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Convicted Man Wasn't Greenway Assault Victim's Attacker, She Says

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RALEIGH, N.C. — The victim of an April 2005 Raleigh greenway assault said that the man who confessed and pleaded guilty to her attack was not the man who committed it.

The woman, who asked that her identity be withheld, said that Jamaal McLeod was not her attacker -- but she said that another man, Reginald McNeil, was.

McLeod, who authorities said confessed and pleaded guilty to the April 2005 assault, was arrested earlier this month in connection with a similar attack on the Capital Area Greenway off of Raleigh Boulevard. He was released this week after police arrested McNeil and charged him in connection with the assault.

"It needs to be known publicly that Jamaal was not involved in either situation on the greenway," said the April 2005 assault victim.

She said she had never identified McLeod as her attacker. Police, however, had arrested him based on other evidence.

Raleigh investigators said they arrested and charged McLeod after they had sufficient probable cause to name him as a suspect. A Raleigh police spokesman told WRAL earlier this week that police do not take into account prior arrests when they determine probable cause in a new case.

The victim of the latest attack on March 3, Jean Burke, told police that after she saw McLeod at his first court appearance that she wasn't sure they had arrested the right man.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said he may review the first case involving McLeod, but he added that McLeod's conviction still stands for right now.

"We need something from the victim," Willoughby said. "Maybe this is a wrongful conviction -- a mistake, and if it is, we'll set it aside."

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