Student claims false rape allegations by former classmate caused him to lose his job, get expelled from university
An unsubstantiated rape accusation has reportedly "destroyed" the life of a college student after the woman in question claimed he raped her after a boozy frat party. Now, the 'accused' student is suing her for $6 million. 22-year-old Catherine Reddington of Long Island took to social media to repeatedly claim that following a party in April last year at Syracuse University's Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity in upstate New York, she was raped by Alex Goldman.
In the past month, Reddington posted multiple times on her Facebook to "reveal" the details of the alleged attack, also informing law enforcement and the University of her rape accusations just days after the said party.
Goldman, who claims he has been falsely accused, was fired from his summer internship with an engineering firm when Reddington informed them of the allegations. Prior to that, Goldman, who is also 22, was expelled from Syracuse University after the Reddington's claims emerged, reported the New York Post. However, he was never detained or charged over the alleged incident.
On June 4, Reddington wrote on Facebook: "During the early hours of April 23, 2017, I was raped and sodomized. I woke up in Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity in Alex Goldman's bed confused, bloody, bruised, with ripped clothing and splinter. "Alex Goldman is a rapist."
But Goldman, along with the Onondaga County prosecutor, recounted a completely different account from that night.
There was no evidence found on Reddington after a police investigation into the reported attack. The 22-year-old could not produce corroborating evidence to show the pair even had a sexual encounter that night after the party.
Reddington was found to have no internal cuts or abrasions in her vagina to suggest anything suspicious. Furthermore, a medical exam, rape kit, and bloodwork within 26 hours of the alleged incident showed no traces of Goldman's DNA, according to court papers and the District Attorney. That being said, at the time, both the accused and the accuser claimed they had no memory of the said party after they woke up fully clothed in Goldman’s bed.
Last week, Goldman claimed in a defamation lawsuit filed by him that his former classmate intended to get him expelled from his new school, and thus was waging a campaign to "destroy and wreak havoc" on his life.
An assistant district attorney wrote in a November 2017 letter explaining why Goldman was never charged, saying investigators found it “impossible to determine what, if anything, occurred that evening between Ms. Reddington and Mr. Goldman. There is no credible proof of any sexual conduct in this case, consensual or non-consensual." The said letter was attached to Goldman's suit.
But Reddington responded to the DA's letter by calling it "disgusting" on her Facebook.
That being said, Goldman claims that Reddington's accusations were enough for him to get kicked out of Syracuse in the fall. The school declined to comment as to why he was expelled, simply stating that it followed state and federal law while handling the complaint.
Goldman wrote in his Brooklyn Federal Court defamation lawsuit that Reddington's social media posts targeting his employer and his new school clearly show that she intends to “publicly tarnish his reputation and wreak havoc on his personal life and that of his family."
The lawsuit further states that Reddington falsely accused Goldman of sexual assault and stated that he is a "rapist" in several social media posts on Facebook and LinkedIn that in the past few weeks.
"These posts by (Reddington) included a picture of Goldman and 'tagged' Goldman's employer and the university where Mr. Goldman attends college. These vicious accusations were knowingly false and intentionally made. These social media posts have been viewed and 'liked' by thousands of people."
In one of her social media rants, the 22-year-old posted Goldman's picture accusing him of being a serial rapist while detailing the reported assault. On many of these Facebook posts, she has tagged Goldman's new school, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, adding a #MeToo hashtag in them.
“I write this post because this is not the first time Alex Goldman has raped someone and I want to make sure that it is the last,” she claimed in a post earlier this month. Reddington even left a review on NJIT's official Facebook page, on which she wrote: "A school that accepts recently expelled rapists, despite it being marked on their transcript..."
The 22-year-old got in touch with Bohler Engineering, Goldman's employer, via social media and "informed" them of her accusations. She even proudly shared a post which indicated that the company had responded to her, claiming Goldman had been fired after her information. “Due to the severity of the allegations and our zero-tolerance policy, we have elected to immediately terminate the employment relationship,” the company replied in the screenshot posted on Reddington’s social media.
“Thank you to everyone for reposting and spreading the word on the monster that Alex Goldman is,” Reddington wrote alongside a post with a message from Bohler. “Thank you to Bohler Engineering for taking a stand against this disgusting excuse of a man.”
Currently, the accused, who claims to be the victim, claims that due to Reddington's false allegations, he has suffered tremendous mental, economic, and emotional harm. Bill Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga District Attorney, said that there was no evidence pertaining to the case, and asserted that his office takes sexual assault cases very seriously.
“What she has alleged about this office and this young man is simply not accurate,” Fitzpatrick told The Post. “I don’t know what her motivation is for that.” Goldman's lawyer, Seth Zuckerman, said that his client chose to sue Reddington “because he could not sit idly by." “Mr. Goldman will do everything possible to recover his good name,” he said. Having said that, Reddington has refused a request for comment on the case, calling it “a matter in the courts.”