'Women are too often the true victims of sex crimes. At the same time, women possess tremendous power if and when they decide to accuse a man of sexual impropriety.'

Marshall Frank: Women's accusations slam dunk that presidential candidate Cain a creep? No way; look at all the facts, remember a case in Liberty City

Marshall Frank is an author and retired Miami police detective who lives in Melbourne. Online: MarshallFrank.com.

In 1971, I arrested a man for rape in Liberty City. His accuser was a woman he knew. She had drinks with him at a bar and he allegedly drank too much and forced himself on her in a car. She tested positive for sexual intercourse, her lipstick was on his clothing, and witnesses said he had been drunk.

He was interrogated at the station after handcuffs were removed. While the case was legally sound, he adamantly denied that he forced himself on her and pleaded for understanding. His demeanor seemed so sincere, that we decided to reinvestigate before booking him. We asked the woman to take a polygraph. She agreed.

She failed. Not only did she fail, she admitted to falsely accusing the man because he had jilted her for another woman and he allegedly owed her money. She was getting even.

The man was released. The woman went to jail.

In the 1960s and 1970s, I was the chief investigator for more than 100 accusations of rape. Sadly, nearly half were unfounded. Many false claims of rape were products of embarrassment, revenge, inconvenience and extortion, kids breaking rules, unexplained pregnancy, and demands for hush money.

Women are too often the true victims of sex crimes. At the same time, women possess tremendous power if and when they decide to accuse a man of sexual impropriety. Often, the stain lingers even though charges are unprovable.

I shook my head recently watching Gloria Allred, the famed attorney and Democratic hatchet woman, as she stood by the first female accuser of Herman Cain to come forward in front of a battery of microphones. The woman read from her prepared text claiming sexual impropriety of 14 years past. This was not reported to authorities, only to a political entity. The timing was perfect. To many people, it seems Allred is a hired gun to destroy the candidacy of a rising Republican who poses a significant threat to Barack Obama in 2012.

It was an all-familiar scene from the summer of last year when that same Gloria Allred stood by another weeping "victim" who was accusing ... whom else — a Republican political candidate. The woman, an illegal immigrant housekeeper, suddenly condemned her employer of nine years and thus derailed Meg Whitman's quest for the governorship of California.

Cain's background is textbook impeccable, homegrown from poverty to the pinnacle of success based on his own energy, ambition and intellect. A minority as well, he represents the all-American candidate and a major threat to the sitting president.

It's amazing, that in Cain's 65 years of life, and 40 in business, the accusers emanate from the same three-year period he was head of the National Restaurant Association, and no other time.

This country has a system by which people who commit crimes are tried in courts of law — civil and criminal — and not in the court of public opinion. The media has turned this fiasco into a feeding frenzy.

Perhaps its time for his accusers to take that same polygraph test I gave to the woman who cried rape.

Don't hold your breath.

Link: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/nov/15/marshall-frank-womens-accusations-slam-dunk-that/