A couple lesbians accuse a guy of assaulting them and get him sent to jail. Turns out they've got a history of doing this. To be fair though, the dude did punch out their window.
This "attack" was front Page on WaPo a few days ago. The correction was above the line this morning, but by the afternoon couldn't easily be found at all. I guess it didn't fit the narrative.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-buy-it-and-freed-him/?utm_term=.def958facd10
This "attack" was front Page on WaPo a few days ago. The correction was above the line this morning, but by the afternoon couldn't easily be found at all. I guess it didn't fit the narrative.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-buy-it-and-freed-him/?utm_term=.def958facd10
Outrage followed a woman’s claim of a violent road rage attack. Prosecutors didn’t buy it.
by Keith McMillan June 11 at 10:52 PM Email the author
Charges against an Oregon man accused of breaking a woman’s arm and knocking another unconscious during a road-rage incident were dropped Monday after the district attorney wrote in a statement that he had “no confidence in the credibility” of the accusers.
Jay Barbeau spent 11 days in jail before a prosecutor decided his accusers weren’t credible.
Jay Barbeau, 48, had been charged with four felonies and a misdemeanor, and held in jail since the June 1 conflict in Bend, Ore. Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said the accounts given by Megan Stackhouse, 34, and Lucinda Mann, 26, could not be substantiated, the Oregonian reported. Hummel said witness statements, medical records and prior incidents involving Stackhouse and Mann helped him come to his decision.
Barbeau’s lawyer, Casey Baxter, told the Oregonian that his client punched out the window of the women’s Kia Soul but other details had been fabricated.
“He really never once struck any of those women,” Baxter told the paper. “The entire event was a terrible lie that turned into international condemnation.”
Stackhouse told The Washington Post’s Samantha Schmidt that the incident began in the traffic that had accumulated at the end of a carnival sponsored by a cider company. She had ticked Barbeau off by maneuvering her Soul in front of his black Toyota Tundra.
According to Schmidt:
Barbeau started yelling, flipping her off and flashing his lights, Stackhouse said. About a half block down the road, Stackhouse came to a crosswalk and stopped her car. Barbeau stepped out of his truck and started walking toward Stackhouse and Mann, 26, who was in the passenger’s seat, but Stackhouse drove off, she said.
Reaching a roundabout a half mile later, Barbeau was tailgating Stackhouse so closely that she could no longer see his headlights or license plate. “I really thought he was about to rear end me,” she said. So she decided to pull over to let him pass.
But instead of passing, Barbeau slammed on his brakes. He stepped out of his truck and punched the back window of Stackhouse’s Kia, shattering the glass, she said. He punched out the driver’s side taillight. Then, he attacked Stackhouse, Bend police said.
While Stackhouse’s door was locked, her window was rolled down. Barbeau, Stackhouse said, reached into the window, grabbed her right arm, twisted it and broke it. He punched her in the face, breaking her glasses. Mann stepped out of the car and approached Barbeau to try to protect Stackhouse. But he threw Mann to the ground, where she hit her head and was knocked her unconscious, Stackhouse and authorities said.
Hummel suggested in his statement that dueling recollections of what happened and previous incidents involving the women cast doubt on their recounting of the story.
Megan Stackhouse, left, and Lucinda Mann, right, recently got engaged. (Megan Stackhouse.)
“Mann’s claimed injuries in the Barbeau case were debunked by the medical records,” he said. “While Stackhouse did suffer a broken bone in her wrist, there are competing claims as to how her injury occurred and based on her lack of credibility, I cannot stand behind her version of events.”
The Bend Bulletin reported that Barbeau’s wife, Laura, recalled Stackhouse hitting the Toyota with “fists closed” and attempting to rip off the rearview mirror.
Hummel also said during a news conference that witnesses contradicted Mann’s claim that she was thrown to the ground. The Bulletin wrote that one witness said she fell on her own, and another said she fell after bumping Barbeau.
Hummel also said the investigation revealed three incidents between October 2016 and May 2018 in which Stackhouse or Mann had been involved in road-rage reports in which police were called, and a fourth this month in which Mann had thrown herself onto the hood of a car. Just days after the confrontation with Barbeau, Deschutes County prosecutors charged Stackhouse with assault in the May 2018 road-rage incident.
The Bulletin also contacted a former employer who said Stackhouse was asked to leave the organization, and was known to “blow things out of proportion.”
In addition, the Bulletin reported that a GoFundMe campaign that had raised more than $4,000 for Stackhouse and Mann has been taken offline.
The district attorney said officials would continue to investigate possible charges against Mann or Stackhouse, but that Barbeau had been punished enough. Laura Barbeau told the Bulletin her family has spent $4,000 in legal fees and has been harassed.
“Barbeau’s acts of chasing after Stackhouse in his car and punching her window were outrageous and unacceptable,” Hummel said. “For this he served 11 days in jail and received national ridicule and condemnation. … This is more than enough punishment.”
