Many of us were horrified (and beyond furious) when we heard news of a white man urinating on a black girl child and calling her a racial slur in an alley in Western Michigan. Yet prosecutors in the case are now saying the children involved in the incident made the story up.
The AP reports that the Kent County Michigan Prosecutors office on Friday released and dropped the charges against the 60-year-old man who was arrested on Wednesday in the case.
According to the DA’s investigation, what happened was that another child urinated on the girl, but the children lied about the man “to avoid trouble.”
As reported earlier, the little girl at the center of the case came home soaking wet after playing outside. According to her mother, the child was afraid to tell her what happened “because she thought she was going to get in trouble.” The mom then said she called her boys to tell her what happened, and they said that an older white man jumped from behind some bushes, called the little girl a “stupid n-word” and started peeing on her.
The young girl’s parents called the police, who canvassed the neighborhood and picked up a 60-year-old convicted sex offender, who was taken into custody without incident.
After an investigation, the children’s story (police reported that a 5-year-old and two 7-year-olds were witnesses) fell apart and the man was released.