Thinking of leveling defamation charges against fake sexual assault claimer

My roommate, a student from Latin America was caught up in a sexual assault case. the girl, also a student, from the same country literary ‘allowed him’. and later changed to "it was rape’ after she left. this was because her boyfriend, Taiwanese, realized what had happened and pressured her.

what are the chances of this case being proven as fake? i know if it works out for the guy, the judge will only say "there wasn’t enoght evidence’ or some other words that means the sexual assault was never fully proven which doesn’t mean it was fabricated.

and are there any chances of this fellow ever turning around and charge at the other party with defamation charges?

Your roommate should seek legal counsel. Nobody here can provide legal advice, or tell him what his odds of a successful defense are.

On a practical level, however, I would suggest that your roommate focus on defending himself against the sexual assault charges before he starts thinking about a defamation lawsuit.

He’s in a foreign country and according to your post, is being accused by a woman with a local boyfriend. If he is being falsely accused of a crime and is able to mount a successful defense, he might be wise to count his blessings and walk away.

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This. :+1:

And this. :+1:

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Ok, first things first if you want some advice theres some questions you need to answer so we have a fuller picture. I’ve seen this happen to foreigners in Asia before and in just cases it was resolved with a financial settlement. In this case, if you have the liberty please answer the following questions. For the record, I also highly advise the first thing your friend does is get a lawyer. Straight away.

1: Has the woman in question submitted a formal request to the police to proceed with pressing charges. If not then you will want to nip this in the bud asap. If you have a lawyer have him or here reach out to the afflicted party as a mediator. This is far preferable to the other option: a visit by the police.

2: Whether you have or have not done anything wrong there is no such thing as a good encounter with the police. If they have record of an arrest or an investigation it will make renewing your ARC/Visa extremely difficult even if you have done nothing wrong. Whilst they might not outright cancel your VISA they can simply choose not to renew it or issue you a new one at their own discretion if they decide they want to get you out the country in a passive way.

3: Evidence is everything in these kind of cases. Did she get a physical examination after the alleged assault ? If she did not it will be her word against yours. These kind of cases will examine the tiniest detail. From hair to skin, to abrasions to semen, bodily fluids, signs of forced entry etc… an examination can reveal a lot. If as you claim the boyfriend is pressuring her into making a false claim then this will be revealed in time.

4:
As for counter suing her this will be nigh on impossible. Why? Just as the burden of proof falls on her shoulders to prove that you did commit the assault the burden of proof will fall on yours to categorically prove 100% that she lied. If the former cannot prove the latter than how can you prove she is lying. Often these counter claims would never make it to court as it’s a simple case of he said she said.

5: If she is Taiwanese she can do a lot of damage. She can spread rumours on social media, contact your workplace and tarnish your name. Check that you have an embassy here in Taiwam as they will be your lifeline if you are arrested.

6: If a settlement out of court cannot be reached you must ask yourself how far will you be willing to go to defend yourself. If you are arrested can you handle that? Then if you are indicted and sent to court could you financially handle that and possibly bail? Lastly, even if it is a 1% chance you must consider could you handle spending time in jail in Taiwan ?

7: In these situations even if we imagine the worst case scenario of being arrested, indicted and found guilty often these cases are a year or less of hard time. Especially important to consider also is that if you have a clean criminal record for first timers will usually be given a suspended sentence. So no jail time.

8: If you work in a school even a rumour will be terrible for you because the school will drop you, fair or not, as they cannot be associated with such things. It is the way unfortunately in many Asian countries that the assumption is of guilty until proven innocent rather than vice versa in the West.

9: Do not text her, call her at all. Why? Because you don’t want a harassment claim against you along with everything else. Get a lawyer and let him do his thing.

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If true - the chump boyfriend pressuring it, how long would he stick around before he realised his gf is a victim of an alleged rape - how would his family/friends perceive it? Or that his gf has low enough interest in him that she would have sex with someone else?

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True if she was Taiwanese, the girl is South American right? It sounds like the chump has his ego is bruised. A better situation than if she were Taiwanese though.

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Seems like the bf believes that the girl was truelly sexually assaulted. He is so confident on that that he didn’t support the initiative to have a the case on civil court where the victim would list out some demands. The case is headed for criminal courts. I say headed because at this point the prosecutor has not issued any summons. And the case is yet to be formally presented to court. It is still on investigation. Three months now. In less than a month, my roommate will be summoned.

This informative…it well with other public knowledge on this case.

Interesting. In general a prosecutor doesn’t take a case to trial unless he is confident he has enough evidence to win. He wouldn’t want a track record of losses. I don’t have any knowledge of the intricacies of the case but if it is still under investigation than how can you be so sure in 1 month he will be summoned as you say ?

Prosecutors keep things close to their chest. I’m assuming your roommate has been arrested, charged but not indicted yet? If that’s the case there is every chance the prosecutor will drop the charges. Does he have a lawyer ? Because I’m sure that kind of person can give better advise than us.

Just so he aware that if he is indicted and it goes to trial he will be in a real mess. If he isn’t in the country anymore they cannot trouble him providing he is outside of Taiwan jurisdiction. If it does go to trial there must be evidence against him so that is worth a think about.

On the issue of the lawyer,
My roommate doesn’t have deep pockets. He is just a student. The options he has are :slight_smile: 1) to get a cheap old lawyer. the ones with a long losing streak. Probably my roommate’s case will be just another in his/her list. In fact the olds still have issues on “action before the ring”.
2)a young inexperienced lawyer. The inexperienced ones care too much about their career that they play by the book to the later whereas in this case, some parts requires one to basically outsmart the norm playing in with aspects of cultural differences while trying to create doubts on the evidences that they will present.

Dude he should probably just get out while he can. I am not saying he is guilty or not but when you’re stuck in quicksand you need to know when to struggle and when to be calm, think and get outta there. What possible beneficial outcome does he expect from this?

Let’s say it’s a case of seeking justice and not letting her alleged lies ruin his life in Taiwan. Its very noble and respectable to try to defend yourself in the pursuit of truth but in this case one phone call from the Taiwanese boyfriend to a paper or his workplace will still do damage. Better to live to fight another day whilst you can.

In Asia foreigners are generally treated well until we upset the apple cart and once that happens they will be all too willing to publicly lynch you.

He should contact the Legal Aid Foundation (www.laf.org.tw).

update:
My roommate has been formally indicted for sexual assault charges. he is a wreck right now. super confused. he didnt believe it would go to court. but you know the Taiwanese is pushing this…

In the police report, there is little or no force at all. nothing like torn clothes or injuries. in fact they event found the dude’s DNA on the girls breasts without any torn button on the shirt. there was a condom which was confirmed to have been used as per the DNA results.

The main reason as to why this case is on is because the guy did not explain to the police that the girl 'CLEARLY SAID YES".
If found guilty, he goes in for 4 years.

what loopholes can my roomy explore to win this?

Well, it’s a sexual assault case, so I’m sure “the Taiwanese” would.

What?

Are you serious? It seems the best advice he could get is already here

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let me foward that link to him. thank you.

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Update update.
Is it time to attack??

After three court appearance. My poor roommate is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Most forensic evidence provided favors him. It’s upon the lawyer to just lay the facts to the court and fend off any doubts that the prosecutor may cast .(yes, the state assigned a lawyer for him. Apparently all capital crimes suspects are given state lawyer for free)

Funny to see that the facts and evidence are in the suspect’s side and the victim has little to nothing on their side. Just a lot of hearsay.

Is it time that my roommate launches a civil charges on the basis of defamation against this lady accusing him of rape? Then demand a compensation and some apology? Even though the main case is yet to be completed?
The prosecutor’s team is running on the empty and,from the last session, it was noted that the girl got a lawyer on her own.

If the civil charges come along, the new lawyer could encourage her client to find truce with my roommate before the big court decision. If that happens, maybe the girl may withdraw charges. Saving her ass.

What do you guys think of this line of thought?

Your roommate should be making decisions like this in consultation with an attorney, not based on what random people on the internet think.

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My amygdala says if he gets through this process without going to jail, he should be very happy about that.

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He is in consultation with the lawyer. Anyone who has dealt with Taiwan lawyers know very well that lawyers never offer a yes-no advice. They just talk round and round. Nothing concrete. It’s upto the person to decide on how to proceed. A little opinion and perspective from the public might help

General advice going forward: always get it in writing or on camera because if it’s she said/he said you’re guilty until proven innocent in today’s #YouToo world.