The Comeback Kid | Ethos magazine
In December, Palo got the answers he had so desperately sought. The female was deposed for two days, during which she stated that she had washed the shirt she wore the night of the incident and then misplaced it. The female found the shirt in a drawer at her mother’s house the day after her deposition, five and a half months after the alleged incident. When the shirt was presented as evidence on Dec. 1, 2012, a 5- to 6-inch-long tear gaped across the front. The female’s boyfriend had come to her residence after the alleged assault, where, according to Boles, the two remained for approximately an hour before deciding to go to the hospital. According to Boles, the female’s boyfriend, the sexual assault nurse and case detective Suzy Owens all testified the tear was not there that night at the hospital.
Finding the mismatch of the new evidence and subsequent depositions troubling, Boles motioned for the shirt to be sent to Chesterine Cwiklik—owner of Cwiklik & Associates, a microscopy and forensic consulting lab in Seattle—to be analyzed.
Wow. That chick should rot in jail for whatever sentence he could have gone to jail for.
In December, Palo got the answers he had so desperately sought. The female was deposed for two days, during which she stated that she had washed the shirt she wore the night of the incident and then misplaced it. The female found the shirt in a drawer at her mother’s house the day after her deposition, five and a half months after the alleged incident. When the shirt was presented as evidence on Dec. 1, 2012, a 5- to 6-inch-long tear gaped across the front. The female’s boyfriend had come to her residence after the alleged assault, where, according to Boles, the two remained for approximately an hour before deciding to go to the hospital. According to Boles, the female’s boyfriend, the sexual assault nurse and case detective Suzy Owens all testified the tear was not there that night at the hospital.
Finding the mismatch of the new evidence and subsequent depositions troubling, Boles motioned for the shirt to be sent to Chesterine Cwiklik—owner of Cwiklik & Associates, a microscopy and forensic consulting lab in Seattle—to be analyzed.
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The case never made it to trial. Scientific analysis, Cwiklik deposed, determined it was impossible the shirt had been torn before laundering. Prosecutors concluded the female had manufactured the evidence, stories became muddled and the female’s case fell apart. The charges against Palo and Cruise were officially dropped Jan. 14, freeing the two of all legal consequences and allowing Palo to be reinstated to the basketball team. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Palo says of that May night. “There’s a lot written about me that’s false … It’s still kind of tough to think that someone could put someone through that. I’m still coping with forgiving her and moving on.”Wow. That chick should rot in jail for whatever sentence he could have gone to jail for.
