Hofstra Rape 'Victim' Recants Story

Danmell Ndonye, the Hofstra University student who had accused 4 men of raping her in a men's dormitory restroom, has recanted her story after being confronted by prosecutors with video footage of the alleged attack. The four men accused of the attack were all released from custody, and all charges against them and one other man who was still being searched for were dropped. The four men had been held in jail overnight, and were each facing up to a possible 25 years in prison. All four men who had been charged in the attack - Kevin Taveras, 20, Stalin Felipe, 19, Jesus Ortiz, 19 and Rondell Bedward, 21 - were from the New York/New Jersey area.

Ndonye met the men at a party Saturday night, and claimed one of them, Jesus Ortiz, had taken her cell phone. In her statement, she says she followed Ortiz to retrieve the phone. Ndonye stated that she had been lured into a dormitory bathroom and then tied up and gang raped by the group of men. Prosecutors say that the cell phone video of the attack shows a consensual sexual encounter, with no sign of a forced attack and no sign of Ndonye having been tied up. Prosecutors say that there had been some inconsistencies in Ndonye's story, and that when she was made aware of the existence of the cell phone footage, she completely recanted. The New York Post reports that Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice has launched a criminal investigation into the reports given by Ndonye in connection with the incident.

This isn't the first time a woman has appeared in the news for falsely accusing a man of rape, often with tragic results. In 2006, Tracy Roberson accused the man she was having an affair with of rape when her husband came home and caught them together. Her husband then pulled out a gun and shot and killed the alleged 'rapist'. Also in 2006, members of the Duke lacrosse team were falsely accused of rape by an exotic dancer. The young men who were alleged to have performed the attack were vilified in national news stories and in public opinion.

The men who are falsely accused of this sort of attack often suffer terrible - sometimes irreparable - damage to their reputation. Communities are can be violently split between wanting to support the woman, and those who can't believe the accused attacker could be responsible. As in the Duke incident, the damage can go far beyond the alleged rapists - the entire Duke lacrosse team was penalized in a forfeiture of their season, and the team coach lost his job.

And it's not only the victims of the false accusations, their friends, families and communities that are damaged. Every time a woman makes a false claim of rape, it is an egregious disservice to our justice system, and an insult to any woman who has been raped. False claims of rape can even lead to people being less likely to believe future victims of rape.

Because of this, it seems only fair that anyone who falsely accuses someone of rape should be prosecuted and severely punished. Although any false accusations of crime is a serious offense, in the case of crying rape, it's consequences are much more damaging to the victim, and so the punishment should be much more severe.

Source: Debra Dennis, Tarrant County woman who falsely cried rape is convicted of manslaughter, the Dallas Morning News
Anne Blythe, Duke, ex-coach settle up, The News & Observer