Liars & Posts

There have been many frauds perpetrated on face book. Not too long ago, a friend of mine in Texas had a video posted to her site and a message under the video that read, “Chris, what are you doing in this video?” If you clicked on the video, you were quickly led to a site where someone tried to sell you life insurance. My friend from Texas didn’t think anything of it at first because the initial posting was in keeping with her interests. I’m sure she received all kinds of irritated response for reasons she could not immediately understand. I had something similar to that happen yesterday. The post hacked into my site brought up no initial flares because it was a posting in keeping with my interest anyway. Anyone who has read the face book posting about supporting my brother Rick would have known that. At first, I was devastated by the response I received from an angry, self-righteous individual. I took a long look at the article associated with the post and decided it was wrongly placed on the face book page – it really belongs on this site. It is an amazing news story. Since I deleted the post on face book I can’t remember the address for the link, but the story itself was fascinating. “A young mother who falsely cried rape, sending an innocent man to prison for nearly four years, will experience firsthand what he suffered — she’ll spend one to three years behind bars for perjury. “I wish her the best of luck,” said William McCaffrey last night of Biurny Peguero Gonzalez. “Jail isn’t easy.” McCaffrey, 33, of The Bronx, was locked up after Gonzalez accused him of raping her at knifepoint on a Bronx street back in 2005. It was a lie she repeated to doctors, cops, prosecutors, a grand jury and the jury that convicted McCaffrey. Steven Hirsch THE PRICE OF DECEIT: Biurny Peguero Gonzalez gets slapped into cuffs yesterday in Manhattan court for concocting a “rape” that ruined a man’s life — all to cover herself for ditching her girlfriends. “What happened in this case is one of the worst things that can possibly happen in our criminal-justice system,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon said as he pronounced sentence. McCaffrey said he has some sympathy for Gonzalez and hopes she “doesn’t go through what I went though. “I was an accused rapist in prison,” he said, adding that in prison, “rape is the worst crime possible.” All is clearly not forgiven. A person who would “lie and paint somebody as a rapist is worse than a real rapist or a real murderer,” McCaffrey said. He also blamed “the arresting officers, the prosecution.” Everyone, he said, “wanted to believe the lie, the ADA [assistant district attorney] first and foremost.” Judge Solomon said, “It’s hard to imagine why anyone could have done this.” It turned out Gonzalez robbed McCaffrey of four years of his life for the most trivial of reasons. She’d been hanging out with a group of girlfriends when she accepted an invitation to get into his car. After she returned, her pals were furious that she’d ditched them — so she made up the rape story to gain their sympathy. She will be eligible for parole in a year — after serving a one-quarter of the time her victim was imprisoned. Gonzalez was taken away after making a tearful apology to McCaffrey, who was not in court. She also begged for mercy on behalf of her two sons, ages 3 months and 7 years. “To Mr. McCaffrey, I am aware that nothing I do or say to him can bring back the years he spent in jail,” she said. “I want him to know I will carry this guilt for the rest of my life.” Given everything that’s gone on with my brother, I can see why this article would not raise any initial flags with me. I am sorry for anyone who might have been bothered by insurance sales representatives and then thought to email me to tell me “They were through trying to have a relationship with me.” Maybe what bothered them had nothing to do with the insurance angle at all. Either way, what is done is done. From what understand that’s the mantra of the person who emailed me anyway.