To calculate the rate, we summed the number of unfounded rapes and divided it by the number of reported rapes. Busy Phillips Is Not Like a Regular Mom, Shes a Cool Mom, Theres nothing wrong with Busy Phillips being cast as Mrs. George in the upcoming, In Search of Tom and Katies Bubba Painting, Maybe punting on the larger plot can be forgiven if we get a sweet. Unbelievable will, suffice to say, shock you. But she'd stayed in touch with two of her former foster mothers, Peggy Cunningham and Shannon McQuery, and had finally found hope for some permanence with an apartment and life of her own through a transitional program called Project Ladder. In 2011, Galbraith worked on a Denver case where a young woman living alone was sexually assaulted by a man in a black mask who documented the rape with a digital camera. After OLearys arrest, the city returned the fine and the court struck the case from its files. The woman, identified only as D.M., was gagged, bound and sexually assaulted in her Lynnwood, Washington, home by Marc O'Leary in 2008, Claims detectives Jerry Rittgarn and Sergeant Jeff Mason discounted her story and ignored evidence including doctors reports and DNA samples, She was later fined $500 when she again insisted the rape did take place, Case was reopened two years ago when O'Leary was found with her ID, He was later convicted of a string of rapes and is serving a 327-year sentence in a Colorado prison. HMH 361 ComNav CH-53 Helicopters. Last week, D.M. "Based on her answers and body language it was apparent that [Marie] was lying about the rape," he wrote in a report. The show mirrors the structure of the original article, which interweaves the two stories the same way. Though she found it hard to watch, she said the series was excellent and even encouraged both of her foster moms, with whom shes still in touch, to watch it. She agreed, so they left her alone for a few minutes. The national average for "unfounded" cases is around five percent. Galbraith first learned of Hendershot's similar case through her police officer husband (just as Duvall, Merritt Wever's character, did). A Lynnwood woman was raped, only for police to call her a liar. By Miller and Armstrong used previously unreleased police records and their own interviews with all of the principle people involved to unfurl the complicated chain events, ProPublica explains. He said he believed she had made the story up a spur-of-the-moment thing, not something planned out. When her counselors at Project Ladder marched her back to the station upon hearing her account of what happened, Rittgarn told Marie that if she took a lie detector test and failed, she'd go to jail and probably lose her housing. Well never put our work behind a paywall, and well never put a limit on the number of articles you can read. I wrote about it last year here. From the crime scene, they identified muddy track marks that came from Adidas ZX 700 mesh shoes. Jeffrey Mason and Detective Jerry Rittgarn, and this is what happened to them after incorrectly seeking a false confession from Marie. He Fought Back, Exposing the Insurers Inner Workings. The description of his background comes from his LinkedIn profile. Pruitt and Eric Lange played Det. She eventually left Washington, now working as a long-haul truck driver and married with two children. But most recent research suggests that false reporting is relatively rare. Jeff Mason didn't believe her. One thing that's left out of the series is the fact that Marie also settled for a undisclosed amount with Cocoon House, the nonprofit that ran the Project Ladder housing where she was raped. He told police that hed fantasized about rape since he was a kid and that his assaults were a type of rape theater inspired by the Star Wars scene in which Jabba the Hutt chains up Princess Leia. Our editors handpick the products that we feature. The description of his background comes from his LinkedIn profile. The eight-episode series works on two different timelines. We went to the ocean, it was like 7 oclock at night, I dont know what we were thinking, I got in there and I jumped out and swung my hair back.". In a testament to her resilience, Marie's carved out a life for herself far from Lynnwood. Jensen refused to comment to the newspaper because of the litigation and Rittgarn, who has since left the Lynnwood Police Department and now lives in San Diego, said he was unaware of the lawsuit and couldn't remember the case. After the man left, Marie maneuvered a drawer open with her feet, cut herself free with scissors, and called for help. Rasmussen and Duvall catch the serial rapist, and Marie's original report is proved to have been true. was living in a small Cocoon House-sponsored apartment after having spent her youth moving among as many as 20 foster homes. According to the Seattle Times, two-and-a-half years later Lynnwood police reopened the investigation, after Marc O'Leary, a man wanted for a string of sex attacks in Washington state and Colorado, was found to have D.M. As Marie told Sergeant Jerry Mason and Detective Jerry Rittgarn, she'd fallen asleep after a late-night phone chat with her friend Jordan, an ex. She named Mason and. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. To calculate the rate, we summed the number of unfounded rapes and divided it by the number of reported rapes. was lying about the rape, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. When the woman reported the attack to Lynnwood police, she says detectives Jerry Rittgarn and Sgt. In this report a sex crimes supervisor noted that Marie's situation was nothing short of the victim being coerced into admitting that she lied about the rape. The investigation concluded that bullying and hounding led to Marie's admittance of false reporting. Unlike her avatar, she left her Costco job handing out food samples days after her 2008 rape. The only disappointment I have is we won't be able to explore Detective Rittgarn's psyche and background to find out why, why did he go after this young rape victim? Ward said. These female detectives (whose names are changed to Grace Rasmussen and Karen Duvall, played by Toni Collette and Merritt Weaver, in the Netflix series) actually do their job, and work to uncover the truth behind the rapes. on the phone that night, before the alleged attack. Other reporting included pulling transcripts of television news coverage from when Marie was raped and later charged; having court transcripts prepared from when OLeary was sentenced in Colorado; reviewing grant documents for Project Ladder; and mining the criminal-justice literature for expert views on how rape investigations should be conducted. The parallels between Elizabeth Marvels well-meaning foster mom Judith and Adlers real-life foster parent Peggy Cunningham are undeniable. Hendershot is now a sergeant in the Westminster Police Department. The events of Unbelievableand what Marie went through, in particularare jaw-dropping, and they're all based on a true story. VIDEO: Rape victim was called a liar by police. You cant state or imply that donations to your organization support ProPublicas work. In 2016, she told This American Life that she regretted talking to the cops but still believed Marie need[ed] to take responsibility for her actions. Jeff Mason didn't believe her. To determine the rate of rape crimes declared unfounded, or groundless, by law enforcement agencies, we analyzed Uniform Crime Reporting data collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. O'Leary was convicted of five rapes, including the Lynnwood one, and is serving a 327-year sentence in a Colorado prison. Trevor Materasso; Lakewood, Colorado, police detective Aaron Hassell; Kirkland, Washington, police officer Audra Weber; Lynnwood police Sgt. But like her fictional counterpart, the real officer was more seasoned than Galbraith, having investigated more than 100 rapes by the time the two partnered up. He tied her hands behind her back with a lace from her tennis shoe, blindfolded her and gagged her. Knowing all of this including the fact that Marie was telling the truth youd tend to think both of these detectives would be suffer some consequence for the whole ordeal. D.M., who now lives in Wyoming, declined to comment for this story, said her attorney, H. Richmond Fisher. Here is the harrowing story behind the series that you need to know. While neither Wever nor Collette ever met the detectives, Collette tells OprahMag.com that she learned Hendershot requested her character be portrayed as "badass and bitchin'." There is no law against this particular miscarriage of justice. Netflix The detectives who disbelieved Marie and coerced her into recanting her story also faced fairly minimal repercussions in real life. Join Facebook to connect with Jerry Rittgarn and others you may know. At the hospital, a doctor noted injuries to both her wrists and abrasions on her genitals. Between one-fourth to two-thirds of rapists are serial attackers, studies show. From JAMA Pediatrics, December 2015 and Violence and Victims, Vol 17, 2002 by David Lisak and Paul M. Miller. According to an outside review of the investigation after Marie was cleared of her false report misdemeanor, "the manner in which she was treated by Sergeant Mason and Detective Rittgarn can only be labeled as bullying and coercive." Why didnt you write that you made the story up? Like her fictional counterpart, played with heartbreaking vulnerability by Kaitlyn Dever, Adler was a product of the foster-care system and had been abused. We also restricted our examination to only those agencies that reported at least one rape over this timespan. She's soon accused of making it all up, and is subsequently punished for the "lie" again and again. It wasnt her job to try to convince me, he said in 2015. For more information about canonical metadata, You cant edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. As The Marshall Project article specifies, Manson (who was the lead investigator), had previously only worked on patrol and in narcotics, but had recently been promoted and transferred to the Criminal Investigations Division and had been in the position for only six weeks when Maries rape happened. Miller and Armstrong write, "They didn't talk for long, fifteen minutes maybe, but all Marie wanted, all she really needed, was to tell Galbraith how much her work had meant.". His LinkedIn page indicates he works for a private investigation firm in San Diego. The two detectives played by Merritt Wever and Toni Collette are measured and thoughtful with victims, yet dogged and stern in their pursuit of justice. Rapes by strangers were uncommon maybe about 13 percent of cases. From the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 2011, Only about one-fifth to one-third of rapes get reported to police, national surveys show. From National Crime and Victimization Survey, 2014 and National Violence Against Women Survey, 2006. Rittgarn told her that if she was lying she would go to jail and that he would not recommend Cocoon House keep her, the suit alleges. 2 yr. ago The LinkedIn profile looked abandoned to me, but he does show up on other sites. The whole show is in a silly, goofy mood. She walked away with $150,000, according to the Seattle Times. When I went to sleep I dreamed that someone broke in and raped me. Get our investigations delivered to your inbox with the Big Story newsletter. We examined five years of the "Offenses Known and Cleared by Arrest" data to smooth yearly fluctuations common in crime reporting. We reviewed Maries civil suit against Lynnwood, which included such legal exhibits as the medical report from the day she reported being raped and case notes from Project Ladder, the transitional housing program to which she belonged. We ran this calculation for all departments that met our criteria on a national level. Rittgarn asked. This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. Mason moved to his post working on narcotics cases. Marie said she didnt know of any discrepancies. In hindsight, it was my job to get to the bottom of itand I didnt." Detective Jerry Rittgarn, who declined to be interviewed for the original news story, said he'd talk for the book "only under monetary compensation contract" a quid pro quo the authors. After OLearys arrest in Colorado in February 2011, Lynnwood police Cmdr. Neither officer faced any disciplinary action for the botched investigation. In Marie's case, neither of her foster moms thought she was behaving like it really happened, for different reasons: Shannon decided Marie didn't seem sad enough just hours after the crime, telling ProPublica, "There was just no emotion. None of the evidence police collected linked him to his brothers rapes. The True Story Behind Netflix's Unbelievable, Beanie Feldstein & Kaitlyn Dever Talk 'Booksmart', 9 Books That Tackle Sexual Assault Head on, The Obamas First Netflix Project Is About Trump, Gayle Says March Is a Good Month for TV Lovers, A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. The character of Detective Pruitt (played by Bill Fagerbakke) is loosely based on Jerry Rittgarn, who was the one who first blatantly told Marie he didn't believe her story. In the vein of fellow Netflix projects such as Mindhunter and When They See Us, the miniseries explores true crime through the failures of the criminal justice system. D.M. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. LYNNWOOD, Wash. The city of Lynnwood will pay $150,000 in a settlement with a rape victim, after Lynnwood police claimed she lied about the attack in 2008. View Jerry Rittgarn's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. The rapist, Marc O'Leary, is. Parker. The opening episode of Netflix's new series Unbelievable is difficult to watch. Grusing was the only officer to interview the serial rapist, perhaps because, as Taggart says to Karen and Grace about Chris in episode eight, women make him uncomfortable., Eric Langes detached Detective Parker is a surrogate for Sergeant Jeffrey Mason, who spent the bulk of his career on patrol and in narcotics and had little rape-investigation experience when he became the lead on Adlers case. It follows the initial investigation into a the assault of a young woman named Marie. She spoke to a friend on the phone for several hours early Aug. 11, 2008, finally going to bed around 5:30 a.m. She said she left the sliding-glass patio door ajar. had been arguing, and the other a friend who had spoken to D.M. The victim, who now lives in Wyoming, and her lawyer also declined to comment to the Seattle Times. Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. Detective Rittgarn refused an interview with the publication. After claiming police coerced her into recanting her story,. Former Lynnwood police Det. We have official accounts for ProPublica on. According to the ProPublica article, after Marie's rapist was apprehended, the Lynnwood. "I would spend hours at the beach watching the sunset go down and that was one of my favorite things," she said. You are are free to republish it so long as you do the following: Copy and paste the following into your page to republish: International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, Policing and Prosecuting Sexual Assault in Los Angeles City and County, How the Wealthy Save Billions in Taxes by Skirting a Century-Old Law. But, as they continuously press the young woman to repeatedly tell her story.css-umdwtv{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#FF3A30;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:background 0.4s;transition:background 0.4s;background:linear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webkit-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}.css-umdwtv:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-position:100% 100%;background-position:100% 100%;}as she's showing clear signs of someone traumatized by the assaultthe detectives grow suspicious and eventually coerce a false confession out of her that she made up the assault. When the woman reported the attack to Lynnwood police, she says detectives Jerry Rittgarn and Sgt. Please contact. After the Lynnwood, Washington, police coerced her recantation and charged her with a gross misdemeanor, Adler took a plea deal and paid a $500 fine.
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