Experts: Hofstra false rape could hurt real victims

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Hofstra University freshman who lied to police about being gang-raped in a dormitory bathroom stall last month altered both the course of her own life and the lives of the five men who were wrongly accused.
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But victims' advocates said they had no doubt that public anger toward Ndonye would discourage actual victims of sexual assault from coming forward.

"The defense in sexual assault cases is always that the victim is lying," even when that is not the case, said Lois Schwaeber, director of legal services for the Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
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Scott Berkowitz, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, said about 5 percent of sexual assault reports are determined to be unfounded. Still, Burns said, every prosecutor he knows has come across at least one or two such cases in his career.
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The Criminal Courts Bar Association has said it believes that Rice's office should have charged Ndonye with a crime. Not to do so, Bouse said, sends a message to other would-be false accusers that there are no negative consequences short of a "slap on the wrist."'