December 10, 2008

In October 2006, my wife, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, who is bigger, stronger, and 50 pounds heavier than I, falsely accused me of forcible (later changed to nonforcible) rape, to win a fast-track Green Card under VAWA. She had been coached to do this by a cousin already residing in the US. My life was destroyed as a result.

I was banned and terminated by Barnard College as soon as they learned of the accusations against me, which led to a wrongful verdict, in October 2007, that was overturned on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel in July 2008.

I have been unable to secure a new job, while I CONTINUE to await my second trial (now scheduled to start 1/8/09) on the false charges, which are backed by NO EVIDENCE -- save the lies told by my accuser. A holder of a BA from Cornell University and two masters' degrees, I used to make $52,000 at Barnard College; now, I am reduced to living on public assistance and the few hundred dollars per month that I earn as a telephonic Mandinka-English interpreter.

The only thing anomalous about my case is the second trial. It is perfectly normal for a man to lose his job and his career upon being ACCUSED of domestic abuse, never mind what result the accusation may yield. This is because, upon being indicted (a mere accusation that has no de facto burden of proof in cases of alleged domestic violence), the man is labeled a "violent felony offender."

In my case, all the charges, and that I was originally found guilty of some of them (you have to be a lawyer to discern that the verdict was vacated), appear in the Appearance Detail of my publicly accessible WebCrims profile. Needless to say, being publicly labeled a "violent felony offender" -- though I have been convicted of nothing -- is an outrageous injustice, an affront to my civil liberties, and a mockery of the "presumption of innocence."

In fact, my case proves that any man accused of domestic abuse is instantly GUILTY until proven innocent -- except that our justice system does not permit anyone to be proven innocent; therefore, he is just permanently GUILTY.

In addition to the protections it has afforded to genuinely abused women, the Violence Against Women Act and other associated statutes have destroyed families and damaged children by promoting false allegations as a tool to gain the upper hand in divorce, and, in the case of immigrant women, to gain a fast-track Green Card -- with no risk whatsoever to the false accuser. Thus, my wife could falsely accuse me to the police, the grand jury, and the trial jury -- without the slightest fear of ever being charged with perjury or anything else.

DGG

nob911@yahoo.com