When dealing with assault victims, perpetrators, or witnesses, assume that everyone involved is lying through their tooth teeth.
Better to be pleasantly surprised that 1 in 1000 times someone tells the truth, than to be disappointed the other 999 times.
Corollary: Whenever someone prefaces a statement with, “Man, I ain’t gonna lie to you…” what follows is utter fabrication, prevarication, obfuscating, evading, fibbing, and just plain friggin’ lying.
Every time.