SALT LAKE CITY - In a suicide note released online earlier this week, accused rapist Greg Peterson maintained his innocence and decried the media, district attorney and public for what he calls an "assassination" and "damage to all friends of liberty caused by the mob mentality."
Peterson was arrested in July on more than two dozen charges of rape, kidnapping and assault from at least four alleged victims. He paid a $2 million bail in late October and was found dead in his Heber cabin from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head less than four days later.
Peterson's 5-page, handwritten suicide note was released earlier this week and posted on his Facebook page by friends and family members. In it, he maintains his innocence, saying, "I never kidnapped, raped, or burglarized anyone...Lies promoted and recycled, many of them discredited already."
"I meet my Creator in a few short minutes, so I have no reason to lie...
"I'm quite comfortable returning to my Maker, as he knows that I committed no crime."
[Read the suicide note here (PDF)]
He mentions several of the alleged victims and questions their motivation for the accusations, saying, "For a green card or absolving guilt or the intense peer pressure by intermediaries, I was killed. I'm not taking my own life - but accepting the fact that I've already been killed," and "You have the blood of an innocent man on your hands."
He says, "It is wrong to criminalize religious sin of someone you don't like. It's wrong to destroy an honest life with this self-serving malice."
Peterson also notes a "one-sided and massive media campaign the D.A. engineered to help such unfounded accusations. 8th, 6th, and 5th Amendments were killed, and so was I."
Peterson finishes by saying thank you to family and friends who stood behind him after the allegations came to light. He finishes by saying, "I love you all very much, even the fair-weather friends. God bless you."
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