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According to the Madison Police Department, Kyle Wood has recanted his story about being assaulted in his home on the morning of Wednesday, October 24th. Wood had told officers and reporters (including me) that he had been strangled and beaten, and thought it was because he was a gay man working for a Republican candidate for Congress.

From the MPD press release today:

In an interview this afternoon with Madison Police detectives, the victim in this case recanted his earlier statements in regards to this crime. This crime, alleged to have occurred on High Street in the South Police District, will be cleared as "Unfounded" for case reporting purposes. Once follow up investigation is completed, MPD's case file will be reviewed with Dane County District Attorney's Office.

The story of Wood's alleged assault was first carried by The Daily Caller on Thursday of last week. Wood told me he had a friend at the online magazine, which led him to contact them first. On Friday, Wood spoke the the Wisconsin Reporter, and his story was carried by the Capital Times in Madison. The story appeared on several national websites.

When I first heard the story, I wanted to write about it, but I questioned some of the details in the original Daily Caller story. So I took down my original blog post and began making attempts to talk to Wood himself to get more details.

On Saturday afternoon, Wood and I talked for around a half hour. He was very pleasant. He sounded calm and credible, adding details to already published reports of the incident. I was always aware that there was still a question as to whether the incident actually happened, which is why I titled the post in the form of a question. But to me, his story at least seemed plausible. I wanted to give him the chance to tell it it public.

As it turns out, my original skepticism was well-founded. It is still unclear as to how much of Wood's story took place, if any at all. He clung to his story until today at 3:52, when I received an e-mail from him verifying a detail in my blog post about him. At that point, he said he would no longer be speaking to the media. Presumably, he recanted his story to the police shortly thereafter.

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