Lawyer apologizes for falsely accusing trooper of rape (Sherita Dixon-Cole story)

RogerK · May 23, 2018

EDIT2: Shaun has posted his thoughts on this: https://medium.com/@ShaunKing/when-...erita-dixon-cole-and-the-painful-cec6ca8f3670

EDIT: Just to clarify a little (in case there's any confusion). The lawyer is not the victim. The lawyer is just the one representing the victim. What the lawyer is apologizing for is amplifying these (what seem to be) false accusations to a national level. The lawyer is a close friend to Shaun King. Shaun found out/got more details about the allegations through the lawyer and then posted extensively about the case on social media which made it go viral.

I saw the initial story making the rounds on social media yesterday (Shaun King was heavily promoting it and his posts got tens of thousands of likes/re-posts). Just in case anyone else saw it as well and was wondering what the outcome was. Apparently they released the body-cam footage which heavily contradicts the story Sherita Dixon-Cole originally told. Shaun has since deleted his posts but I haven't seen him acknowledge this latest development yet.

http://www.fox4news.com/news/lawyer-apologizes-for-falsely-accusing-trooper-of-rape

Lawyer apologizes for falsely accusing trooper of rape

An attorney is apologizing for spreading allegations that a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper sexually assaulted a woman during a traffic stop and arrest in North Texas. The apology came hours after DPS released two hours of the trooper's body camera video.

Hours after her arrest, well-known civil rights activist Shaun King wrote on Facebook and Twitter, "This woman was kidnapped and raped by a Texas State Trooper." King included a detailed explanation of the claims as explained by Cole and her attorney, Lee Merritt.

King's posts accusing the state trooper of sexual assault were shared on social media nearly 80,000 times. They have since been deleted.

"It is deeply troubling when innocent parties are falsely accused and I am truly sorry for any trouble these claims may have caused," Merritt wrote on Facebook.

The full statement from the law firm representing Sherita Dixon-Cole can be found here:

https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=4f776dabed0e4a2b424259de4c731616&oe=5B7D43E1

King of FeatherCoin · May 23, 2018

Fuck, we all need our own body cams at this point.

legacyzero · May 23, 2018

False rape allegations need mandatory jail time. Plain and simple. I follow Shaun King and usually RT his stuff as well. The least he could do is acknowledge that the accuser lied

Quixzlizx · May 23, 2018

This would be a good case-study to convince cops to want to wear body cams.

ParanoidRED · May 23, 2018

This is some scary shit

ldcommando · May 23, 2018

come on king, at least acknowledge your mistake

guek · May 23, 2018

legacyzero said:
False rape allegations need mandatory jail time. Plain and simple. I follow Shaun King and usually RT his stuff as well. The least he could do is acknowledge that the accuser lied

Unfortunately the hardest thing for anyone to do these days is admit without condition that they were wrong

Mahonay · May 23, 2018

Quixzlizx said:
This would be a good case-study to convince cops to want to wear body cams.

Yup.

FireSafetyBear · May 23, 2018

This won't help victims of the MeToo.

People will start focusing on "see false accusations happen! They're all lying!"

BringBackSonics · May 23, 2018

Oooof. Good for the camera.

PanzerKraken · May 23, 2018

Accuser needs severe punishment, this shit needs to stop, all it does is create problems in people believing the stories of those who really are assaulted.

Kinthey · May 23, 2018

King of FeatherCoin said:
Fuck, we all need our own body cams at this point.

That's what I always think. If cops believe they do nothing wrong bodycams are only in their interest

Coyote Starrk · May 23, 2018

Yet another example of why I try my best to have a wait and see approach when it comes to these kinds of allegations. More information is never a bad thing. The exception being cases like Weinstein where there is a clear history of disgusting behavior and too many accusations and incidences to count.

Powdered Egg · May 23, 2018

Don't worry about Shaun, he will correct things and isn't a culpable party.

Police willfully engage in enough racist fuckery that falsely accusing them of misdeeds is profoundly unnecessary and fucked up. This asshole fucked with the cop's life and unfortunately also gives rightwingers ammo since they consantly' deny racism and police abuse and have had a half decade hard-on to discredit King.

Deleted member 3058 · May 23, 2018

legacyzero said:
False rape allegations need mandatory jail time. Plain and simple. I follow Shaun King and usually RT his stuff as well. The least he could do is acknowledge that the accuser lied

Same.

Marshall · May 23, 2018

Quixzlizx said:
This would be a good case-study to convince cops to want to wear body cams.

I know if I were a cop, I'd have cams all over my car and body. I'd look like the fucking Borg.

BringBackSonics · May 23, 2018

Coyote Starrk said:
Yet another example of why I try my best to have a wait and see approach when it comes to these kinds of allegations. More information is never a bad thing. The exception being cases like Weinstein where there is a clear history of disgusting behavior and too many accusations and incidences to count.

Yeah, it's disappointing when you see cases and they end up being not true, because it hurts real victims of sexual abuse and rape

The Duke Lacrosse case and the Rollingstone UoVa issues

Powdered Egg · May 23, 2018

What an impatient insta-gratificating culture. Its not even 11 am in NYC. Shaun King could be asleep, taking a dump, or on his PS4 right now. Calm down lol.

Mahonay · May 23, 2018

BringBackSonics said:
Yeah, it's disappointing when you see cases and they end up being not true, because it hurts real victims of sexual abuse and rape

It's immensely damaging.

Ortix · May 23, 2018

FireSafetyBear said:
This won't help victims of the MeToo.

People will start focusing on "see false accusations happen! They're all lying!"

Let's be honest, the people who are inclined to react in that way already did, they didn't need this case for that (although they'll be loud about how this proves how right they are no doubt).

ShortNasty · May 23, 2018

legacyzero said:
False rape allegations need mandatory jail time. Plain and simple. I follow Shaun King and usually RT his stuff as well. The least he could do is acknowledge that the accuser lied

No. We dont need mandatory jail for anything. This type of stuff is covered under the numerous "perversion of justice" type laws already on the books.

ahoyhoy · May 23, 2018

FireSafetyBear said:
This won't help victims of the MeToo.

People will start focusing on "see false accusations happen! They're all lying!"

The easiest way to deal with this would be to prescribe some sort of punishment for false accusers.

Coyote Starrk · May 23, 2018

BringBackSonics said:
Yeah, it's disappointing when you see cases and they end up being not true, because it hurts real victims of sexual abuse and rape

Exactly. Its why I agree with people that say there should be some kind of punishment for false accusations. It not only harms the accused, but it casts doubt on all other accusers as well. The problem is there is no good way to implement such a punishment without also risking harm to real victims.

The whole thing is just a can of worms.

Yoshi · May 23, 2018

This is a very good example why people should be more careful with their wording in personal accusations. Why claim the initial accusation to be a fact instead of just reporting what you know, that the police officer is alleged to have done this? I think this kind of careless spreading of false news should actually be punishable as libel.

Volimar · May 23, 2018

Powdered Egg said:
What an impatient insta-gratificating culture. Its not even 11 am in NYC. Shaun King could be asleep, taking a dump, or on his PS4 right now. Calm down lol.

I'm all for giving him time to craft a response, but fwiw he just retweeted someone like 45 minutes ago.

FireSafetyBear · May 23, 2018

ahoyhoy said:
The easiest way to deal with this would be to prescribe some sort of punishment for false accusers.

And punishment for those who go after accusers and ruin their lives to the point of suicide (Nate Parker).

Kinthey · May 23, 2018

Powdered Egg said:
What an impatient insta-gratificating culture. Its not even 11 am in NYC. Shaun King could be asleep, taking a dump, or on his PS4 right now. Calm down lol.

The article says that the original tweets have been deleted, so I'd guess he's aware of it

Yoshi · May 23, 2018

Coyote Starrk said:
Exactly. Its why I agree with people that say there should be some kind of punishment for false accusations. It not only harms the accused, but it casts doubt on all other accusers as well. The problem is there is no good way to implement such a punishment without also risking harm to real victims.

The whole thing is just a can of worms.

Where is the harm, it should just not be a binary logic:
- Allegation is proven correct -> accused gets punished
- Allegation is proven incorrect -> accuser gets punished
- Allegation cannot be verified one way or the other -> no one gets punished

Where is the harm for anyone with such a rule (disregarding the imperfection of judical systems in general)?

Powdered Egg · May 23, 2018

Volimar said:
I'm all for giving him time to craft a response, but fwiw he just retweeted someone like 45 minutes ago.

And he could be confirming with Lee, confirming a confession out of the accuser, or on the phone with the officer involved in this and apologizing, or he could be crafting a response. Patience lol.

Kill3r7 · May 23, 2018

Coyote Starrk said:
Exactly.

Its why I agree with people that say there should be some kind of punishment for false accusations. It not only harms the accused, but it casts doubt on all other accusers as well. The problem is there is no good way to implement such a punishment without also risking harm to real victims.

The whole thing is just a can of worms.

It is easy to punish/penalize the behavior by you are inevitably going to dissuade real victims from coming forward. They are already reluctant to do so.

Deleted member 18347 · May 23, 2018

Nothing undermines the metoo movement moreso than false rape accusations. Disgusting.

diablos991 · May 23, 2018

Dashcams became standard for cars.

Soon personal body cameras will become standard for men.

mael · May 23, 2018

I'll refrain from punishing false accusers for the simple reason that they're not common (less than 5% last time numbers where given so around the same as any other crime) and it's a very effective way to threaten any accuser regardless of the validity of the claim.
You can see that with Weinstein who took action to silence his victims with defamation suits and the likes.
I don't think we need to give shitbags any more weapons for no reasons.

Deleted member 8561 · May 23, 2018

diablos991 said:
Dashcams became standard for cars.

Soon personal body cameras will become standard for men.

oh the victimization of young men in western society!!!

Zoe · May 23, 2018

mael said:
I'll refrain from punishing false accusers for the simple reason that they're not common (less than 5% last time numbers where given so around the same as any other crime) and it's a very effective way to threaten any accuser regardless of the validity of the claim.

This claim wouldn't even fall under that statistic because it didn't make it to trial.

ahoyhoy · May 23, 2018

FireSafetyBear said:
And punishment for those who go after accusers and ruin their lives to the point of suicide (Nate Parker).

Sure harassment should be punishable as prescribed by law, and when a remedy can't be prescribed then we can do the ol fashioned name and shame.

mael · May 23, 2018

Zoe said:
This claim wouldn't even fall under that statistic because it didn't make it to trial.

True but then again a lot of rape cases don't go to trial as well.
If we go beyond just rape into assault then the numbers are even worse.

Yoshi · May 23, 2018

mael said:
I'll refrain from punishing false accusers for the simple reason that they're not common (less than 5% last time numbers where given so around the same as any other crime) and it's a very effective way to threaten any accuser regardless of the validity of the claim.
You can see that with Weinstein who took action to silence his victims with defamation suits and the likes.
I don't think we need to give shitbags any more weapons for no reasons.

They'd have to prove the allegations are false though, so not exactly a great weapon if you actually commited the crime.

Now consider how life is for those 5% whose actually happen to be accused wrongly. Just consider how public reaction towards those people is, here and in other social channels. Many may lose their family or job over such an accusation, a loss that is almost impossible to repair just by proving later on that the accusations were wrong. Wrongly accusing someone of sexual assault is a serious assault as well.

Luchashaq · May 23, 2018

Should be disbarred and then put behind bars.

Yoshi said:
Now consider how life is for those 5% whose actually happen to be accused wrongly. Just consider how public reaction towards those people is, here and in other social channels. Many may lose their family or job over such an accusation, a loss that is almost impossible to repair just by proving later on that the accusations were wrong. Wrongly accusing someone of sexual assault is a serious assault as well.

College friend lost his long term GF of 2 years, lost his scholarship, lost 95% of his friends, and that's with us having literal video of him in the alleged night in question 2 hours away from the accuser at a friend's lake house. Ended up killing himself after the charges were dropped and she got away scott free. We basically had to kidnap his sister for about a week inside of my apartment/her other friend's apartment to stop her from committing a murder.

I've also had multiple other friends who had gotten sexually assaulted be treated like absolute trash. I've also had people laugh in my face when I've admitting to being sexually assaulted by a woman more than once.

At this point I assume the least just outcome is going to happen almost every time.

mael · May 23, 2018

Yoshi said:
They'd have to prove the allegations are false though, so not exactly a great weapon if you actually commited the crime.

Now consider how life is for those 5% whose actually happen to be accused wrongly. Just consider how public reaction towards those people is, here and in other social channels. Many may lose their family or job over such an accusation, a loss that is almost impossible to repair just by proving later on that the accusations were wrong. Wrongly accusing someone of sexual assault is a serious assault as well.

They already have defamation, they just need to prove that they haven't been convicted and tada, already a civil case in the bag.
I haven't seen a study on the aftermath of false allegations so I won't comment on it but if the person was cleared publicly, going from the high profile cases about athletes I don't think it is as dire as the usual claim.

Considering that it is already rather complicated to make a case for rape in some places (here for example, victims are usually received by skeptical officers who WILL try to talk the victim out of pushing charges).
The current arsenal is already plenty enough to pose a real risk to anyone making the claim, whether or not the claim is valid.
there may be adjustment depending on the place, better not be black and be accused of rape in the US for example.

TheMango55 · May 23, 2018

Body cams stay winning

RogerK · May 23, 2018

Powdered Egg said:
What an impatient insta-gratificating culture. Its not even 11 am in NYC. Shaun King could be asleep, taking a dump, or on his PS4 right now. Calm down lol.

I'm definitely not demanding a response right now but I hope he does give one soon. The body-cam footage has been out publicly for around 12 hours and the law firm representing Sherita has already released a statement exonerating Office Hubbard. The fact that Shaun deleted pretty much all of his posts (including all of his updates on this story) shows that he's at least aware that something doesn't add up. It was a really hot story in social media and I saw a ton of people on my feed sharing Shaun's initial post.

Cybit · May 23, 2018

He's up and retweeting stuff; so I am going to guess those expecting some kind of mea culpa are going to be disappointed.

BossAttack · May 23, 2018

Damn you Shaun King, just take the L and do better next time.

Powdered Egg · May 23, 2018

Luchashaq said:
Should be disbarred and then put behind bars..

Disbarred for what? Lee Everitt did his due diligence as an attorney. We take cases and gather evidence, if our clients are bullshitting we drop em. The fact that this news story went viral isn't out of the norm, any incident that happens in general is on the news and the public has knowledge about it ASAP. Fact gathering is for trials.

excelsiorlef · May 23, 2018

diablos991 said:
Dashcams became standard for cars.

Soon personal body cameras will become standard for men.

Why so that rapists can incriminate themselves?

Because ya know cameras on all men will capture far more men raping than women lying.

Dodongo · May 23, 2018

diablos991 said:
Dashcams became standard for cars.

Soon personal body cameras will become standard for men.

Can you expound on this a bit? Why would all men need body cams?

Kirblar · May 23, 2018

False claims are horrible. Body cams are better for everyone.

ldcommando said:
come on king, at least acknowledge your mistake

He won't. He is not good even though he might be a net positive and this is the type of behavior that makes me recommend people not follow him and always get a second source if you see something sourced via him.

Rowlf · May 23, 2018

Powdered Egg said:
Disbarred for what? Lee Everitt did his due diligence as an attorney. We take cases and gather evidence, if our clients are bullshitting we drop em. The fact that this news story went viral isn't out of the norm, any incident that happens in general is on the news and the public has knowledge about it ASAP. Fact gathering is for trials.

He's probably referring to the lady who reported the rape...

Commedieu · May 23, 2018

So unfortunate when there are police officers raping women all the time. But didn't nypd make it legal for their officers to rape women on duty. Some weird thing that they can have consensual sex whIle on duty? Then there was that other cop that started sucking dudes feet.

I'd be worried about this some how tarnishing victims of police violence/rape. But they do it often enough and get caught often enough that it makes this a rare instance of someone lying about someone when there's video.

Lawyer apologizes for falsely accusing trooper of rape (Sherita Dixon-Cole story)

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