Report: Matt Patricia indicted but not tried for sexual assault in 1996

[Mitchrapp]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...ted-but-not-tried-for-sexual-assault-in-1996/


Scumbag. Edit: If true.

 

[kalinecountry]

http://detroitsportsforum.com/showpost.php?p=831880&postcount=20862

 

[Mitchrapp]

Sorry. I didn't realize you had all the info. I shouldn't be surprised you're always on top of your game. Thanks.

 

[kalinecountry]

Sorry. I didn't realize you had all the info. I shouldn't be surprised you're always on top of your game. Thanks.

np Mitch.
in case there are some who don't read the Lion's notes, I figured just add the whole jist of the accusations and then the responses.

 

[inkfreq]

Trust me guys, you have no idea how easy it is for anyone to be accused of sexual assault and to be indicted. And it wouldn't matter what he did or said afterwords... there are people who will say he's guilty regardless. He could win his case, they would say he just got away with it. They can drop the charges, he was just guilty and got lucky.

Even the statement that she refused to testify... people forget that in cases of a false accusation, the accuser often refuses to testify to avoid being charged with perjury or falsifying a police report.

It happens more often that any of us would like to think.

I'm not saying he's innocent of the accusation, but I am saying that in this country, everyone has the right to defend themselves in court, and he never got that chance. None of use should just assume he did it.

 

[UMRules06]

Well now I'm conflicted ugh. You just never know what to believe anymore.

 

[biggunsbob]

I agree with all of you but what does it say that the Lions Top people missed this, and why did this never come up in New England.

 

[kdp1980]

I agree with all of you but what does it say that the Lions Top people missed this, and why did this never come up in New England.

Exactly, not a word while he was in NE winning superbowls. Either way, the Lions brass looks like a bunch of idiots for not being aware of this

 

[tonyballs]

Exactly, not a word while he was in NE winning superbowls. Either way, the Lions brass looks like a bunch of idiots for not being aware of this

So, the Lions look like idiots but the Patriots don't? Explain that to me again.....

 

[LKP]

Detroit news found this i believe. If he wins it will be forgotten, if he loses it will be brought up. Pr nightmare now

 

[tomdalton22]

So, the Lions look like idiots but the Patriots don't? Explain that to me again.....

good point.

I guess the flip side to that is there should be a different level of vetting for an assistant coach vs. a head coach. The head coach is the face of the franchise.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Trust me guys, you have no idea how easy it is for anyone to be accused of sexual assault and to be indicted. And it wouldn't matter what he did or said afterwords... there are people who will say he's guilty regardless. He could win his case, they would say he just got away with it. They can drop the charges, he was just guilty and got lucky.

Even the statement that she refused to testify... people forget that in cases of a false accusation, the accuser often refuses to testify to avoid being charged with perjury or falsifying a police report.

It happens more often that any of us would like to think.

I'm not saying he's innocent of the accusation, but I am saying that in this country, everyone has the right to defend themselves in court, and he never got that chance. None of use should just assume he did it.

Yep, no doubt.

 

[inkfreq]

Exactly, not a word while he was in NE winning superbowls. Either way, the Lions brass looks like a bunch of idiots for not being aware of this

It never came up because they ran a criminal background check. His case was never adjudicated, and hence, it does not appear on his background check. In all cases like this, the judge will order a sealed jacket, meaning he, the girl, the attorney's, etc... can't talk about the evidence in the case with anyone, and as such, it's not allowed to be placed on a court record sheet.

TMZ and sites like that get their stories by digging deep into someone's past and talking with anyone who might have some dirt to spread, which is why they are also often inaccurate reports.

In other words, someone found a former college friend of this girl who wanted a quick $500 in cash, and she told them a story about Matt Patricia. She didn't give them evidence to look through, she just told them it happened.

They sent a reporter to the courthouse and found the grand jury indictment. That's a public record that simply says you were indicted. Anyone can find that if they have a starting point to look. But that's also the reason there isn't more to the story, because they can't look at the actual evidence.

It's kind of an ugly situation for the accused to be honest. The entire public is not making up it's mind about what kind of person you are, and you can't even say "Hey, look... there is a mountain of evidence, and I'd love to show you why this was false".... if it was. You can't say anything, ever, for the rest of your life.

All you can say is "I was never convicted of a crime"... which to most people sounds exactly like "I plead the fifth"... which to most people sounds exactly like "I am guilty and I don't want to talk about it".

 

[tomdalton22]

I'm of the opinion that when a woman/girl says something happened...more often than not, something did happen.

 

[inkfreq]

One thing I want to make clear is that this is a very personal issue for me. As someone who was falsely accused of a sexual assault, and indicted, and arrested... and never adjudicated, I understand what it's like for Matt Patricia at this point.

In my case the local police didn't provide the entire body of evidence to the DA, who convened a grand jury and got the indictment, and then saw the remaining evidence and dropped the case like a red hot rock. It took a year of going through the pain of being accused of a heinous crime before they really got to the "Okay, we're going to trial, we better look at the case file" phase, and then realized they were going to lose badly because I had already proven my innocence... they just didn't know it.

It was a torturous year for me, and even though I walked out of it with my head high and exonerated, there are still people in the town where I live who think I just got off on a loophole or something. And I can't even defend myself because the case was ordered sealed... I can't even explain to someone why the DA dropped the case after getting an indictment... which is incredibly rare.

So you can imagine how this story makes me feel like this mirrors my own.

That having been said, I don't want to come across like I think Patricia is innocent or this girl is lying either. And I hope I'm not sounding that way. I have no knowledge of his case. I don't know her. I have no clue, just like everyone else.

I'm just saying the one thing I learned through my own experience was how easy it is for these accusations to happen, and go a long long way, even when they are false, and for how easy it is for others to form judgements and opinions, and treat the accused a certain way, with absolutely no knowledge of the evidence.

The court of public opinion sucks when you're the guy on trial, and you didn't do it.

I don't necessarily believe one way or another anything about his guilt or innocence, and I don't want to call a potential victim a liar just because I have been through something similar, and I apologize if anyone takes my comments that way.

 

[inkfreq]

I'm of the opinion that when a woman/girl says something happened...more often than not, something did happen.

I used to be of the same opinion Tom. I really did. Then I learned a lot about these cases, and the statistics, and I understand that more often than not something happened... but 51% if more often than 49%.

Those aren't the real numbers of course, and depending on which "expert" you talk to you will get real number from 6% false accusation all the way to 92%, so no one really knows... but I was very amazed to find out how often these reports turn out to be false.

 

[tomdalton22]

One thing I want to make clear is that this is a very personal issue for me. As someone who was falsely accused of a sexual assault, and indicted, and arrested... and never adjudicated, I understand what it's like for Matt Patricia at this point.

In my case the local police didn't provide the entire body of evidence to the DA, who convened a grand jury and got the indictment, and then saw the remaining evidence and dropped the case like a red hot rock. It took a year of going through the pain of being accused of a heinous crime before they really got to the "Okay, we're going to trial, we better look at the case file" phase, and then realized they were going to lose badly because I had already proven my innocence... they just didn't know it.

It was a torturous year for me, and even though I walked out of it with my head high and exonerated, there are still people in the town where I live who think I just got off on a loophole or something. And I can't even defend myself because the case was ordered sealed... I can't even explain to someone why the DA dropped the case after getting an indictment... which is incredibly rare.

So you can imagine how this story makes me feel like this mirrors my own.

That having been said, I don't want to come across like I think Patricia is innocent or this girl is lying either. And I hope I'm not sounding that way. I have no knowledge of his case. I don't know her. I have no clue, just like everyone else.

I'm just saying the one thing I learned through my own experience was how easy it is for these accusations to happen, and go a long long way, even when they are false, and for how easy it is for others to form judgements and opinions, and treat the accused a certain way, with absolutely no knowledge of the evidence.

The court of public opinion sucks when you're the guy on trial, and you didn't do it.

I don't necessarily believe one way or another anything about his guilt or innocence, and I don't want to call a potential victim a liar just because I have been through something similar, and I apologize if anyone takes my comments that way.

I can understand your point of view and understand where you are coming from. It sounds like a terrible situation you were/are in.

I have no idea, but my guess is that a woman that was physically sexually assaulted or raped but was too afraid to come forward or face the person that did it in court...that torture is probably worse. Again, I have no idea...just a guess.

I'm not trying to diminish what you went through....just coming at it from the other point of view.

 

[inkfreq]

I can understand your point of view and understand where you are coming from. It sounds like a terrible situation you were/are in.

I have no idea, but my guess is that a woman that was physically sexually assaulted or raped but was too afraid to come forward or face the person that did it in court...that torture is probably worse. Again, I have no idea...just a guess.

I'm not trying to diminish what you went through....just coming at it from the other point of view.

I 100% agree with you. In many cases when a person refuses to testify, it has to do with the legal ramifications they may face from making a false accusation. But in almost every case when such an accusation is real, it's absolute torture for the victim to take the stand.

Imagine having to take the stand and not only relive the entire ordeal, but then to be cross-examined by an attorney who's only goal is to make you out to be a liar. We all saw an example of it in Kobe Bryan't case that never even went to trial. They talked about how many sexual partners she had, how broke her family was.... these weren't even the attorney's.. the country treated that girl like she was pure trailer trash because she had sex with another man the next day... which might have just been her looking for comfort and re-affirmation of her self worth.

In no way am I saying Patricia is innocent because the girl didn't testify. If he did this, I can't even begin to imagine what she went through, and I would never presume to pass judgement on her reasoning after the fact.

I am saying though that while the legal system barely works in our country, we have two general principals that we have to adhere to. The first being the presumption of innocence. And the second being the right to a fair trial. He never got o face his accuser, and it would be entirely unfair now for us to strip away his presumption of innocence because of it.

 

[turok]

Beware the blind date scorned, the batshit crazy bitch that I blind-dated once over 25 years ago, accused me back then of assault and battery after our short hour and a half meetup at her apartment, I wasn't attracted to her physically or emotionally but was polite albeit non-committal. I didn't bring up going out on another date, give her my phone number, asked for hers, or let her know where I lived. The married co-worker who had been urging me to go on a date with her gf, argrily told me a few days later that she had called her and claimed that I had shoved and hit her...what BS. But when I asked if her gf was going to file her complaint with the police, she said no.

 

[inkfreq]

Beware the blind date scorned, the batshit crazy bitch that I blind-dated once over 25 years ago, accused me back then of assault and battery after our short hour and a half meetup at her apartment, I wasn't attracted to her physically or emotionally but was polite albeit non-committal. I didn't bring up going out on another date, give her my phone number, asked for hers, or let her know where I lived. The married co-worker who had been urging me to go on a date with her gf, argrily told me a few days later that she had called her and claimed that I had shoved and hit her...what BS. But when I asked if her gf was going to file her complaint with the police, she said no.

And that's my point. It happens a lot. Sometimes it goes to the cops, sometimes it doesn't.

In my we can not necessarily believe the claim without calling them a liar. That's the investigative process. I never want to assume a woman is lying.. ever, but it happens often enough that I don't want to call a man a criminal or a rapist either.

Let the investigation happen, and accept the results. In this case, the results were a dismissal.