Cassandra Kennedy, 23, has come out recently and claimed she lied about her father raping her 11 years ago where they lived in the small town Kalama, Washington. Kennedy’s father, Thomas Edward Kennedy, now 43, was convicted of rape, by a jury, back in 2002. He has served 10 years of prison time on a 15-plus year sentence that was handed down to him. Kennedy says she decided to come forward because she could no longer live with the guilt. At the time, Thomas Kennedy denied that he committed the act, but was ultimately charged and found guilty.
According to the Daily News, Cassandra said the accusation came about as a young child because she was mad at her dad.
Cassandra’s mother and father divorced in 1991. That’s when she began seeing her father only one weekend a month. She tells a tale of the family being poor and her feelings inferiority, having been constantly bullied at school. She said she had been close to her dad prior to their parents divorcing but after the divorce, her father started drinking and smoking pot and stopped ‘showing up’. She said she wanted take vengeance and hatched her plan for vengeance after one of her friends told her about her step-father who went away to prison after being accused of sexually assaulting a child. She says the story gave about accusing her father of raping her.
Cassandra said once she made the accusation to police, she felt like she couldn’t take it back.
Cassandra’s life has been full of turmoil since the accusation. She has been in and out of rehab during most of her young adult years and has struggled with drugs herself. Currently, she is clean an sober and has become an active member of a Christian Ministry. Cassandra said she decided that she wanted her dad to be free so she can free herself.
The Kalama, Washington police opened the case again in January to cross reference what Cassandra was telling them and determined that there wasn’t enough evidence to keep Thomas Kennedy locked up any longer. Thomas Kennedy was therefore released last month.
Prosecutor Sue Baur says they will not be charging Cassandra for perjury because they don’t want to discourage people from coming forward in legitimate rape cases. This decision has been caused a public backlash from those who think that Cassandra should be held accountable for ruining her father’s life.
As for Thomas Kennedy, he says that he doesn’t want to dwell on the injustice, he just wants to get on with his life.