Rikers Island, from above (via)

Despite how easy it looks on television, identifying a perp in a lineup is not a simple task (seriously, trust us). If you do it wrong, you can really mess up a person's life. Just ask Edmond Gaston, a 46-year-old Haitian cook at the downtown Jekyll & Hyde restaurant and married father of two, who was arrested in November and held in Riker's for eight days for a rape he did not commit. He was finally released when it became clear his Creole accent made it impossible for him to have said the things the perp allegedly said.

On November 4, 2010, a 21-year-old woman was abducted at gunpoint by a black man with a scar down his face outside of a Soundview check cashing store, driven in a white Pathfinder to a parking lot and raped. That same night she identified Gaston in a police lineup as the man who violated her (he had been pulled in because of a 2003 conviction for misdemeanor sex abuse that involved groping a woman). Despite a few problems matching Gaston's story with the victims (he can't drive, doesn't have a scar, and his Metrocard has been used near his place of employment as the attack was occurring) police sent him on to Rikers.

The cops finally noticed their error when it became clear that there was no way that Gaston had said what the victim remembered the rapist as saying ("Come with me, or I'll shoot you ... the gun has a silencer."). When he tries to say "silencer" it apparently comes out as "see-lens-uhr" with a heavy French accent (which somehow makes us think of the lineup scene in The Usual Suspects). Oh, and his DNA didn't match the DNA police had collected from the victim. The Bronx DA officially cleared him of all charges yesterday.

Last week police caught up with the man they now think is the real rapist. Terry King, 39, was arrested on Saturday. Interestingly he can drive, does have a scar down his face and doesn't have a pronounced accent. He also has a history of sexual violence. He was charged with rape in 1996, though the case was dismissed for reasons that are not entirely clear, and his DNA appears to link him to a similar rape in 2000.

According to Gaston's lawyer, the chef plans to sue the city for false imprisonment.