Woman In Phony Rape Case Heads To Jail

Had Admitted Lying In Rape Case That Sent Innocent Man To Jail For Almost Two Years

(AP)  A woman whose lie about being raped kept an innocent man behind bars for almost two years is now in jail herself.

Armand Villasana, 54, was jailed for rape from 1998 until 2000, when his conviction was overturned based on DNA evidence. His accuser, Judith Lummis, admitted Aug. 7 that she made up the rape to cover up an extramarital affair.

The statute of limitations prevented Lummis from being charged with perjury. But on Friday, Lummis, 41, turned herself in after her probation was revoked last week. She will serve a four-year prison term imposed in 1998, when she pleaded guilty to fraudulently attempting to obtain prescription diet pills.

Lummis was put on probation after pleading guilty to the charge in April 1998, with a suspended four-year sentence.

On Sept. 16, 1998, Lummis reported being kidnapped from a Sonic Drive-In, forced to drive to a wooded area and raped. Greene County detectives and prosecutors said she was so convincing they had little reason to doubt her story.

Even Villasana's defense attorney, Gary Wilson, said he believed Lummis was a victim.

"I never doubted that she was raped. I doubted that Armand did it." Wilson said.

Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Jill Patterson, who prosecuted the case, said Lummis was articulate and appeared credible.

"It was pretty amazing," Patterson said. "Any concerns I had about the case were always dispelled by her."

When Villasana was arrested nine days after the supposed rape on an unrelated charge, he became a suspect even though no physical evidence tied him to the crime and Lummis' description of her assailant differed from Villasana in age, height, weight and speech patterns.

But a composite sketch was "freakishly similar to Armand," said Wilson.

And Lummis identified Villasana in what authorities admit was a biased photo line-up - Villasana was the only Hispanic pictured.

In later months, Lummis remained steadfast in her accusations.

"She was just so adamant and so forceful that it was him," Wilson said. "Looking back at what we know now, she had so many outs ... She could have said, 'Well, maybe it's not him.'"

Villasana was convicted Nov. 10, 1999, but freed seven months later.

Lummis continued to insist Villasana was responsible, but her story started to unravel shortly after his release.

Probation violations based on drug use and forgery charges began to pile up, and she filed for divorce in March 2001. In court records, Lummis admitted struggling with methamphetamine addiction.

Her probation was revoked in October, 2002, and she was jailed until May 2003 after spending 120 days in an institutional treatment center. She pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in the forgery case and was sentenced to probation and community service.

Patterson said prosecutors were aware of Lummis' struggle with drugs.

"It is very normal for rape victims to have that kind of downward spiral," Patterson said. "That didn't necessarily put me on notice."

Meanwhile, an automated database search in November 2005 found a match for the DNA profile that freed Villasana in 2000. It took more than a year for the match with a Missouri inmate to be confirmed.

Detective Allen Bayer learned in February that Lummis had filed a kidnapping report - later found to be false - in Aurora in 2005 that was similar to the report filed in the Villasana case.

Lummis also faced charges in Christian County for failing to pay child support and two new charges of forgery in Lawrence County. She was arrested March 24 and admitted relapsing on methamphetamine.

But during two interviews with Bayer, Lummis stuck by her story of being raped.

When Bayer met with the inmate whose DNA matched the material gathered from the 1998 rape examination he said he and Lummis had been having a consensual affair. The inmate has not been identified.

Lummis had been cited in June for testing positive for methamphetamine and for lying about where she was living. And her probation officer found she was dating a convicted felon.

But Lummis didn't confess until Aug. 7. Her probation was revoked Aug. 24.

[daysleepin]

Should she not be listed on a reverse sex offender site. Do we not have a right to know that a predator like her is in our neighborhood? Is it not only fair that her deed should be listed on employment applications?

Not many jobs out there now, what with Iraq being falsely accused of 911and WMD
and the aig with its tax payer bouses. You have wonder when Tim Mcveighs cousin will be coming home from Iraq?

[agnim]

"Leave her out of jail and make her work it off!!! Next, go after the Duke ''''victim''''!
Posted by jinxkity at 12:30 PM : Sep 04, 2007"

LOL

Yes, go after those Drugged Drunk, and disorderly Duke preppy punk "victims", who DRUGGED & DATE RAPED THAT WOMAN WITH A FOREIGN OBJECT!

However, the US in-justice system isn''t going to seek justice in that racially-motivated attack on that stripper by the pale preppy punks of Duke.

Had the tables turned and the striper white, then every effort would have been made to recognize that a DRUGGED WOMANS CANNOT GIVE A CLEAR ACCOUNT OF HER DATE RAPE
AND THAT IF A WOMAN WAS SODOMIZED WITH A FOREIGN OBJECT, THEN NO DNA WOULD BE FORTHCOMING!

[jinxkity]

Finally, a woman being held responsible for the consequences of her lies! The justice system needs to wake up and really look hard at those who merely point a finger and accuse. And the media needs to stop rushing to print until ALL the facts come out. She should have to pay this guy BIG TIME dollars. Leave her out of jail and make her work it off!!! Next, go after the Duke ''victim''!

[kailumego1]

Where are the 40+ pages of outrage over this travesty, like those posters expressing vehemence over the Duke, Michael Vick, scandals?

This woman railroaded and deliberately lied to conceal an extramarital affair with a "convict" which authorities convicted an innocent man served two years of his life for a crime he didn''t commit.

Where is the non-biased outrage over this man''s wrongful conviction?

There were 40 pages posted about Micheal Vick and the Duke scandal, am waiting to see the outrage pouring in on this man''s wrongful conviction..


That''s why minorities, blacks, Hispanics protest over the overzealousness demonstrated by whites whenever a criminal offense is committed by the non-whites on whites, etc.

[agnim]

"People like you are why those boys will be awarded damages for defamation, etc, when they sue.
Posted by clgl_fubar at 05:17 PM : Sep 03, 2007"

LOL

Those Drugged, Drunk and Disorderly Duke Dumb jock ''boys'' will NEVER ''sue''.
They are happy in their wrongdoing to have dumb white supremacist fools defend them over their DRUGGED DATE RAPE!

If a woman is drugged and raped with a foreign object, there is no way that she can be ''consistent'' in her testimony, or will there be any DNA if those preppy punks did not use diks to rape the DRUGGED WOMAN!

[agnim]

"I agree with you 300% both Twana Braley and Crystal Gail should have been prosecuted for reporting false allegations and imprisoned,
Posted by kailumego1 at 12:21 PM : Sep 03, 2007"

And how do YOU know that the Duke woman was not DRUGGED AND DATED RAPED WITH A FOREIGN OBJECT by those pale preppy punks!

The first utterance from Gail''s associate was that the Gail was not acting right, a behavior that is more consistent with someone who was DRUGGED by the dumb Duke jocks! spiked.

Go back and research her ORIGINAL REPORT before she was INTIMIDATED/bought off by the white supremacist hounds.

[agnim]

""The Land of the Amazons" is not just a Movie anymore, its real life and they can fire you too! Men will only be able to act hardcore if they have another job lined up! LOL
Posted by tbweb at 02:50 AM : Sep 03, 2007"

Look, Web, what you observe of the females is true, but only on the SMALL SCALE, the NARROW VIEW!

America''s law makers are overwhelmingly MALES. That is the BIG PICTURE, the REAL PICTURE of things.

It is American MALES who make the laws, surrendering their societal responsibility to the more submissive females.

And it it is the dominant American MALES enforces the societal rules that allow the amazons to run your life.

And it is the pussified American MALES (yourself for instance) who would surrender to the more submissive/female gender, which goes against the very grain of Mother Nature''s intent.

So STOP blaming females, who have NO NATURAL AUTHORITY ''cept that with which moronic males have endowed them.

[kailumego1]

I''m also waiting to see the 30+ pages of outraged tandem to Duke, Vick, and O.J. cases.....

[kailumego1]

I agree with you 300% both Twana Braley and Crystal Gail should have been prosecuted for reporting false allegations and imprisoned, however, if you%u2019re making comparisons provide %u201Ccredible%u201D subjects, in neither case was any alleged victim convicted for this rouse, so there is no comparison between these three incidents.

[kailumego1]

Because although what Twana Braley and Crystal Gail did was reprehensible the law did eventually work in both cases, unlike this one where an innocent man was tried, convicted, and imprisoned for a crime %u201Che%u201D didn%u2019t commit.

Bringing up random cases and isolated incidents of psychologically combative black women that have filed bogus charges to support an argument which has absolutely no merit in this case only demonstrates the depravity of racism that still exist in this country, these isolated incidents of black women filing false allegations against white males is an anomaly, of which it doesn%u2019t even scratch the surface of the numerous of false allegations of rape that have been filed against black males, by white women.

And now I see since the %u201Clet%u2019s blame the black man for bogus rape charges%u201D has exhausted itself the blame has been shifted to Hispanic men, so history lives on and on.

This guy was railroaded because he was Hispanic, in which the law demonstrated it%u2019s %u201Ctrue%u201D colors of racial bigotry, because why didn%u2019t law enforcement take DNA samples from both the alleged victim and perpetrator, which would have exonerated him, as oppose of simply accepting the word of a drugged meth-user, liar, and theft. .