Perils of Pre-Judging A Finally-Closed Case

When the NYPD revealed earlier this month that it had, nearly 24 years after the crime was committed, definitively identified a serial rapist already serving a 75-year prison term as the man who sexually assaulted a woman in Prospect Park, it triggered two notable and related developments.

One was a belated apology from NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller, who in his role as the department’s top spokesman back in 1994 had told reporters in off-the-record conversations that Detectives had doubts about the woman’s account that included the possibility that she made up the assault.