Wife Tries To Abort And Poison Husband's Lovechild
Man Injured By Tree Limb Files Suit Against City
Charles Barron Will Run For Council Speaker
Alleged Tiger Mistress Is Unrecognizable To Dead Fiancee's Dad
New Jersey State Senate To Vote On Gay Marriage
A New Jersey woman has admitted she fabricated an allegation of rape against a man who's now serving a 20-year-sentence for the alleged assault. William McCaffrey, 31, was sentenced in 2006 after Biurny Peguero Gonzalez testified that he and two other men raped her at knife point in a van parked in Upper Manhattan in September 2005. But she now says she made the whole thing up, to cover for a fight with some of her women friends. Last year, new scientific developments enabled investigators to retest the DNA from bites on Gonzalez's arm; no "Y" chromosome was found, meaning the bites could not have come from a man.
McCaffrey met Gonzalez for the first time on the night of the alleged rape at the corner of Broadway and Dyckman Street in Inwood. Gonzalez was in a parked car with at least one friend, and McCaffrey invited them to an after-hours party. En route, it became apparent that Gonzalez was too inebriated to drive, and McCaffrey convinced her to park the car in a garage. Gonzalez's friend left to join other ladies in a second vehicle, and McCaffrey and Gonzalez got in a friend’s van to continue to the party. But they soon turned back after Gonzalez received angry calls from her gal pals.
They returned to the garage, where Gonzalez eventually reunited with her irate friends. At the trial, a garage attendant testified that the group was "yelling and hitting each other," and according to court papers, the fight was so fierce that one of the women kicked and broke a window in a car. In the morning, Gonzalez went to Christ Hospital in Jersey City and showed nurses bite marks on her shoulder and arm. The nurses found no physical evidence that she had been raped, but McCaffrey was convicted on the strength of her testimony.
Fast forward to seven months ago, when she got pregnant, got married, underwent a religious conversion, and decided she wanted McCaffrey released. She confessed to a priest, who convinced her to come forward. But her lawyer tells the Post he won't allow her to testify without immunity because she's pregnant: "I don't want to see her baby born in prison." The DA's Office is considering charging her with perjury. Speaking of the district attorney, the Times reports that last October, McCaffrey's lawyer asked the D.A. to vacate the conviction because of the new DNA test. But the DA refused, arguing that "the DNA could have come from tears shed by Peguero’s friends." McCaffrey is still in prison.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
aaand for the second time today: wow what a cunt
Agreed. Does double jeopardy apply here? Can he get out and rape her with impunity now? He should, with a fire hydrant.
Or a sharp stick!
That is just the most horrible thing to say, asshole.
This woman deserves jail time!
definitely.
100%
in hell.
I might be wrong on this but it seems like this is the case more often than its not.
yes, you are wrong.
cases like this are why it can be difficult for people to believe the woman who have been assaulted.
fuck immunity, charge her with perjury and toss her in jail - and for god's sake, let mccaffrey out already!
Thank you!
Agreed!
The city should also pay him a few million for wrongful imprisonment! (on some sort of exponential sliding scale)
Lock her up in prison for life. I feel sorry for her husband...what a bitch.
What a bitch, her and anyone else that helped perpetuate this lie should all have to serve the remainder of this poor guys sentence.
Unlike her lawyer, i would like to see her baby born in jail. i'd like to then see her baby taken from her and raised by its father until she's let out of jail several years later.
let's hear it for Biurny Peguero Gonzalez, today's winner of the presitigious "I Single Handedly Set the Women's Equality Movement Back 20 Years with My Idiotic Behavior Award"!
and to all you real rape victims out there, remember: your pain doesn't mean as much thanks to fuck-ups like Biurny!
may she Biurny in hell...
"The nurses found no physical evidence that she had been raped, but McCaffrey was convicted on the strength of her testimony."
Way to go jury.
good point.
bad jury! you're bad! that's very naughty. BAD!
Unfortunately i think, esp now a days, they take this claim VERY seriously and automatically side with the "victim". I went through something similar, fortunately my testimony an some evidence, got the guy off the hook but, the detective(a woman) was not at all happy I had done this.
Yeah, I can't believe they convicted him without evidence! And I think her girlfriends should be thrown in jail with her. They knew what happened, but obviously did not come forward.
It gets worse. Many times rape/abuse victims will file a report and then recant some time later. There are studies upon studies which show that the victim will start to feel bad that the person will get in trouble.
Often, when the victim goes back and said that they lied, and the cops/prosecutor will scare them into going back to their initial story with threats of arrest for filing a false report.
So, really, if there is any other evidence which supports the story, even if a victim says they made it up, you can still get a conviction with an expert witness who says that lots of victims go back on their story.
You know, when they portray DA's on cop/court TV dramas they always seem pig headedly devoted to the notion that the correct assumption was always made by the Jury.
Real life mirrors this apparently.
3 years in prison because of some stupid bitch. Her kid SHOULD be born in lockup because that's exactly what she deserves.
Let's look at that DA as well. Ignoring prima facie evidence because it doesn't fit that idiot's preconceived notions about rape and the veracity of a female complainant should disqualify that person from ever prosecuting another case. Huge lawsuit, huge settlement,huge embarassment, and yes, huge setback for the real victims of rape out there.
"Let's look at that DA as well. Ignoring prima facie evidence because it doesn't fit that idiot's preconceived notions about rape and the veracity of a female complainant should disqualify that person from ever prosecuting another case."
But, that's not what happened. A lack of physical evidence that she was raped isn't evidence that she was not. Of any kind, including prima facie, and tossing around legal terms doesn't make the argument work.
I'd be interested in learning what the defense had to say. This would be a real exception to the usual "he said/she said" of rape cases, where the male suspect's usual contention is that sexual contact did occur, but was consensual. Apparently in this case there was no such contact, which probably made the idea that she might be lying seem even more remote. What would be the motivation? That motivation turned out to be so strange that it's not surprising no on thought of it.
I'm amazed this case got through a grand jury for indictment and then a trial jury which convicted. The evidence seemed so flimsly. There seemed to be plenty of reasonable doubt. How did that happen? Was the defendant's lawyer completely incompetent?
Perhaps rape charges should only be brought if there is a third collaborating witness to the event.
Because... no one's ever been wrongfully convicted of any crime other than rape? Or because one wrongful conviction proves that most men accused of rape are actually innocent? Or because, what the hell' it's the Web, people are expected to spout off stupid ideas?
This would prevent cases like this one from ever happening again. Any moron could understand that. Our criminal justice system is based on letting 10 guilty people go free just to prevent 1 innocent person from going to jail.
Just like in the Islamic countries
Actually the complete opposite. You would understand this if you took reading comprehension in grammar school.
I think she should serve double the time he's already served... with the clock still counting up until this poor guy is released.
I feel terrible no woman should ever lie about something as horrible as rape. I feel so bad for McCaffrey and all the other men who have been falsely accused.
I wonder how long the Great Bureaucracy will take to release this man and how they will make up for stealing three years of his life.
"Last year, new scientific developments enabled investigators to retest the DNA from bites on Gonzalez's arm; no "Y" chromosome was found, meaning the bites could not have come from a man."
They still kept him in jail. Why? An innocent man was jailed. Bad enough. When there was proof of his innocence, he was still kept in jail. Unpardonable. If he's in jail as I type, it's criminal.
Nobody gave a damn about this guy last year and nothing has changed. Hey, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Governor, get off your ass and do something. Fire that DA, for one.
I wonder if he'll even get an apology...
If his car was towed, they will refund him the money.
No, but seriously, I agree with harrisgraber 100%. It is criminal this man wasted 3 years of his life for something he didn't do.
I think some credit should be given that she confessed knowing the backlash it would cause her personally. Everyone in NYC is screaming for her to be put in jail, to have her baby taken away ect. She could have been a total asshole and stayed quiet and let him rot in jail for 20 years.
She is still a cunt though.
Are you serious?! We are supposed to cut her some slack because she finally decided to stop lying? Tell that to the guy that spent 3 years in prison. Seriously, I would love to overhear the conversation where you tell him that she deserves some credit for speaking up after all this time.
NO NO!!!
I never wanted her to idolized in the least!! What she did was wrong! She put a man in jail for three long years! Do you know how angry I would be if I was his family members?
I honestly think she should be locked up for what she did! In no way shape or form do I think she should get off scott free. At all.
But...
It took balls to go to the press with this. 99.9% of the people here wouldn't here wouldn't come forward
...please don't lynch me good people....
Ok, I hear you. But, I also doubt that it was her that went to the press. Things like this (evidence which is exculpatory) need to be turned over to the defense when the government gets it. So, I would wager that it was his lawyers that threw this to the papers.
From her perspective, it would be better to keep it all quiet because it would be easier to broker a deal if there was no public outrage. Now the DA is under a microscope to see how they deal with it, which makes it less likely they would offer her immunity just to get the right resolution -- especially when the job is up for grabs.
Thank you for not verbally beating me down :-)
So you think that someone outted her to the press? I didn't know that keeping it quiet was even an option!
she needs to serve the same exact amount of time as what his sentence was. nothing pisses me off more than people like this who discredit the words of actual rape victims.
Her lawyer is doing the absolute right thing, which is to protect his client. But, that doesn't mean she can't do it anyhow. The decision is hers and hers alone. People should be standing outside her home with signs urging her to do the right thing.
Maybe her priest should be trying to convince her to testify and accept any consequences in order to free this man. Maybe he is, I don't know.
And, if she if 7 mos pregnant now and did testify without immunity, she wouldn't be charged and sentenced immediately anyhow. It would most certainly take weeks or months until that whole thing was over. So, the baby wouldn't be born in prison. Even if she were immediately arrested, unless she was an incredible flight risk, she could post bail and be out for the delivery.
She ruined a man's life. And, it wasn't just an impulsive decision. I don't know about the case, but months must have passed in between her initial report and actually testifying at trial. She had all that time to reflect and change her mind, but she stuck with her plan rather than own up to her lies.
I hope that in addition to any criminal consequences, there are hefty civil consequences for her as well. Mr. McCaffrey deserves compensation from her for the last 3 years of his life as well as all the hardship he will face in the future as a result of this. And, slightly less important, she should be required to pay back the state for the expense of the investigation and trial.
Send her to jail and may this man get a civil judgement that will put such a lein on this woman that half of every penny she ever earns in her entire life gets paid to him (pre-tax, of course).
the DA is acting like an ass.
She should get locked up for this.
Though it appeared after the conviction, that DNA evidence was not prima facie? Evidence only exists if it supports the prosecution? DNA is not regarded as circumstantial evidence, even if it's used to complete a false picture. That DA had a duty to reopen the case and vacate that conviction. Laziness and budgetary constraints are no excuse.
( reply to jayclay )
"Though it appeared after the conviction, that DNA evidence was not prima facie?"
Sorry, that question doesn't make sense. By definition, evidence appearing after a trial can not be prima facie.
If you mean was it relevant... well, not necessarily. He was convicted of rape. If he was convicted of assault for biting her, then incontrovertible evidence that he did not bite her should easily get the conviction tossed.
But proof that he did not bite her does not prove that he did not rape her. Her recantation of her testimony, along with the DNA evidence, him should do that. But one or the other? Not so certainly, because it's not clear what weight each element had in convincing jurors to convict.
"That DA had a duty to reopen the case and vacate that conviction."
Don't believe everything you read in a Gothamist post. A prosecutor can not reopen a case that's been concluded, and can not vacate a conviction.
The linked Times story words that more accurately: his lawyer is asking the DA to join him in requesting that the court vacate the conviction.
When will Irish guys learn to stay away from Spanish women? The two just don't mix.
Cases like this make it really difficult for women who really have been raped. This woman should go to jail. So what if her kid is born in jail?
this fucking bitch!
pregnant or not - toss her ass in jail!
I have to say that is website has the most hard-hearted, opinionated comments I've ever seen!
Yes, she is a bitch. Yes, there are MANY men doing time in our over-crowded prison system on false charges. Yes, this woman should face perjury charges.
No, she should not serve a life sentence. No, a third-party witness should not be required to prove a rape. No, I don't want her baby to be born in jail if that is avoidable.
Why is it so prevalant today that young women beat each other up? The violent nature of today's young people appalls me.
put her ass in jail