Police say 3 Calif. girls made up story of assault
By Dan Whitcomb, Reuters | February 11, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- Three 12-year-old California girls who told authorities they were attacked by a homeless man -- sending him to jail for eight months -- have been arrested and accused of making up the story, police said yesterday.
The girls, who were 11 at the time, last May convinced their parents and authorities in suburban Orange County that they had been attacked after one of them scratched herself to fabricate evidence, said Lieutenant Mike Handfield, a Garden Grove police spokesman.
One of the girls also testified against 36-year-old Eric Nordmark, who was charged with assault and child annoyance. Nordmark, who spent eight months in jail awaiting trial, was released last month after the girl recanted.
"This case is amazing in terms of how they held fast to a story like that," Handfield said. "At 11 years old that shows a sophisticated ability to lie. We underestimated that and so did a lot of other people, including their parents."
The girls were taken into custody at their schools in Garden Grove, a working-class suburb, and led away in handcuffs. All three, who have not been identified by authorities, face felony charges of conspiracy.
The girls told police last May 15 that they had been walking home from school when a homeless man chased them, grabbed one by the hair and threw her to the ground, then choked her friend nearly unconscious when she tried to help. The girls said they got away only after kicking him in the groin, Handfield said.
Nordmark, who roughly matched their description, was spotted walking near the Garden Grove police station and detained by officers, Handfield said. One of the girls then picked him out of a police lineup.
Nordmark was arrested a few days later and last month was put on trial, where one of the girls repeated her story from the witness stand. After failing to show up for a second day of testimony, Handfield said, the girl admitted that she and her friends had invented the attack as an excuse for coming home late from school.
Shirley MacDonald-Juarez, an attorney for one of the girls, declined to comment on the case against her client but said police should not have arrested the young suspects at school. Handfield said the girls were arrested at school not to send a message but because police lacked warrants to enter their homes and wanted all three taken into custody at the same time. He said the girls were quietly summoned to the school office and escorted off campus, not "paraded" in handcuffs in front of other students.
this makes you wonder how often this happens. DAILY, people are being arrested for things they have never done. But who's a judge more than likely going to believe? Of course the children. About 20 False arrests in the US alone daily
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| False arrest, manny innocent |
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moon_watcher53
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Oct 31 @ 1:09PM
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Oh dear, how embarrasing for those little tykes to have been arrested at school. I wonder where the appropriate place should have been ?
Thousands upon thousands of innocent people have spent far too much of their lives behind bars because of such happenings all in the name of getting attention.
I live in the country and avoid, as much as possible, going to town simply to avoid the brats and their brat minded parents who are so rude and self centered without regard for any other human.
Don't ya just love the verse "Go forth and multiply"
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ttomtarr
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Oct 31 @ 2:00PM
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A man I know was jailed by a girl's testimony, a girl who had done the same thing elsewhere.
She bragged about it to a friend's mother, saying that in truth the offense never occurred, and said she disliked the man for dating a family member.
The shocked friend's mother went to the prosecuting state attorney, but he said the case was closed, and he didn't want to reopen it. The guy did several years in prison after that.
Calling it the Justice System is a very loose term.
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MrPaul
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Oct 31 @ 10:16PM
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  It happens alot more than most people know 
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1frantastic
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Oct 31 @ 10:37PM
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I had a fellow teacher tell me he overheard 2 boys that I had taken to the office whisper ,but loud enough that the teacher overheard it..."Let's say she yelled at us!" and this was under a principal who would NOT allow the teacher to witness what the kids told the principal.....
and there seems to be no recourse....just time passes... 
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