Rape charges dropped against Corvallis man
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Rape charges against a Corvallis man stemming from a November 2009 incident have been dismissed, and the man and his attorney said the case highlights a system stacked against people accused of crimes.
Tyson Barrett Mann, 22, was 20 when police arrested him in January 2010. A 20-year-old woman accused him of raping her at a party.
The Benton County district attorney dismissed the case against Mann on Aug. 23, according to court records.
Mann's defense attorney told KVAL News that there were inconsistencies with witness statements. He provided a copy of a polygrapher's report on a lie detector test given to Mann.
Mann served five days in jail before being released on bail.
At the time of the accusations, he was in the final stages of joining the Navy, having a signed contract to enlist as a combat corpsmanm gus attorney said. The charges derailed his plan, his attorney said.
Mann and his legal team criticized how Corvallis police handled the case. They were shocked to hear a detective on a video tell his accuser that the reason the detectives video recorded her statements was to “defense proof” her case, said Mann’s Eugene attorney, C. Michael Arnold.
“I was appalled when we watched the recorded interview of Tyson’s accuser and heard the detective at the very beginning of the video claim that he and the other investigators were defense proofing the case," Arnold said in a prepared statement. "However, that wasn’t the worst of it. We watched the video until the end, and then heard one detective ask the other if there was anything else she wanted to ask the accuser. I couldn’t believe they recorded this, but the detective said, ‘Not that I want on the record.’ Then the video stopped.
“Law enforcement succeeds when it seeks the truth with an open mind. These Corvallis detectives failed Mr. Mann and failed the system by making up their minds from the beginning," Arnold said. "They failed to challenge the accuser’s ever-changing story even in the face of contradictory statements and materially different accounts by other witnesses. Any good detective knows that guilty people are more easily convicted when a professional, unbiased investigation is conducted with an open mind. In this case, the system broke down and cost Tyson Mann his freedom and reputation. This situation has and will continue to cost him substantial financial resources to return both to him.”
Mann’s legal team was prepared to call 40 witnesses for the trial that had been scheduled to last two weeks beginning Sept. 12, 2011.
“I was falsely accused of something horrible," Mann said. "Quite frankly I was shocked to learn how much the system is set up to help accusers at the expense of people like me fighting for my life. I passed a polygraph with flying colors."
Mann’s parents, who funded his defense, are now considering filing a civil suit against the accuser for Malicious Prosecution to recoup attorney fees and further restore their son’s name.
His father Steven Mann said, “We don’t want any other young man beginning his life to have to go through what we went through with our son. She needs to be held accountable for what she’s done to our family."
