Man Jailed in Phony Rape to Go Free : ‘Victim’ Tells How She Concocted Story Six Years Earlier

The judge who sent Gary Dotson to prison six years ago on a rape charge ruled today that he could be freed on bond after a 23-year-old woman calmly testified that she fabricated the story that put him behind bars.

Cathleen Crowell Webb said she created a fictitious description of an attacker, from which a police sketch was made. She said that when she was shown a mug shot of Dotson, she identified him as her assailant “because his picture looked so much like the sketch, that if I didn’t (identify him) it would show it (the rape) was a lie.”

Webb stared straight ahead during her testimony, while Dotson, who is seeking to have his conviction overturned and be released from prison, sat about 35 feet away, occasionally putting his head in his hands.

After Webb testified for nearly 90 minutes, Circuit Judge Richard Samuels granted a prosecutor’s request that the hearing be recessed for a week so blood samples from Dotson and Webb can be compared to samples taken after she reported the rape.

Sentenced in 1979

Samuels also directed that Dotson could be freed by posting 10% of a $100,000 bond while the case is being resolved. Dotson was sentenced by Samuels in 1979 to 25-50 years on charges of aggravated kidnaping and rape and was incarcerated at Joliet Correctional Center.

In an affidavit filed last month, Webb, now living in New Hampshire, said that in mid-1977 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.”

“I ripped the buttons on my shirt,” a composed Webb testified in the packed Cook County Circuit Court room. “I ripped the zipper on my pants. I ripped my bra to look like it had been forcibly removed.

“I tried to bruise my arms. I put fingernail markings on my breasts. I took a broken bottle and marked my abdomen with it. And I also made a mark on my vaginal area to make it look like a forcible entry. I tried to bruise one of my legs, also.”

Webb, then 16, described her attacker to a police artist. The description resembled Dotson, and police arrested him. She later picked Dotson out of a lineup.

Statement When Sentenced

In the original court hearing, Dotson told the judge moments after being sentenced: “I’m innocent, and by locking me up the state just did an injustice to itself. There’s nothing more I can say, nothing more I can prove. I’m innocent--that will be that until the day I die.”

State officials are researching how Dotson might be compensated if he is released. Legislators might consider an appropriation to pay for his time in prison, said William Ghesquiere, chief counsel to Gov. James R. Thompson.

Dotson’s mother, Barbara, 48, forgave Webb for her actions.

In a nationally televised exchange last week, Webb told Barbara Dotson: “I’m so sorry for what I did to you and your family, especially to Gary . . . and how I took six years away from him.”

“I wish I was wealthy . . . and I wish I had $1 million I could give him to start his life over with, but I don’t,” Webb said.

“You’re forgiven, Cathy,” said Dotson’s mother.