Miscarriage of justice around Horst Arnold

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Horst Arnold (2011)

The miscarriage of justice to Horst Arnold includes the condemnation of the teacher Horst Arnold in 2002 to a prison term of five years for a rape he did not commit. Years after serving his full sentence, Arnold was acquitted on retrial in 2011 for proven innocence.

The procedure attracted a great deal of attention across Germany. It was also perceived as a scandal that the authorities refused Arnold professional rehabilitation despite the final acquittal. He was also unable to obtain financial compensation until his death.

Horst Arnold

Horst Arnold (born May 24, 1959 in Aschbach , today part of Wald-Michelbach ; † June 29, 2012 in Völklingen ) graduated from the Überwald-Gymnasium in Wald-Michelbach, where he later also spent his traineeship as a teacher. He taught alternately at the Eugen-Bachmann-Schule, a secondary and secondary school in Wald-Michelbach, and at the Überwald-Gymnasium, before moving to the Georg-August-Zinn-Gesamtschule with upper level in Reichelsheim . Arnold was a salaried high school teacher and until his arrest worked primarily as a teacher for biology and sports, most recently as head of the sports department.

Trial of Arnold

In 2001 Arnold was accused of rape by his work colleague Heidi K. , which he was supposed to have committed on August 28, 2001 in a preparation room for biology during a break. Arnold denied the charge. He was in custody arrested and on 24 June 2002 by the 12th Criminal Chamber of the District Court of Darmstadt sentenced to a prison term of five years; On December 13, 2002 , the Federal Court of Justice rejected an appeal against the judgment as "obviously unfounded".

Arnold had to serve the entire sentence as he continued to deny the alleged act and refused to deal with it in a therapy group for sex offenders.

Retrial

It was only after his release from prison that the school 's women's representative , Anja Keinath (who had previously supported Heidi K. in the process), noticed that the alleged victim was becoming more and more entangled in contradictions and lies, which were not only related to the Horst Arnold case concerned.

Horst Arnold and his lawyer Hartmut Lierow in the retrial before the LG Kassel (2011)

The brother of the women's representative, Hartmut Lierow, lawyer for civil law in Berlin, then investigated and researched further inconsistencies in the biography of Heidi K. Lierow found that Heidi K. had already been noticed several times by describing life circumstances that were demonstrably wrong were. Her representations were so extraordinary that she was no longer taken seriously in her environment. With these findings, Lierow obtained a retrial at the Kassel Regional Court in 2008, which ended on July 5, 2011 with an acquittal for Horst Arnold because of proven innocence. The public prosecutor's office had also pleaded for acquittal. The court saw it as proven that Heidi K. had wanted to eliminate a competitor for a position within the school with false accusations. It is clear "without any doubt" that Arnold did not commit the rape. The presiding judge stated that the Darmstadt Regional Court had believed the alleged victim in the first trial, although an "incident that was hardly credible in itself" had been described. When the verdict was reached in 2001, "elementary basic rules for establishing the truth" were violated. The chief detective Horst Plefka, who was responsible for the investigation in 2001, testified that he had doubts about the crime alleged by K. from the start. Investigations in the past by K. to check her credibility had not been carried out, however, because one was afraid of an "outcry". In the first trial, Plefka was not called as a witness.

After Heidi K. had applied for an appeal, the Federal Court of Justice confirmed the acquittal on February 9, 2012 by rejecting the appeal, as the review of the judgment had not revealed any legal errors. The acquittal of the Kassel Regional Court thus became final.

Failed rehabilitation and death of Arnold

After his acquittal, Arnold fought in vain for adequate compensation ; it was not paid out until his death.

He was also unable to reintegrate into his profession as a teacher. In order to be hired as a teacher again, he had to reapply, the Hessian Ministry of Culture told him . The Ministry saw no reason for an automatic or at least preferential reinstatement of Arnold. Arnold lived from ALG II until the end .

On the morning of June 29, 2012, Arnold was found dead on the street not far from his apartment in Völklingen; he had suffered a heart attack. On the same day, the Darmstadt public prosecutor's office decided to bring charges against Heidi K. for deprivation of liberty.

Arnold's lawyer Hartmut Lierow sees a connection between Arnold's ordeal as a victim of justice and the fatal heart attack, which is probably also due to the stress caused by the wrongful conviction and the frustration of the unsuccessful arguments with the authorities. In the opinion of the Spiegel editor Thomas Darnstädt , Arnold “did not survive the shame the judges did to him”. 

Trial against Heidi K.

Heidi K. (sitting, with red wig) at the trial in Darmstadt (2013)

In April 2013, in connection with the case before the District Court of Darmstadt Arnold against Heidi K. charges of false imprisonment in indirect perpetration applicable. Heidi K. was suspended from school work when the salary was cut by half. She filed a lawsuit against the pay cut. The public prosecutor accused K. of wanting to have Arnold arrested with the help of the police and the public prosecutor's office by raising false suspicions against him during interrogations and in court, whereby it was clear that “the incident did not actually take place ". Motives are ambition and sought by K. civil servants have been. K. repeated her accusations against Arnold.

Testimony

Several school principals and school officials were heard as witnesses. The former head of the Georg-Christoph-Lichtenberg-Schule in Ober-Ramstädter, whose acting deputy K. had become in 2006, testified that K. had exercised her function in a rigid, unteachable and delimiting manner from the start. After the pedagogical director allied herself with her and lodged a complaint against the director , allegations were spread that the headmaster and the chairman of the staff council, with whom K. was also in dispute, wanted to poison the two women. After the investigation had fizzled out and K. continued to feel threatened, she was seconded to the Max-Planck-Schule in Groß-Umstadt by the education authority and initially appeared competent and committed. The headmaster had already been informed about the alleged rape and the alleged poisoning, had only spoken to K. under witnesses and was never alone with her. After six months, K. was transferred to the Albert Schweitzer School in Gross-Zimmer . She still insisted on salary according to A14, which she is entitled to from the management position in Ober-Ramstadt, which again led to a dispute.

A former tennis friend testified that K. had made fuzzy hints that he had uncovered child pornography and was therefore in mortal danger. K's third ex-husband, who was married to her for almost a year, said that the marriage was a physically, financially and psychologically stressful time. K. was dominant, cool and oriented towards money and prestige and wanted to "keep it small". K. had also told various witnesses that she had been mistreated by her three husbands and had a miscarriage and had lost a daughter in a car accident and had been pushed down the stairs by a partner while she was holding her child. A fiancé was first in a coma after being shot in the head in an operation against al-Qaida , then cared for by her and finally died.

Two judges from the Darmstadt Chamber, who sentenced Arnold in 2002, were also questioned. The chairman at the time stated: “I don't even have a picture of your face in front of my eyes.” His colleague no longer remembered whether Arnold had even commented on the allegations: “And if so, then only to the effect that it was not true.” Clues that K's allegations were made for career reasons, it ultimately did not exist for the chamber.

defense

K. stated again that she had been threatened again by Arnold accompanied by a woman almost five weeks after the alleged rape on the market square of Michelstadt in the Odenwald, which her parents had testified to during the 2001 trial. As has been reconstructed, however, Arnold was in custody at this time. The defense then summoned Horst Arnold's brother Steffen, who proved, based on old photos, that the personal description at the time could not apply to him either. K. then claimed that Steffen Arnold's companion in the courtroom was also the companion during the threat. The woman testified, however, that she had only been in a relationship with Steffen Arnold for a year and before that she had been "happily married" to another man for 25 years. In addition, their personal description did not fit.

Towards the end of the proceedings, K. and her defense asserted that K. had been sexually abused as a child , which was only recently revealed in a family constellation and trauma therapy . Numerous therapies have shown that K. "attracts violence" and has the "energy of a victim". The alleged rape also caused post-traumatic stress disorder. The psychiatric expert Norbert Leygraf , on the other hand, stated that K. had a “pronounced need for attention and attention”, a tendency to emotional outbursts and little empathy , which indicates a significant histrionic personality disorder . The defendant was nevertheless guilty , her awareness of wrongdoing was not restricted.

Condemnation

The proceedings ended with the conviction of Heidi K. for aggravated deprivation of liberty as an indirect perpetrator to a prison sentence of five years and six months. As a result, her civil servant relationship ended by law and her pension entitlement was lost. According to the reasons for the judgment, there was no clear motive, neither professionally, personally or financially, and no concrete plan for carrying out the crime. Rather, K. had increasingly expanded her accusation when she realized that Arnold, as an alcoholic with little reputation in the college, was the ideal victim. In doing so, she gradually deepened her statements, inflicted injuries on herself and maintained the story, despite proven contradictions and lies, until the end of the proceedings. A “pointless cause” was a brief argument in which Arnold K. reprimanded shortly after she had switched to his school.

The presiding judge Barbara Bunk admitted that the verdict could not be redress. She apologized to Horst Arnold's relatives in the name of the judiciary.

In October 2014, the appeal filed by Heidi K. was rejected as unfounded by the Federal Court of Justice.

Action for compensation for pain and suffering

Arnold's daughter sued K. after the verdict for compensation for pain and suffering in the amount of 80,000 euros. The Osnabrück Regional Court sentenced K. in a default judgment on October 11, 2013 to pay the required amount. K. raised an objection in due time and claimed the statute of limitations . On February 5, 2014, Hartmut Lierow, as the lawyer for Arnold's daughter, withdrew the civil suit. The decision of his client was "due to special circumstances". So far, she has not been able to enforce her claims because K. lodged an objection and ceded her ongoing civil servant salaries to third parties in good time. While K. receives legal aid in civil proceedings due to her lack of means and therefore does not bear any cost risk, it is to be feared that his client will not only not receive the award of compensation due to lack of enforceability, even if the judgment is confirmed, but also for the entire procedural costs to be advanced by her will stay seated.

reception

Walter Hollstein advocated in his book Was vom Manne Left the thesis that men are increasingly criminalized, especially in the area of ​​abuse and other sexual assaults. As an example, he cited the Horst Arnold case.

The ARD television film My Strange Girlfriend with Ursula Strauss from 2017 took over some of the acts from the Arnold case, but is set in the Hanover health department.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Fall Horst Arnold  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Article on Horst Arnold  - in the news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Excluded until death ( memento from October 28, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Weinheimer Nachrichten - Odenwälder Zeitung. July 4, 2012, Retrieved July 18, 2012. Inactive link
  2. ^ LG Darmstadt , Az. 331 Js 34092/01
  3. ↑ BGH , Az. 2 StR 444/02, according to Endrik Wilhelm: Sources of error in the formation of convictions . 38th Defense Defense Day, Dresden 2014, opening lecture
  4. ↑ a b Fictitious rape: Heidi K. has to go to prison for more than five years . In: Spiegel Online , September 13, 2013.
  5. ^ A b Werner Mathes: Wrong judgment because of alleged rape. The suffering of Horst Arnold . In: Stern.de , July 12, 2011.
  6. ↑ Jan Schmitt : Innocent in custody: When the state becomes the perpetrator. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2014, ISBN 978-3-579-07068-1 .
  7. ^ A b Claus Peter Müller, Julia Schaaf: How could this wrong judgment come about? In: FAZ , July 25, 2011.
  8. ↑ Hartmut Lierow, Attorney at Law: Darmstadt Public Prosecutor's Office is delaying investigations ( memento from July 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Odenwald Stories , August 17, 2011.
  9. ^ LG Kassel , Az. 1620 Js 16973/08
  10. ↑ a b c Hannelore Crolly: The abuse before "sex in school" . In: Die Welt , September 3, 2013. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
  11. ↑ a b BGH , Az. 2 StR 534/11 , press office communication No. 26/2012 , Karlsruhe, February 26, 2012
  12. ↑ a b David Klaubert: The alleged victim is now on trial himself . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 25, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  13. ↑ Joachim Baier: Woman invented rape . n-tv .de, April 18, 2013.
  14. ↑ Heidi Müller-Gerbes: A fake rape . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 13, 2013. Accessed September 15, 2013.
  15. ↑ a b Hannelore Crolly: The woman who took a man's life . In: Die Welt , September 8, 2013. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
  16. ↑ 48-year-old has to go to jail after being raped . hna.de, August 13, 2013
  17. ↑ a b Hannelore Crolly: The invented rape . In: Die Welt , September 14, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  18. ↑ Silke Bigalke: How the German justice system lets its victims down. The consequences of false confessions , Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 1, 2012
  19. ↑ Thomas Darnstädt : Legal errors: Blind before the truth. In: Spiegel Online. April 26, 2013, accessed September 6, 2017 .
  20. ↑ The teacher sues against a cut in salary . In: Neue Westfälische , July 31, 2012, accessed on December 27, 2012.
  21. ↑ Hans Holzhaider: The rape, just a story . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 25, 2013, accessed on May 30, 2013.
  22. ↑ a b Alexander Schneider Arnold case: Mobbing and poison in the staff room? ( Memento from June 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Echo-Online , June 3, 2013, accessed on June 17, 2013.
  23. ↑ Sonja Jordan: All accusations seem to repelling water to Heidi K. . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , May 15, 2013, accessed on June 23, 2013.
  24. ↑ a b c Julia Jüttner: Judgment against Heidi K .: No reparation possible . In: Der Spiegel , September 13, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  25. ↑ Sonja Jordans: Trial against teacher Heidi K. from Detmold: Judges do not remember . In: Lippische Landes-Zeitung , June 5, 2013.
  26. ↑ a b daughter of Horst Arnold demands compensation for pain and suffering . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 20, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
  27. ↑ Revision after judgment for fabricated rape . In: Die Welt , September 20, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
  28. ↑ Federal Supreme Court confirms conviction of a teacher for serious deprivation of liberty after wrongly incriminating a colleague for rape , Federal Supreme Court - press office statement, file number: 2 StR 62/14 Retrieved October 23, 2014.
  29. ↑ Teacher must be in custody for rape lies , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 22, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  30. ↑ Fictitious rape: BGH confirms prison sentence for teacher Heidi K. , Spiegel Online, October 23, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2014
  31. ^ Judgment: Heidi K. has to pay compensation for pain and suffering . In: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , October 11, 2013. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  32. ↑ LG Osnabrück , Az. 12 O 2885/12 , press release No. 4/14 , February 6, 2014
  33. ↑ The teacher does not want to pay compensation for pain and suffering . In: Frankfurter Neue Presse , October 22, 2013. Accessed January 17, 2014.
  34. ↑ Gisela Friedrichsen : Fictitious rape: Heidi K. does not have to pay compensation . In: Spiegel Online , February 5, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  35. ↑ Walter Hollstein: What was left of the man . opus magnum, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-939322-57-3 , pp. 159-161.
  36. ↑ Christian Buß: The Last Gorilla , Der Spiegel from November 6, 2017