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 "wrongful charges" ...
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Failure to Protect
The two-day series “A Failure to Protect” examined what went wrong in the case of a Central Minnesota family that grew to 26 through a mix of biological, adopted and foster children, but eventually was torn apart by sexual abuse charges. Reporters David Unze and Kirsti Marohn uncovered how Minnesota’s child protection system allows either counties or nonprofits to license foster homes with little oversight.
Tags: Adoption; foster home; sexual abuse
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The Nightmare
The story of how Swedish authorities took two small children in protective custody after a single phone call. The children's father was charged with sexual abuse of the children and the mother of complicity in the crimes. Although both parents were totally innocent, their lives, and the lives of the children, turned into a nightmare.
Tags: Sweden; authorities; protective custody; sexual abuse; wrongful accusation
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Wrongfully Convicted
The stories of Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, two Mississippi men who spent a combined 30 years in prison wrongfully charged with sexually assaulting and killing two 3-year old girls. The were exonerated through DNA evidence in 2008.
Tags: DNA; sex crime; wrongful conviction; murder; exoneration;
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Fire Mark: Did prosecutors wrongfully convict a 17-year-old of triple homicide in the 1995 blaze that killed three firefighters?
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University looked into the conviction of Greg Brown who was charged with arson in a fire that lead to the death of three firefighters. Through their reporting efforts, the Innocence Institute the fire was not started by Brown - it was cause by a natural gas leak, not arson. And that some of the main witnesses had been paid as much as $10,000 to testify.
Tags: wrongful conviction; arson; crime; Innocence Project; FOIA; ATF; Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
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Botched Sting
This story exposed how local Florida police cost a young woman her life by manipulating her into working an undercover sting, then botching the operation. Rachel Hoffman was a typical American college student who was also twice arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Scared and facing jail time, Rachel agreed to be a police informant. Police told here that no charges would be filed, that prosecutors would never know and that they would protect her. Only after her death, and following this investigation, did the police admit that their recruitment of Rachel Hoffman violated their own policies.
Tags: undercover police work; recuritment; police informant; drugs; drug dealers; wrongful death
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Right By Miles
This story looked back to a traffic accident six years ago (2002) in which a car driven by a teenager ran off a back country road in the middle of the night and his passenger, a 16-year-old named Miles White, was killed. The polk County Shriff's Office investigated, ruled it a single car accident and charged the 19-year-old driver with DUI-manslaughter. The Times was able to show that the sheriff's office had engaged in a cover-up. It was not a single-car crash; it was caused by a Polk County sheriff's deputy, who, as it turned out, was a sexual predator who like teenage boys. He chased the boys that night, hit their rear bumper and ran them off the road. The Times showed that before the accident, the sheriff's office had been warned that they had a deputy who was using his undercover vehicle to stalk teenage boys. They had not heeded that warning and left him on the road. If he then caused an accident that killed a boy, the department would have been on the hook for multimillion dollar damages in a wrongful death lawsuit. The office chose instead to cover up the truth.
Tags: sheriff's department; Florida; car accidents; cover-up; sexual predators; wrongful dath
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The F-School Bomb
"F-School Bomb" tells the story of English teacher Erika Selig's attempts to address a serious lack of discipline at Allapattah Middle School where she taught. Through Selig's eyes, readers were able to get a first-hand look into the daunting problems facing children, teachers and administrators inside a title 1 school. From racially charged fights between Hispanic and black students to the pressures of teaching students to pass Florida's standardized tests, Allapattah Middle School exemplified everything that is wrong with inner-city failing schools.
Tags: inner-city schools; education; standardized tests; race; public schools; juvenile delinquents; teaching
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Fatal Boat Crash: Wrong man charged?
When the Chief Deputy Sheriff of the Lake County Sheriff's Office was driving a speed boat it collided into a sailboat, killing a woman. However, it was the man driving the sailboat that was charged with manslaughter. ABC 7's investigation found that investigators were not taking statements from witnesses critical of the deputy and judges were not excusing themselves from the case, despite personal relationship with him.
Tags: police department; manslaughter; criminal justice; judge; witness testimony;
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To Catch a Predator: A Sting Gone Bad
"This story examined what can go wrong when the news media and police get a little too close. It detailed what went on behind the scenes of a sexual predator sting operation when the Murphy, Texas police department made a deal to team up with Dateline NBC and the Internet vigilante group Perverted Justice. The deal allowed Dateline NBC to record all aspects of the sting while allowing members of Perverted Justice, hired by Dateline NBC, to actually set up and run the operation. Prosecutors had strongly recommended against such an agreement... Despite the warning, the sting took place and resulted in the suicide of a prominent man and criminal charges being dropped against 23 alleged sexual predators due to flawed evidence."
Tags: sexual predator; law; entertainment; Dateline; police; Perverted Justice
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Cry Rape: The True Story of One Woman's Harrowing Quest for Justice
Author Bill Lueders tells the story of Patty, a blind woman who was raped but had to fight for seven years to find justice. Local law enforcement in Madison, WI was so skeptical of her story that "she was charged witha crime for truthfully insisting that she was raped." Her story unfolds as a tale of her battle against society's reluctance to acknowledge her story, and of the justice system's refusal to admit it might have been wrong.
Tags: Sexual assault; rape; Madison, Wisconsin; justice system; Isthmus weekly newspaper