Featured Image Credit: CBS
Topics: Film and TV
Gerrard Kaonga
Warning: This article contains discussion of rape which some readers may find distressing.
A man who had spent 14 years in prison met the woman who wrongly accused him of rape in back in the 90s.
Loretta Zilinger was 15 years old when she was attacked while on her way to class.
She claimed that in Chicago in October 1994 a tall man attacked her, hauled her into an empty building and threatened to kill her. He then began to commit sex acts on her.
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Throughout the horrifying ordeal, Zillinger kept her eyes open and used her hands to touch his face in order to remember him.
She provided a description to authorities of her attacker and the sketch was released to the public.
This resulted in a tip to authorities that a person allegedly matching the description worked at a local meat market.
When police took Zilinger to the meat market she identified Dean Cage as the attacker. The then-26-year-old protested that he was innocent but was subsequently arrested.
Cage was sentenced to 40 years in jail in 1996.
During his imprisonment, he had made four appeals but eventually won his freedom after a sample of the assailant's saliva, retrieved from the victim's body in 1994, was the proof that he did not commit the crime.
The DNA test that exonerated him was not available at the time of the trial.
Cage was released from jail in May 2008 and reunited with his family.
In November the following year, Zilinger met with Dr. Phil and agreed to go his the show.
The episode has recently resurfaced on social media after a snippet was uploaded to the show’s YouTube page in July.
During the taping, Dr. Phil, a psychologist, explained the DNA tests to her and explained that Cage was not the man responsible for her attack.
Eventually Zilinger agreed to meeting with Cage and the moment they came face-to-face was aired on the show.
Despite everything, Cage was contrite, saying: “I just hate that you had to go through something like this.”
Speaking directly to Cage, while often trailing off in tears, Zilinger said she was sorry.
She added: “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wanted to tell the truth. I’m so sorry.”
Cage, holding back tears himself, reiterated how much he hated the experience Zilinger had to go through.
He continued: “I hate that, now that you have children, that your kids had to go through something like that. And I hope and pray each day that you can get closure. And this day, I accept your apologies.”
Cage subsequently filed a lawsuit for his wrongful conviction which resulted in a $6,875,000 payment to himself as well as $750,000 in attorney fees from the City of Chicago.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org.