Teen who made false rape report offered support

Story here. Excerpt:

'As community leaders mobilize support for a Yates High School student who admitted she lied about being sexually assaulted last week, Houston police have not ruled out the possibility of criminal charges against the teen.

The 15-year-old girl told police that a man abducted her on Noah Street near Cyrill Park on the way home from school, dragged her into an abandoned house and sexually assaulted her. She provided a detailed description of man, as well as other information.

But authorities discovered evidence that made her story questionable, and she ultimately admitted that the Oct. 24 assault never happened, said activist Deric C. Muhammad, who held a news conference Friday at the park.

"We are actually relieved that the predator that we were looking for does not exist," said Muhammad, of the Ministry of Justice-Houston. "One of the most egregious things that a female can do is to fabricate a story that she has been raped, when she has not. We don't want the cries of real rape victims to get drowned out in the lies that are told, such as the one that was told last week."

Muhammad agreed that assistance, rather than punishment, is needed to get the girl on the right track.

"We know there are some underlying psychological issues that would compel this young girl to come forward with such a story," he said. "We vehemently condemn what she did, but we don't condemn her as a child and as a person. We believe she can be redeemed from this."'