William McCaffery sues over 4 years in prison, for a crime he didn't commit

The innocent man who was wrongly imprisoned for nearly four years because of false rape charges is now suing the city for his ordeal.

William McCaffery is seeking $20 million in compensatory damages, as well as another $10 million for what he calls "conduct...so outrageous as to exceed the bounds of all common and civilized decency."

McCaffrey was sentenced in 2006 after Biurny Peguero Gonzalez testified that he and two other men raped her at knife point in a van parked in Upper Manhattan in September 2005. She later recanted that statement, and admitted she made the whole thing up in order to cover for a fight with some of her female friends. [To see all the posts where this case was discussed on this blog, go here: http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/search?q=Peguero]

McCaffrey says in his suit that cops knew he didn't inflict bite wounds on Peguero, which was used as evidence against him at trial: "Aware that this fact would provide an alternate explanation for the cause of Ms. Peguero's injuries, defendants...told the young women that the true nature of their fight was insignificant and instructed them not to mention it," says the suit, which names specific police and prosecutors.

McCaffrey also says prosecutors sat on Peguero's recantation of her false allegations for two months after learning she had confessed to her priest, and "continued to oppose McCaffrey's release" despite defense DNA testing that proved one of Peguero's friends had bitten her. Peguero was sentenced last year to up to three years in prison after pleading guilty to perjury for framing McCaffrey.

Link: http://gothamist.com/2011/03/10/rape_liar_victim_suing_the_city_for.php