Yep. A good friend of mine nearly had his life ruined the same way. He was 24 or 25 at the time, at a party where supposedly everyone was invited and all in the same age range. Beer was flowing freely, as well as a little pot and some whiskey. Some of the people came in groups so not everyone knew everyone else directly.
This was a college town, parties were pretty common. If you saw one going on, and acted like you knew someone, you could walk right in and start drinking, no one would ever realize you were crashing.
Somehow this 16 year old girl gets in there, looks nothing like 16. Even sober I'd have never believed she was 16, looking at her later. She starts dancing with this friend of mine, before you know it they are in the back room. Nothing was said about age, he just assumed she was old enough if she was at the party. She certainly had no hesitation about participating in any of the "activities". Girl gets home later that night, sobers up a little, realizes no one used any protection and she starts to panic. Still confused by whatever was in her system and her fear of the unknown, she goes crying to her parents and says she was raped at a party.
My buddy gets arrested. He's looking at a lifetime of being labelled, losing his guns, probably losing custody of his daughter, spending time in jail ........
Finally the girl comes clean and admits she wasnt raped. Her parents are upset and drop the charges, but the state decides to charge him anyway with statutory rape. 6 months later, after all the worrying and headaches, the judge throws the case out and tells the State's Attorney where he can stick that load of crap. So lucky he didnt get a different judge, got one with some sense.
No, its not the same thing.
