Biurny Peguero Gonzalez, a single mother who has admitted to lying in court to convict an innocent man of rape was sentenced to 1-3 years in prison by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon, who has apparently decided to live up to his name. Gonzalez originally lied to placate her friends, who were upset that she had ditched them to accept a ride from her victim, William McCaffrey.
After Mr. McCaffrey had already served four years of his sentence, exculpatory evidence came to light, and Gonzalez, under pressure from her priest, recanted. She will be eligible for parole in under a year, less than a quarter of the time McCaffrey spent in prison. However, her sentence is exceptional in that most women who lie to put men behind bars are never inconvenienced at all.
Having a man falsely imprisoned is an act of violence. It is worse than all but the most egregious domestic violence in that it not only deprives a man of freedom for an extended period – sometimes for life – but ruins his reputation as well. When people make generalizations about which sex is more violent and prone to do harm, they tend to ignore the willingness of a significant minority of women to destroy the lives of innocent men. This fraction may even be higher than the proportion of men who are violent criminals. It is exaggerated by a lack of accountability, highlighted by Crystal Mangum’s false accusation of the Duke Lacrosse players, for which she faced no penalty at all.
Only justice can prevent false accusations and, for once, it appears that it has been done in such a case.
