Jailed Man’s Mother Forgives His Accuser for False Rape Charge

In a tearful exchange Friday on nationwide television, the mother of a 28-year-old man imprisoned six years for rape forgave her son’s accuser for what the young woman says was a lie.

“You’re forgiven, Cathy,” Barbara Dotson said in reply to Cathleen Crowell’s emotional apology. “I just want my son back, and I thank you so much for coming forward. It took a lot of courage.”

Dotson’s son, Gary, was convicted in 1979 on charges of rape and aggravated kidnaping after Crowell accused him of a crime she now says she made up.

“I’m so sorry for what I did to you and your family, especially to Gary and his name, and how I took six years away from him,” said Crowell, a 23-year-old mother of two who lives in a small town in New Hampshire. “And I really want your forgiveness, especially Gary’s forgiveness.”

“I wish I was wealthy, I wish I could give him six years, and I wish I had $1 million I could give him to start his life over with, but I don’t,” Crowell said, her voice breaking.

“I’d give him anything I have, my family has, for him.”

The exchange took place on NBC’s “Today” show, where Barbara Dotson and Crowell appeared in separate studios.

In a radio program taped Friday for broadcast Sunday, Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson said he would consider executive clemency, if necessary, to free Dotson.

Circuit Judge Richard L. Samuels, who had sentenced Dotson to between 25 and 50 years in prison, has agreed to reconsider the case at a hearing Thursday. Dotson and Crowell will appear at the hearing.

Crowell is the woman’s maiden name. She has refused to make public her married name.

In an affidavit filed Tuesday, Crowell, formerly of suburban Homewood, said that in mid-1977, when she was 16, she had sex with a teen-age boy. She said she was “concerned about the consequences of my promiscuity and thought I was pregnant and therefore decided to claim I was raped.”

Police arrested Dotson, of suburban Country Club Hills, after Crowell’s made-up description of a suspect seemed to match Dotson’s. She later picked him out of a lineup.

Barbara Dotson said her family did not intend to sue for damages.