While Cortney Woycik's ordeal ("Cloudy night in the city" SN 6/30) proves to be upsetting if true, even more infuriating are East Lansing police Lt. Kevin Daley's comments as to why she must certainly be guilty.

"I don't think anybody would have made anything up," Daley says. "What does anybody have to gain from it? I am going to say she is probably guilty. There are many repercussions for a false arrest." Does no one else find this statement completely illogical? Daley is saying that the arresting officer's report must be true because the officer would have nothing to gain - and he then turns around and mentions how seriously a false arrest is handled. So while the arresting officer presumably has nothing to gain by lying, one can clearly see (thanks to Lt. Daley, no less) how much that officer has to lose if proven that they acted wrongly.

A clear conflict of interest exists in this police report which Daley seems to accept as indisputable truth. Regardless of what Daley would want the public to believe, the fact that police reports are "official documents" does not make them infallible. That Daley would say that "it is highly unlikely Woycik didn't grab an officer's arm because police reports are official documents" (as paraphrased by The State News) is the type of convoluted logic and circular reasoning that is unbecoming of a public figure.

In the end, Cortney was probably wise to plead "no contest." It is brutally apparent that the system was set against her from the moment she left her house.

Daniel Otto
general management senior