Karyn Galila, 24, has been given a 90 day jail sentence for her false report of being raped at gun point by five men in San Mateo, California. What is most striking about this story is the lack of consistency in the treatment of such false accounts, particularly the refusal of prosecutors to pursue charges against the two women behind the false rape charges in the Duke Lacrosse case.
Galila, 24, has admitted that she made up the story for her husband after she came home late from a rendezvous at a restaurant with another man — an individual who she recently met online.
At least with this fabricated story, the search was brief before the lie was discovered (a fingerprint on her car led to the man in question, who told police about the secret meeting). In the Duke case, the lives of various players were ruined, a city thrown into months of racially divisive controversy, a major university virtually shutdown, and millions spent on investigation and litigation. The result: no charges against the woman and her friend who made (and maintained) the charges.
For the California story, click here
Finally! I can only offer kudos to this prosecutor who pushed for a brief jail sentence for what was a deliberate lie by a false accuser who KNEW no crime took place. And yes, you are 100% correct in saying that the false accuser (Mangum) should also have faced criminal penalties for the tremendous hard to three innocent young men that her deliberate lie caused in the Duke Lacrosse case, not to mention the university and the City of Durham, NC.
However, I will also say that the law enforcement officials who handled the Duke case did a very poor job, to put it in the mildest possible terms. Had they been willing to be more objective in doing their investigation, and withheld judgment until ALL the facts were in, that entire ugly mess could have been easily avoided. Instead, they caved in to political pressure from all sides, including that from a highly biased prosecutor.
Maybe this CA jail sentence of a known false accuser will send a message to potential false accusers who want to use the criminal justice system against someone to settle a personal score or grudge; DON’T go there, unless you want to do some jail time yourself if you’re caught lying to law enforcement. One can only hope so.