ARE YOU PREPARED TO FACE BOGUS ALLEGATIONS?

What would you do if you were accused of a crime you didn’t commit? Do you assume that you would be treated as innocent until you were proven guilty? Would you be truly prepared to navigate the criminal justice system? (Or is the extent of your knowledge based on what you’ve picked up from TV shows and movies?)

If you aren’t sure how to answer these questions—and especially if you think that because you’re an upstanding, law-abiding citizen, It’ll never happen to me—you’re in for an eye-opener.

Michelle Gesse knows from firsthand experience that what happens after a crime is allegedly committed doesn’t resemble what you see on TV. In the real world, the first person to call 911 is seen as the victim regardless of what actually happened. And the accused is treated as the guilty party—and expected to spend large amounts of time and money proving his or her own innocence!

Bogus Allegations: The Injustice of Guilty Until Proven Innocent tells the shocking and compelling story of what happened after Gesse’s husband, Steven, was falsely accused of threatening a neighbor with a firearm. Written from Gesse’s point of view, it chronicles the couple’s spiral down the baffling, expensive, and at times unfair rabbit hole that is the American criminal justice system.

Seven months (and thousands of dollars in legal fees) after the accusation, Steven Gesse went to trial in the hope that he would be found not guilty of Felony Menacing and Prohibited Use of a Weapon by a jury. Even though he was found not guilty, the courts could not compensate him or his family for the emotional toll of being treated like a convicted felon by the justice system and the media, nor did it restore the money and time the Gesses lost during the process. The unfairness of it all set Michelle Gesse on a mission to shine a spotlight on the injustices of the American justice system—and to make people aware of what to do in case they are ever falsely accused.