The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "false accusations" ...
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Mistaken Identities
DNA-based exonerations of wrongly convicted men hit a record high after it was discovered that police used suggestive lineups procedures and pressured witnesses to pick out a suspect. Sometimes shaky identifications were preserved by withholding evidence that would lead to other suspects in the cases.
Tags: accusation; eyewitness; false conviction; DNA test; genetic; rape;
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Whose Children Are They?
"Focus on Children, a Utah-based adoption agency, is accused by the U.S. government of tricking Samoan parents into giving up their children for adoption and falsely telling American parents they are orphans." The reporter traveled to Samoa to track down families that were affected; she found adoption agency recruiters exploited the families' religious faith, as well as bribed them with cars.
Tags: foreign relations; adoption; kidnapping; Latter Day Saints
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Oklahoma Execution
The AP investigates a forensic scientist being investigated for giving false and misleading testimony in several death penalty cases. Interviewing prosecutors, FBI agents, defense lawyers, forensics experts and members of the executed men's families, the AP found a startling pattern. Among the series findings were a police memo that stated evidence used to convict one of the men did not exist -- slides the scientist testified contained the accused semen actually contained nothing at all.
Tags: death row; execution; death penalty; forensic evidence
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Miami Cops
A Miami Daily Business Review two-year investigation into police criminality reveals "a deadly scandal at the Miami Police Department." The stories document "flaws and bias in the local system used to investigate police shootings." The series started in 2000 with investigation of the death of a 72-year old widower who was machine-gunned by police during a ferocious 1996 drug raid, and of the following $2.5-million settlement of the lawsuit brought by the victim's family. In a federal investigation, Miami officers involved in the shooting were later accused of "conspiracy, lying and fabricating evidence to cover up misconduct," the Review reports. The series also examines "Miami's costly litigation experience over the last decade defending claims of brutality and lawlessness by police."
Tags: indictments; Florida's public record law; crime; litigation; civil rights; SWAT; homicide; conflicts of interest; law enforcement; justice; Miami Office of Professional Compliance; wrongful death; false arrests; abuse
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Scandal of the Century
CBC examines the "Scandal of the Century," a horrific event that ended up not to be true. It was alleged that "sixteen people had been charged with sexual assault. The details were grizzly: pedophilia, ritualistic abuse, tortured babies, innocent children. One of the people charged was a 14-year-old girl, in grade nine. It would soon become known as the Scandal of the Century. There was just one problem: The story was not true. Perhaps the real Scandal of the Century was how these unfounded allegations - the heart of which belonged to a single, seriously disturbed young boy - could ignite a police investigation that would destroy more than a dozen innocent lives."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; Scandal of the Century; sexual assault; police; false accusations
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Anatomy of a Smear
This article investigates "the motives and circumstances behind a Dallas police investigation into the work of a Dallas city prosecutor." It was found that several police officials "accused the attorney of wrongdoing in order to sidetrack media inquiries into their own inadequate performance in bringing cases against some of the city's biggest slumlords."
Tags: false accusations misdirection abuse of office leaks scapegoat Topletz S.A.F.E. team
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Snitch: Confidential informants in the local drug war
The Charleston Gazette examined the role of confidential informants in the war on drugs. It found that people who help police arrest suspected drug dealers can earn thousands of dollars and avoid criminal charges and lenghty prison sentences of their own. Some continue to commit crimes and falsely accuse others. Other informants find themselves in danger, sometimes because of indifferent or careless drug agent handlers.
Tags: felony drug cases
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No title (id: 13997)
The Wall Street Journal investigates a series of modern-day witch hunts in which many innocent men and women are falsely accused and sometimes even convicted of horrific child-abuse charges. (November 27; December 15, 29, 1995; May 15; June 20, 1996)
Tags: Rabinowitz 33 pgs.
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No title (id: 13927)
Dateline NBC investigates how two mothers who believe they have been falsely diagnosed with a disease called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Each has a child who is chronically and inexplicable ill. After many doctors failed to correctly diagnose what was wrong with the children, both mothers were accused by UCLA doctors of poisoning their children to draw attention to themselves. (May 3, 1996)
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No title (id: 13862)
WVUE-TV reports on a New Orleans man, Derrick McGowan, who filed false police reports claiming to be a robbery victim. McGowan then demanded money from the people he accused and if they didn't pay he would have them arrested. (October-December 1996)
Tags: Longman Derrick McGowan; scam artist or crime victim? Contest entry District attorney Prison Court 2 pgs. TAPE