It was March 2008 when I deplaned from a 16 hour ride from New Zealand and was handcuffed and arrested. I was charged with the rape of a woman I had never even met. I hadn't been in the state that month and I had never been to the particular town in my life! Yet, I was getting slammed with a rape charge. Rape is not a charge to be taken lightly, folks!
It's been a few years and it has cost me more money than most well-to-do people make in a year and more embarrassment and frustration that any words I can find. I was the subject of internet jokes and was harassed by the press any time I left my house for months. All in all, it sucked! For what? Nothing!!! Not one damn good thing came from it. I did nothing wrong and still to this day, there are people who never bothered to read the whole story and will ask me in a whisper, "Hey, what ever happened with that chick or whatever who said you... you know?" Geez!
I should have hired a publicist, did the talk show circuit and wrote a book about my experience, but when I see what others have gone through, my story pales in comparison. Take for example Michael Anthony Green who was convicted of a rape he didn't commit and was finally released after 27 years in prison! Huh! That is a lifetime! You think you have problems? Take a look down a seventy five year sentence for something you had nothing to do with!
Rape isn't the only thing that people go to prison for not committing. Take Kerry Cook, another Texas man who did two decades on death row for a murder he didn't commit. Read his book, "Chasing Justice" (http://www.chasingjustice.com) and you can see that even television has done this man wrong.
Thank the Lord for people like James McCloskey at "Centurion Ministries" (http://www.centurionministries.org) who fight for the appeal of wrongful convictions. Please help these people do their work and donate.
Next time you hear about a person or a famous celeb that has been arrested for rape, don't judge them so fast. I have never raped anyone and there are many more who never have either, yet we who have been through this type of thing have to live with the stigma.
