Jury orders blogger to pay $8.4 million to ex-Army colonel she accused of rape - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote]Col. David “Wil” Riggins, after a highly decorated Army career that included multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was on the verge of promotion to brigadier general in July 2013 when he got a phone call at the Pentagon from the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division to come in for a meeting. Once there, he learned that a blogger in Washington state had just accused him of raping her, when both were cadets at West Point in 1986. An investigation was underway. Riggins waived his right to an attorney and immediately gave a statement denying any sexual assault of the woman, Susan Shannon of Everett, Wash. Shannon also cooperated with the CID investigation, which could not “prove or disprove Ms. Shannon’s allegation she was raped,” the CID report concluded. But in the spring of 2014, with the armed forces facing heavy criticism for their handling of sexual assault cases, Secretary of the Army John McHugh recommended removing Riggins from the list for promotion to general. Riggins promptly retired. Then, Riggins sued Shannon for defamation, claiming that every aspect of her rape claim on the West Point campus was “provably false,” and that she wrote two blog posts and a Facebook post “to intentionally derail [his] promotion” to brigadier general. During a six-day trial that ended Aug. 1, a jury in Fairfax County, Va., heard from both Riggins and Shannon at length. And after 2½ hours of deliberation, they sided emphatically with Riggins, awarding him $8.4 million in damages, an extraordinary amount for a defamation case between two private citizens. The jury ordered Shannon to pay $3.4 million in compensatory damages for injury to his reputation and lost wages, and $5 million in punitive damages, “to make sure nothing like this will ever happen again,” according to one of the jurors.[/quote] [url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2017/08/11/jury-orders-blogger-to-pay-8-4-million-to-ex-army-colonel-she-accused-of-rape/?tid=pm_pop]Washington Post[/url]

There's nothing as bizarre to me as false rape claims. But it's a practice that has provably existed ever since recorded civilization existed, so what do I know.

[QUOTE]Shannon said she didn’t know that Riggins was up for a promotion until the investigators told her. “I had no idea, I don’t read the military press,” she said. [B]But one of her own witnesses testified that Shannon did know, and that it was the motivation for her writing her first blog post.[/B] Shannon said the witness misunderstood the question, but the information remained unchallenged for the jury to consider.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Shannon called Riggins’s story about the 1983 encounter “a complete fabrication.” She said she presented a witness, another cadet, who testified that [B]he — the witness — drove her home from the Halloween party.[/B] Shannon stands by her version of the events in 1986. “Everything in that blog post was provably false,” said Stephen Horvath, Riggins’s lawyer, “and could not have happened.” He said no free beer was provided on the West Point campus, that drinking was prohibited by cadets, that Riggins did not have a car in 1986, would not have been allowed to drive it on campus, and that anyone emerging from the pedestrian tunnel couldn’t have been seen from the road. Shannon’s claims that her grades plunged after the event and that she returned her class ring were also untrue, Horvath said.[/QUOTE] What a joke. I was going to say those damages are ridiculous but so is her throwing out her own case with her own witness's testimony. Great job by her lawyer bitching and moaning about admissibility of evidence after the fact despite putting these folks on the stand that torpedoed their own case. [QUOTE]She acknowledged that her blog post sparked an investigation which otherwise wouldn’t have happened, but that Riggins had the burden of proof to show that the investigation stopped his promotion.[/QUOTE] Holy shit, she is completely out of it.

[QUOTE=Bertie;52565483]There's nothing as bizarre to me as false rape claims. But it's a practice that has provably existed ever since recorded civilization existed, so what do I know.[/QUOTE] It's not weird to me. I had a good friend that was mad I got a club leadership position in college she wanted. The last two years of college were having friends alienated from me for reasons I didn't understand, till I found out she was saying categorically false claims about me behind my back the entire time, and most people just took her at her word without verifying any of it. Making up bullshit and spreading rumors about people works, especially when the other person never finds out.

I hope this sets a precedent for other cases like this, e.g. mattress girl.

[QUOTE=Problem;52565630]It's not weird to me. I had a good friend that was mad I got a club leadership position in college she wanted. The last two years of college were having friends alienated from me for reasons I didn't understand, till I found out she was saying categorically false claims about me behind my back the entire time, and most people just took her at her word without verifying any of it. Making up bullshit and spreading rumors about people works, especially when the other person never finds out.[/QUOTE] It doesn't even have to be about rape, friend of mine had a lot of his buddies turned against him by an insane ex cus they just took her at her word, not knowing any better

I hate people who falsely accuse others of rape because it harms the person you are attacking unfairly and it harms actual rape victims.

[QUOTE=da space core;52565890]I hate people who falsely accuse others of rape because it harms the person you are attacking unfairly and it harms actual rape victims.[/QUOTE] Shit like this keeps happening, and you'll have a real rape victim make claims and people will dismiss them and think they're making it up, which is awful.

[QUOTE=Problem;52565917]Shit like this keeps happening, and you'll have a real rape victim make claims and people will dismiss them and think they're making it up, which is awful.[/QUOTE] Something similar happened after the satanic panic back in the 80s. McMartin Preschool case essentially had a bunch of forced testimonies from children, despite not a shred of any physical evidence or any adult witnesses. For nearly a decade, it was so so so hard for children suffering legitimate abuse to be taken seriously.

$5 million in punitive damages seems harsh but this shows that the system works. If you have a case against someone that their false sexual assault accusations caused you to lose wages, income etc then it becomes a matter of defamation. The eye for an eye, Hammurabi shit people like to suggest for this specific crime isn't necessary.

[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;52565679]I hope this sets a precedent for other cases like this, e.g. mattress girl.[/QUOTE] Given this bit at the end [quote] The jury ordered Shannon to pay... ...$5 million in punitive damages, “to make sure nothing like this will ever happen again,” according to one of the jurors.[/quote] I think that's exactly what the jury is going for

I always love to see someone who attacks and ruins other people's lives be forced to finally understand that they're wrong and a shitty person. I'd love to see the look on her face in the moment where she realized that ruining this guy was an $8.4 million mistake.

[QUOTE=Bertie;52565483]There's nothing as bizarre to me as false rape claims. But it's a practice that has provably existed ever since recorded civilization existed, so what do I know.[/QUOTE] If anything it makes a lot of sense as to why it's a go to claim in order to ruin someone. It's an accusation that is fairly easy to make up and hard to disprove (Especially if you are accusing someone of raping you 30 years ago), and its taken very seriously regardless of how long ago it was.

Hopefully this judgement makes headway in changing the "guilty until proven innocent" mentality behind rape and sexual assault cases. Too often in the last few years exactly this has happened, and popular opinion seemingly always backs up the accuser, sometimes even after evidence is shown they're liars.

Depending on how long he was in had he got that promotion that would have been an extra 24k year (2k a month diff from O-6 to O-7) and more if he had been up for promotion again. Also your retirement is half of your base pay at the time you retire so he would have walked away with a much bigger retirement check every month for the rest of his life.

Rape claims are one of those things that are truly scary. Without proof and even if found not guilty it can ruin or severely alter someone's life. Not only do you have people who will blindly believe the "victim" which can include friends or family, but you can/will be known afterwards as "The guy/girl who got accused of rape".