On THE BIURNY PEGUERO CASE

I know, I know. I now have TWO open topics that I have yet to finish. I will soon post the follow-up including my plan for raising funds to finance support for male victims of domestic violence. I will likely post something a little later discussing the Male Abortion topic (and if you haven't filled out the questionnaire then please do so by clicking on the post from AUGUST to the right). But I heard something tonight that got me so upset that I just had to comment on it here. It involves the now infamous case of Biurny Peguero.

In 2005, Dominican immigrant Biurny Peguero spoke to police who responded to a drunken altercation outside a New Jersey night club. They found Peguero with noticeable bruising after having recently returned from leaving the club with 3 men. When asked, she claimed in a drunken stupor that she had been raped. As a result, William McCaffery, one of the men involved, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for several charges related to the incident including rape and false imprisonment. In reality, she had received the bruising during a fight with some friends AFTER she had returned to the club.

In the spring of this year, Peguero confessed to a priest (in the confessional) that she had made up the story about the rape and that a man was serving a sentence for something he hadn't done. The priest (and yes, there are still good ones out there) convinced her to come forward and admit what she had done. He helped her contact an attorney and together they contacted the District Attorney's Office to rectify things. McCaffery is currently out on bail awaiting the final dismissal of the charges. Within that last couple days Peguero pled guilty to 2 counts of perjury and now faces 2.5-7 years in prison.

Now, it's no secret that men's rights activists hold false rape claims as a huge platform for their beliefs. Since rape is a crime for which the incarceration rate for males is much higher than it is for women AND given the destructive power of even an unjudicated rape claim, men's rights groups often speak about these issues. This particular case seems to have a lot of people talking about the problem and how to handle people who make false rape allegations. To tell the truth, I'm a little torn on this one...

The debate seems to be whether or not to charge these "victims" with very harsh punishments or to be a bit lenient with them. Some say we should throw the book at people who make false claims of rape given the lives that they tend to ruin. In this case, the man lost 4 years of his life for something he never did! This argument certainly holds water even if it does kind of feel like an eye-for-an-eye type of policy.

Others have argued that imposing very harsh penalties on these women (or men) will deter others from coming forward and admitting having falsely accused anyone of a crime. This theory is that women may say, "I don't want him to have to do prison time for something he didn't do, but it's better than the alternative of ME having to serve time." I think this one seems to make some sense too.

My issue is a little different. The plain truth is that rape is a very difficult crime to prove to begin with. The conviction rate for sexual assaults in this country is exceptionally low. Since most of the time it involves a "he said, she said" type of situation, evidence is often hard to come by and much of it is subjective. If we begin to doubt every victim in theses cases (and we may already) we make it much easier for the REAL sexual predators out there to comit these crimes and get away with them. Cases like Peguero's do irreparable damage to a victim's integrity.

MY SOLUTION: Although my heart bleeds for the men out there who are falsely accused and serving time (as it does for all people in that situation), I can't totally agree that we should show leniency toward people who make false claims of sexual assault. Lives truly are altered forever by these allegations, whether they are ever proven or not. Just ask the Duke lacrosse team. I think that we should likely hold these accusers fully responsible for their lies in order to prevent anyone in the future from sending more innocent men to prison. Feel free to disagree in the comments section if you like.~~STEVE


I am currently researching ways to obtain funding for my cause of male domestic violence victims. When I reach a conclusion there, I will be sure to post that plan as a follow-up to that post. And, once again, if you haven't done so please fill out the make abortion questionnaire so we can FINALLY get that out into the world.