There had to be other evidence to convict you. A police report is not admissible evidence in a criminal prosecution against you. If the prosecutor tried to introduce the report as evidence against you then you, or your lawyer if you had one, should have raised a hearsay objection. Was that done?
Even if the police report had been admissible, you could have proven that the FBI report never did exist by ensuring you asked for that in discovery and had the prosecutor not been able to turn up that report it would be evident the police never had it in the first place. Was that done?
And what other evidence was introduced against you? The judge almost certainly would have entered a directed verdict in your favor if the only evidence against you was an uncorroborated police report. Since the police report is itself not good evidence the state cannot make a prima facie case based on that.
I'm going to guess that there was in fact a lot more to this than you are telling us since what you have told us does not make sense. But in any event the answer to your question is that your remedy would have been to appeal the conviction. If you did not file a timely appeal you may be out of luck. Meet with an attorney in your state who handles post conviction relief to see might be done now. And do that ASAP since there is only limited time for pursuing whatever relief might still be available.
To the best of my knowledge no objections were filed.
Because this was a first time offence there was some type of agreement that was made that had no jail time. I'm not sure if my attorney had taken a plea deal which had resulted in this result as there was no trial or even the option for one.
When I attempted to speak with the prosecutor, she was more interested in having a conviction than anything else.
I was not willing to press charges on my teenage son in the matter, and that may have been another mitigating factor in what occurred.
The post was not intended to scrutinize the details of the case, but whether or not a private citizen has any form of remedy when law enforcement makes a false accusation that results in serious consequences for the individual.
If there is no manner to protect yourself from this, what would the next logical step be?
At this point, as someone pointed out, the sentence has been served and there is no continuing litigation specifically involving this. I am not necessarily seeking damages, though that could potentially help overall. I filed a complaint prior to the situation occurring but don't think I would've updated as to any internal investigation or outcome as to what happened,if anything.
Would I possibly be able to submit a declaration of facts statement at this point in order to clear my name of this? I just don't know what remedy, if any, there is. Do FBI agents have some type of protective status when making slanderous remarks in a lawsuit? Could I even file a suit in this case?
