I know that sounds outrageous, but, really, the Duke lacrosse case could not have unfolded any more advantageously for Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans. They are viewed in the eyes of the world as completely innocent. No one but a few agenda-driven lefties doubts it. They have settled monetarily with Duke University and their unscrupulous prosecutor is disgraced and disbarred. When their names are mentioned, they are seen as the innocent guys who almost got railroaded.

Harold Allen of South Kingstown, R.I., may not be so fortunate. He recently was charged with raping a woman 32 years ago when both were 16 years old. The case turned on “recovered memories” of the accuser. Amazingly, the state attorney general bought her story, the controversial nature of “recovered memories” notwithstanding. Happily, the AG, Patrick C. Lynch, has decided to drop the charges. Unhappily, the AG’s office is not saying Allen is innocent:

The case against Allen was based on memories that the alleged victim had repressed until recently, and a spokesman for Lynch’s office said state prosecutors did not believe that her testimony would be allowed in court.

So, it’s not because of highly unbelievable phantom memories that suddenly appeared after 32 years, that the woman said the event took place between the spring and the fall (making it impossible for Allen to provide an alibi), or because he was actually innocent. It was because the accuser’s testimony might not be allowed in court. Maybe that says something about the quality of the testimony.

Adding insult to injury, the attorney general’s office spokesman Michael Healey insisted on calling the accuser a “victim”:

“We take seriously the allegations of victims, and we took this victim’s allegation seriously,” he said. “We wouldn’t have been doing our job if we didn’t present the case to a grand jury.”

Harold Allen now must go through the rest of his life as a guy who authorities thought was guilty but went free because they didn’t have enough evidence to pin anything on him. That easily could have been the plight of the Duke Three.

(h/t: LieStoppers)