DAD THROWN IN JAIL BECAUSE DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE FAILED TO INVESTAGATE
Imagine being falsely accused by your own daughter of Rape. It happens more times than you would want to know. For Augustine Kpuinen, it became a personal nightmare when the Tennessee Department of Children's Services moved in with nothing more than the allegations of a young girl who had grown "tired" of following the family's rules and wanted to run the streets with her gang friends. Never ones to let the truth get in the way of "protecting children" while destroying families, the DCS attorneys quickly filed Dependency and Neglect charges against Mr. Kpuinen and his wife.
At the trial, the attorneys for Mr. and Mrs. Kpuinen were able to prove that the allegations were false, that the girl suffered mental problems, that she had filed numerous false complaints against others and that she was lashing out at the strict household of war-refugee parents, supported by Catholic Charities of Memphis. The Juvenile Court dismissed the charges, returned the girl to the home of her alleged rapist, and the DCS refused to appeal or take any further actions to remove the child from the home. All was well in the Kpuinen family.
Until this: https://www.shelby-sheriff.org/NewsReleases/2012/Nov/11-14-2012-2.pdf
The Shelby County District Attorney, never afraid to prosecute the innocent, had filed criminal charges against Mr. Kpuinen, some eight months after Juvenile Court had found that there was no truth to the allegations. Mr. Kpuinen was locked up with a $300,000.00 bail that the refugee would never be able to make. Based on his friendship with members in the Catholic Church, he was provided private counsel. That's when we were brought in. After an extensive investigation and a hard push on the DAs office by us and other interested parties, the case was dismissed within thirty days. Mr. Kpuinen happily spent Christmas 2012 at home with his wife and kids.
The moral of the story is don't ever think that just because you are innocent, you can't be arrested or even convicted. Mr. Kpuinen was facing a mandatory 25 years at 100% and most jurors don't want to consider that a child would lie on their parents. The problem is two-fold, first, children don't truly understand the consequences of lying in situations like this and, second, the system rewards the child every time they repeat the falsehood. In most instances, the State won't allow the child to be interviewed or turn over forensic interviews of the child. In the minds of prosecutors, they are doing "God's work" and they have to do everything to protect the child. We protect the citizen accused, even when accused of the worst imaginable crimes. It's what we do and we do it well.