Father Falsely Accused of Raping Daughter

Each morning, just after he awoke, Thomas Kennedy sat on the floor of his prison cell and stretched, meditated and read his Bible. Then he rose and looked at himself in the mirror.

"Thomas," he told himself. "You're a good man. You're not a bad man. You did not do this. You're going to survive."

Kennedy, 43, of Longview was convicted in 2002 of raping his then 11-year-old daughter. He spent the next decade dodging the attacks of his fellow inmates, serving food and scrubbing floors for $55 a month and trying to figure out why his little girl had accused him of hurting her.

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Then, in February, one of the prison's friendlier guards told him, "Kennedy, you're going back to court. It's been nice knowing you. I got a feeling you're going home."

Kennedy soon learned that his daughter Cassandra Kennedy, now 22, had told Longview police she'd made it all up. Thomas Kennedy never raped her when she was 11, she said. She said she had been angry with her father over his drinking and drug use and falsely accused him because she wanted "vengeance," according to police reports.

In late March, Cowlitz Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning threw out Kennedy's 2002 conviction on three counts of first-degree child rape. The prosecutor's office declined to pursue a new trial and Kennedy was freed. The story made international news

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