Jamaican woman who misidentified rapist won't testify

A woman who was raped in Rochester in 1976 and wrongly identified her attacker will not have to testify in a civil trial, attorneys have decided.

Frederick "Freddie" Peacock, a Rochester man who suffered from severe mental illness and spent nearly three decades fighting his rape conviction, is suing the city of Rochester for his wrongful imprisonment. A rape victim identified him in 1976 as her attacker, but in 2010, DNA evidence proved he did not commit the crime.

Peacock, who suffers from schizophrenia, lived in the same apartment building as the victim. Police say he confessed to the crime, but his attorneys have maintained that Peacock spent more than two hours denying his involvement before his alleged admission.

In that admission, attorneys say, Peacock could provide no specific details about the sexual assault.

Lawyers for Peacock have been deposing witnesses in the civil case, and had the rape victim on a list of possible witnesses. Attorneys for the woman opposed the testimony, saying she could provide no more information than she did in 1976 and at the 1977 trial.

At the time of the crime, the victim was 24 and had recently moved to Rochester from Jamaica. The woman is now a grandmother and "has always believed Mr. Peacock was responsible for the rape," Buffalo-based attorney Carol Heckman, who was appointed to represent the victim, wrote in court papers.

"Requiring (the victim) to attend the deposition would more than inconvenience her," Heckman wrote in a request that a judge block the deposition. "It would impose a severe emotional and psychological burden."

A hearing was scheduled this week on the issue, but attorneys reached a resolution on Wednesday.

Local attorney Donald Thompson, a lawyer for Peacock, said the lawyers agreed to use the victim's testimony from the 1977 trial.

Thompson collaborated with the New York City-based Innocence Project, which uses genetic evidence to examine possible wrongful conviction cases, to exonerate Peacock. Peacock was the 250th person to be exonerated by DNA evidence, Innocence Project officials said in 2010.

Peacock was imprisoned for more than five years, then spent years afterward filing legal motions arguing that he was wrongly convicted. He lost six appeals before the Innocence Project intervened and the Monroe County District Attorney's Office agreed to test genetic evidence in the case.

Original report here

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