Story here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'For more than three months, Scott Michael Waite wore an electronic ankle bracelet that made him a prisoner in his own home. With his reputation sullied and his life put on hold, he sat accused of raping a 26-year-old woman he had met in an Oakdale bar on a cold January night.

But in a recent unique turn of events, after an exhaustive investigation by his attorney, Ryan Garry, prosecutors dropped the charges in April. Waite, 29, now must rebuild his life.

"I'm pretty shook up by the whole thing," Waite said. "I was treated like a complete criminal. To hear people say these malicious things about me is really hurtful."

The case was dropped "in the interest of justice" and was an unusual one "where we get information after the fact and feel we really can't prove our case at all," said Susan Harris, first assistant attorney in Washington County. "In this particular case, they found a lot of people willing to come forward and speak against [the accuser]."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Concord woman who claimed her boyfriend tried to rape her has been arrested and charged with false reporting.

The police are still trying to figure out what exactly happened between Tabitha Carbone, 18, and Andrew Trudell, 25, early May 22, when Carbone told the police that Trudell grabbed, choked, and tried to rape her after she said she wanted to break up with him.

But prosecutors have dropped the charge of attempted aggravated felonious sexual assault against Trudell, who was arrested after a foot chase the night of May 22. His bail, originally set at $100,000 cash, was reduced and converted to personal recognizance. He left the Merrimack County Jail on Wednesday.'

Two "men of a certain age" have just launched Men's Space, a new social networking site for mature men. The site, http://www.mens-space.com/, will provide a platform for men over 30 or even younger, to air and share their views because, said co-founder John Murphy (64), "There is so much support for women but men seem to have to tough it out for themselves".

Co-founder Tony Reid (a little older) said "We want to give men a voice again. A "man of a certain age" can be a man of any age, so long as he wants to engage with other men in a grown-up manner". The Men’s Space site will have a very different demographic to the likes of Facebook and that is the target.

Men's Space has the usual facilities to be expected of a social networking site, including the main forum, the ability to form groups and profiles with photo galleries.

Story here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON – The White House says Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor acknowledges she made a poor word choice in a 2001 speech in which she said that a Latina judge would often reach a better conclusion than a white male judge who hasn't lived the same life.

That's according to presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs. He says he has not talked directly to Sotomayor about it but has spoken to people who have.'

So she is saying she made a "poor choice of words". At least, she is said to have said to have said something like that. That is, someone is saying he heard from someone else that she said words to that effect, or in some way acknowledged it.

"Poor choice of words". I wonder what "choice of words" she would choose today to express the sentiment, whatever it was, since her first choice of words was, apparently, "poor" -- or so we are told by someone told by someone else who said she said something like that.

Article here. Excerpt:

'OK, GIVE yourselves some credit. You had this Bonnie Sweeten abduction pegged for a hoax by morning coffee break Wednesday.

Anybody around the water cooler with an IQ of 65 or above was starting to sense that the by-now hardy perennial tale of the missing blue-eyed blonde being hijacked by those handy, hulking black men from Central Casting was bogus.

Don't gloat too much, though. The odor of week-old carp was wafting off of this one from the moment the call came in from the damn'dsel in distress.
...
The paper trail she left behind was easier to follow than the bread crumbs Hansel and Gretel left on their trek through the woods. Her inevitable conviction may be a deterrent to the next fable spinner.

But this is small solace to hundreds of black men who have found themselves in the dragnet after one of these bogus yarns. Some of them have been convicted on the basis of lies not much better than this one.

Looks like it's teacher-student-statutory-rape-story-Friday here on MANN. One more here. This one's a real shocker, but is anyone really surprised when so many female teachers get away with it so easily so often? Excerpt:

'It was inside a second-story classroom where police said Weber gave one of her students an up close and personal lesson in sex education.
...
...But authorities said the 27-year-old took particular interest in one student, having sex with the teen seven times from mid-April to mid-May, all after school.

She allegedly told him: "Don't tell anyone. I could get arrested and I could lose my teaching license."

Investigators said after the boy's mother was tipped off by school employees, she checked her son's cell phone and found hundreds of calls and texts from Weber, the last text reading, "erase your phone."'

Article here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'FLINT, Michigan -- A showdown is coming between former Flint Mayor Don Williamson and 45 city police officers who claim they are the victims of reverse discrimination.

And it could cost Flint taxpayers millions if the cops win.

A federal judge this week refused the city's request to toss a lawsuit that claims Williamson passed over qualified white officers when he handpicked five officers for his Citizens Service Bureau in 2006.

Four of the officers were black men and one was a white woman.

The lawsuit filed by 45 white officers claims that Williamson "unlawfully discriminated against them when Williamson personally selected officers on the basis of race" for the department.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'During the 3:00PM EST hour on MSNBC on Wednesday, political analyst Pat Buchanan wondered why President Obama’s short list for the Supreme Court only included women, in response, anchor Norah O’Donnell declared: "Did it ever occur to you, Pat, that maybe there weren’t any white men who were qualified?"

Buchanan replied: "No, it did not occur to me...You mean there are no white males qualified? That is – that would be an act of bigotry to make a statement like that." O’Donnell defended her remark by claiming past discrimination against women in the nominating process: "In the past there have been no women that have been qualified." Buchanan argued: "They certainly have been qualified in the past. I don’t doubt there are. But probably half of the great lawyers and judges are white males in this country. And to rule them out, why? Because of their sex and because of their race is wrong, I think. At least it’s affirmative action."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The trial of a Canberra teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student ended yesterday with the woman's young accuser branded a liar in court by a defence barrister.
After seven days of evidence and submissions in the ACT Supreme Court, 43-year-old Tania Tominac now faces an agonising wait for Justice Malcolm Gray to return his verdict on her guilt or innocence.
...
In his closing submissions yesterday, defence barrister Ken Archer told Justice Gray that the boy at the centre of the allegations was ''not a witness of truth'' and that some of his claims were ''beyond belief''.

Tominac, a former teacher at Saint Francis Xavier College in Florey, is accused of conducting an affair with the then 14-year-old student.

The mother-of-three pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 and one count of maintaining a relationship with a person under the age of 16.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'WILMINGTON – More details emerged Wednesday in the case against a former New Hanover County middle school teacher charged with sex crimes.

Wilmington police say they caught 27-year-old Jessica Wishnask in "intimate contact" with a 15-year-old boy. She was charged with taking indecent liberties with a minor.

News 14 Carolina confirmed Thursday that the teenager is a student at Williston Middle School, where Wishnask used to teach. It is unclear if he was her student.

News 14 Carolina does not identify the victims of sex crimes.

New Hanover County school district leaders say the teacher was suspended twice during her two years with the district. They did not release the reason for those suspensions. She resigned for personal reasons last December.

Wilmington police say they caught the teacher and student together in a parked car around 3:30 a.m. Saturday.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'NASHVILLE - A former Tennessee teacher who was convicted of having sex with a 13-year-old student is fighting for another shot at parole.

Pamela Rogers was arrested in February 2005 and pleaded no contest to having sexual intercourse and oral sex with the student, who attended the elementary school in McMinnville where she had taught physical education.

She was released early for good behavior, but was sent back to jail for sending nude photos to the boy after she was released.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'HARRISON, Pa., May 27 (UPI) -- A former teacher's aide and one-time stripper apologized in a Pennsylvania courtroom for her sexual trysts and partying with teenage students.

Abbie Swogger, 36, of Harrison was sentenced to 3-to-6 years in prison Tuesday after saying she was sorry she had not acted like the role model she should have been during her brief tenure as an aide at a local high school.

The Valley News Dispatch in Tarentum. Pa., said Swogger will also be registered as a sex offender. In exchange for the plea, most of the 40 counts against her were consolidated or dropped.'

Story here. When its a female teacher, its sex or relationship. When its a male, its abuse or rape. How many female teachers who rape boys are held without bail?

'A former teacher's aide in Burlington will remain in jail pending trial on sex abuse charges.

Douglas Cavett, 43, of Milton, is accused of assaulting a male student from Hunt Middle school back in the early 1990s.

Police say Cavett gained the trust of troubled boys and hosted parties at his house where he gave teenage boys drugs and alcohol. Cavett already has one sex crime conviction from 2005, also involving a teenage boy.

Last week he pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault, but police fear there may be more victims. A judge denied him bail, saying he's a risk to public safety.'