A woman in New York City lied about being raped and an innocent man spent almost four years in prison because of it. William McCaffrey, who worked in construction in the Bronx, was found guilty in 2006 and given a 20-year sentence. Biurny Peguero Gonzalez had said that he and two other men attacked her with a knife. Everything started in September 2005 when Peguero, who was 22 at the time, went out drinking with her friends in Manhattan. She had a lot to drink that night and ended up getting into a car with McCaffrey and his friends. They were looking for a late-night party. When she got back to her friends at a parking lot, she got into a big fight with them. The women hit and bit each other. To make her friends feel sorry for her and stop being angry, Peguero told them she had been raped. When the case went to trial, Peguero said she was absolutely sure McCaffrey was the one who attacked her. “One hundred and ten percent,” she told everyone in court, as per NY Post. Her words were the main reason he was found guilty, even though there was no DNA proof connecting him to what she said happened. The lie starts to fall apart Things changed in 2009 when McCaffrey got a new lawyer who asked for DNA tests on the bite marks on Peguero’s arm. What they found completely changed everything. The DNA showed that the bites came from at least two women, not any men. The marks were really from the fight she had with her girlfriends that night, not from McCaffrey. At the same time, Peguero was feeling very guilty about what she had done. She went to her priest, Father Zeljko Gurberovic, at a church in Union City, New Jersey, and told him the truth. The priest told her she needed to go to the police and helped her get a lawyer. When she talked to the prosecutors, Peguero finally admitted that McCaffrey and his friends never hurt her. She said she made up the whole rape story to get sympathy from her friends, and then she got stuck in the lie as the case kept going. In another unusual discovery story, a woman was found living inside a grocery store sign for a year with a surprisingly comfortable setup. McCaffrey got out of prison in December 2009 after spending close to four years locked up. A few months later in February 2010, Judge Charles Solomon gave Peguero a sentence of one to three years in prison for lying under oath. She could get out on parole after only one year. “What happened in this case is one of the worst things that can possibly happen in our criminal justice system,” the judge said when he gave her the sentence. @blue.light.diaries *“He spent 4 years in prison for a crime that never happened… all because of one lie.”* In 2005, Biurny Peguero Gonzalez falsely accused William McCaffrey, a construction worker from the Bronx, of assault after a night out in NYC. Despite no DNA evidence linking him to the crime, McCaffrey was convicted in 2006—based mainly on Gonzalez’s emotional testimony—and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But in 2009, everything changed. Gonzalez, consumed by guilt, confessed to a priest that she had lied. New DNA testing later confirmed McCaffrey was innocent. He was exonerated and released after 4 years behind bars. Gonzalez pleaded guilty to perjury and was sentenced to 1–3 years. This case is a harsh reminder: One lie can destroy a life. #WrongfulConviction #JusticeForWilliam #TrueCrime #InnocentBehindBars #CrimeTok #truecrimetiktok #truecrimestory #truecrimeusa #scary #scarystory #fyp #CapCut #CrimeStory #DisturbingCases #newyorkcity ♬ original sound – blue light diaries The prosecutors wanted her to get two to six years so she would serve close to the same time McCaffrey did. Even though he lost four years of his life, McCaffrey was not mean about it. “Jail is a very, very difficult place,” he said, and added that he hoped she would not go through what he went through. McCaffrey later sued New York City for 30 million dollars. He said the police and prosecutors had evidence that could have proven he was innocent but they kept going with the case anyway. Similar to how a couple discovered disturbing secrets about their 130-year-old home through a mysterious letter, McCaffrey’s case revealed hidden truths that changed everything.