A third-year law student at the University of Virginia has ignited a controversy over honor on campus after admitting he filed a false complaint that charged two campus police officers targeted and harassed him based on his race. In a letter to the editor of the Virginia Law Weekly dated April 22, Johnathan Perkins, who is black, detailed a walk to his apartment during which two officers pulled him over without legitimate cause, mocked him, searched him, shoved him against the police car, and eventually followed him home.

Two weeks after publication and a subsequent police investigation, Perkins recanted.