× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Johnathan Perkins says he feels like the boy who cried wolf.

When he accused two University of Virginia police officers of racially profiling him in 2011, the community was outraged. But then he suddenly recanted his story and was branded a liar.

Now, the UVa School of Law graduate says he was pressured to bury the truth.

Perkins was walking home late in the evening on March 31, 2011, near the Corner when, he said, a UVa police car pulled up next to him. Two officers, who were both white, stepped out of the cruiser and stopped Perkins, who is black, and asked him for identification before searching his person. The officers told him he fit the description of a suspect they were trying to find.

“After they decided I wasn’t the person — if he ever existed — they said I could leave,” Perkins said in an interview.

Neither officer would give him their name or badge number, Perkins said, adding that they followed him to his apartment on Wertland Street before driving away.