b; 2012-11-24 at 08:29 AM.

  12. #572
    I am sure it has been brought up in the 29 pages but she was 11 when the accusations were made, it's pretty serious but I don't think I could agree with her being charged over that today, even in spite of her basically ruining someones life. What would be the solution? Charge her and make an example to all other potential 11 y/o rape victim fakers? I seriously doubt that would be effective at all, that is assuming she even could be charged.

    I do find it a bit alarming they managed to convict this guy without and actual proof beyond her word against his. Would they not have to put the kid through psychological tests and whatnot? Well no system is perfect and at the end of the day she did come forward, should have done it sooner but that is a hell of a thing to own up to.

  13. #573
    Quote Originally Posted by Laize View Post
    A man went to jail for 9 years for no reason and you don't think that warrants punishment? You've got to just be fucking with me this time, Wells.
    Good thing you guys don't have the death penalty.. oh wait
    Quote Originally Posted by Primohastat View Post
    That toxicity is normal in WoW. Even classic. And it comes from this what so called elitism, spreading everywhere. Average player say that classic is piss easy and every aspect can be done with minimal effort. But right after that, the same player ignites with rage when someone wants to apply that minimal effort

  14. #574
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by IKT View Post
    Good thing you guys don't have the death penalty.. oh wait
    As far as I remember, there are even people on the mmo-champ forums that would want the death penalty being applicable in rape cases.
    Yeah, shows once more what a great idea that would be.

  15. #575
    Quote Originally Posted by Nivis View Post
    As far as I remember, there are even people on the mmo-champ forums that would want the death penalty being applicable in rape cases.
    Yeah, shows once more what a great idea that would be.
    People on this forum lack empathy. A lot of them think all criminals should just be killed because that way they won't take any tax money.

    ---------- Post added 2012-11-24 at 08:58 AM ----------

    There was evidence of intercourse, her accounts were very detailed and very consistent, and that's very hard for a child to fake. My feeling is that she either (1) had been abused by someone and subbed in her dad's name or (2) another child who had been abused was teaching her. Second graders who grow up in healthy environments aren't having sex, that is quite alarming and a red flag of abuse somewhere.
    Actually it's common for children to explore sexually with each other at ages as young as five as part of normal development. Most animals do, humans not excluded.

  16. #576
    Quote Originally Posted by Themius View Post
    Actually it's common for children to explore sexually with each other at ages as young as five as part of normal development.
    Actually no, it's not. It's a symptom of abuse.

  17. #577
    Quote Originally Posted by Themius View Post
    Actually it's common for children to explore sexually with each other at ages as young as five as part of normal development. Most animals do, humans not excluded.
    That is true, but how common is it for children to have intercourse at that young of an age?

  18. #578
    Quote Originally Posted by Nivis View Post
    Oh wow, this is so unjust.
    It's a very bad idea to signalize others that they can do such things and get away with it...
    Also, this case shows exactly why there should never ever be a verdict of guilty as long as ones guilt isn't 100% proven, without any doubt.

    At the very least she should be sentenced to pay him a shitload of money for the rest of his life.
    The problem is that people who have lied and were never caught have absolutely no motivation to come forward whatsoever, except for their own guilt. If you punish them severely, you can guarantee that they will never tell, or at best they will wait out the statute of limitations (which oddly is from the date of perjury in most places). If there is no punishment, or if there is something moderate, like community service but no jail time, then the people who are considering coming forward will be more likely to do so, and at the end of the day, we want to correct injustice first and punish wrongdoers second.


    Quote Originally Posted by Themius View Post
    Actually it's common for children to explore sexually with each other at ages as young as five as part of normal development. Most animals do, humans not excluded.
    Exploration/curiosity about the body is very common and natural. Actual adult sexual acts like intercourse are typically something the children would have to be taught. It could be that they found some porn in second grade and wanted to try it out. I doubt we'll ever know. If she was abused by someone else, no court will ever believe her.

  19. #579
    Quote Originally Posted by Auloria View Post
    It's hard for me to blame the DA. There was evidence of intercourse, her accounts were very detailed and very consistent, and that's very hard for a child to fake. My feeling is that she either (1) had been abused by someone and subbed in her dad's name or (2) another child who had been abused was teaching her. Second graders who grow up in healthy environments aren't having sex, that is quite alarming and a red flag of abuse somewhere.

    I was glad for the interview with the father. You never hear about what the accused have to suffer. I think it's important for people to hear their side of the story, and maybe some future angry person will have to pause and decide that whatever injustice they might have suffered, this is the wrong path for retribution.
    Really? evidence of intercourse? I missed that in everything I've read about this... can you point that out to me so I can see it please?

  20. #580
    Quote Originally Posted by Haarvald View Post
    Actually, how about we let them read the entire story.
    It won't let me quote from the quote, so I'll have to copy and paste.

    "In March of 2001, Cassandra was examined at a Vancouver clinic where she told a doctor about the alleged abuse. "She looked at me and said, 'Are you telling the truth?" Cassandra said this year of her appointment with the doctor. "I lied to her and said, 'Yes.' "

    The doctor found trauma in Cassandra's groin area, according to a report."

    and later

    "Kennedy was brought from Stafford Creek to the Cowlitz County Jail in late February, Baur said. During a hearing last Monday, Judge Warning ruled that Cassandra's statements to police this year are credible. He also found that the physical trauma reported by a doctor in 2001 may have been caused by a sexual experience that took place before the dates of the alleged abuse, Baur said."

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