Joy Watson, Candidate for Nassau County DA on Failure of Kathleen Rice to Charge False Rape Accuser

Sept. 25, 2009 - PRLog -- Joy Watson for Nassau DA
PO Box 741
Mineola, NY 11501
Contact: Dianne Baumert-Moyik 516-903-1107 or Joy Watson (516) 456-1083

For Immediate Release 9:10 pm 9/25/09

Statement from Joy Watson, Candidate for Nassau County District Attorney on the Failure of Nassau DA Kathleen Rice to Charge the "False Rape" Accuser Today
 
(Mineola, NY) -- September 25, 2009 -- I am outraged that Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice has made a side deal with the individual who falsely accused five young men of rape--and that this individual will not be charged. The public, and the falsely accused men, have waited since Tuesday, September 15, 2009, for the Nassau DA to do something. She waits until Friday, September 25 to finally make a decision.

In my view, the current DA is out of line. Rape is an extremely serious allegation and a false claim is highly damaging to those accused--as we have seen in this highly controversial case. Even though she has prosecutorial discretion to let someone walk, in this case the facts are that the accuser lied in a sworn statement and only recanted after a video was produced about the incident. This is not a simple false allegation over a petty theft. Short of accusing someone of murder, there is no more serious charge than rape. The accuser should be charged and the DA should allow our criminal justice system to decide her fate. She is sidestepping necessary input from the probation department and the bench, whose role it is to recommend and decide the appropriate criminal sanctions.

Rice's pattern of minimizing criminal activity like she did with the Walmart holiday stampede in Valley Stream and her "deferred prosecution agreements" with drug dealers on Terrace Avenue in Hempstead and as used in this case, sends the wrong message to those who commit crime in Nassau County.
---------
Watson, a 20-year veteran former Nassau County prosecutor and now State Supreme Court law clerk, is running on the Republican and Conservative lines on November 3. She is the former bureau chief of the Nassau County Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Bureau. She has been endorsed by the Nassau Detectives Association, Freeport PBA, Hempstead PBA and Adjunct Faculty of Nassau. Visit www.joywatsonfornassauda.com
.