An Unbelievable Rape Story

[alh]

An 18-year-old said she was attacked at knifepoint. Then she said she made it up. That’s where our story begins.

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/12/16/an-unbelievable-story-of-rape?ref=hp-1-100#.kHRuTaHLT

[jazzymom]

Fascinating. I see a Law and Order episode coming.

[rhandco]

So people lie about crimes. They get caught in the lie and punished hopefully. What is the lesson?

[alh]

rhandco: Maybe you didn’t have time to read the article in the OP. Here is another one.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/lynnwood-to-pay-rape-victim-150000-in-false-claim-suit/

[BunsenBurner]

Lynnwood Police… that explains a lot.

[anomander]

“So people lie about crimes. They get caught in the lie and punished hopefully. What is the lesson?”

Sounds like you didn’t actually read the story before commenting.

The rape victim was harassed by police into recanting her story and saying she made it up. And she was actually charged, tried, and convicted for a misdemeanor for it. Then they later caught the serial rapist who had pictures of the rape of that same victim proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that it happened.

[alh]

To be fair, I almost read only the headline myself. It’s tricky, probably on purpose and to be deliberately thought provoking. Since media spin and control of narrative has been on my mind lately, I found this very interesting on many levels.

Also, there has been discussion here about false rape reports And lots of advice to women they really need to be reporting to police. So this was interesting in that context as well. imo

[garland]

I’m literally shaking from reading that article. Horrifying what that young woman was put through. By everyone.

[socalmom23]

Thank you for posting, alh. $150k seems an absurdly low settlement for Marie.

[WasatchWriter]

What bothers me most is that the story says guidelines for working with victims already existed at the time of Marie’s assault. Yet this police department did not use them. I wonder how many police departments continue to not use them.

[jonri]

A big part of the story is who the victim was–an 18 year old who had recently left the foster care system. Met bio father once. Mom left with her in the care of a string of boyfriends who sexually abused her. Put her into foster care when she was 6 or 7. Cops were only too willing to think a kid like that would make something up to get attention.

[Madison85]

Wow!

I agree $150k seems too low.

I wonder if later victims could sue - if the rapist had been found sooner some women wouldn’t have become victims.

[jonri]

Well…according to the link in post #3 she also got a settlement from the youth organization where she was living when she was raped.

D.M.
also reached a settlement with Cocoon House, a private, nonprofit at-risk-youth program where she was living when the assault occurred. Records show the woman — who was 18 at the time of the attack — was threatened with eviction unless she underwent counseling and stood in front of other program participants to say she had lied about being raped, according to court documents.

Details of that settlement are confidential, according to the woman’s lawyers.

[alh]

Except for the fact there were photos, including her ID, would this ever have come to light? And while I recognize some women sometimes lie, is anyone besides me wondering about some other false rape reports after reading this?

But then Galbraith stumbled across an image of a woman she didn’t recognize. It was a young woman — far younger than the Colorado victims, perhaps a teenager. The pictures showed her looking terrified, bound and gagged on a bed. Galbraith felt sick. How would she identify her? How would she find justice for her?

After looking through the images, she found an answer. It was a picture of the woman’s learner’s permit, placed on her chest. It had her name. And it had her address.

Without the ID, I wonder what would have happened. Would she have been identified?

[Madison85]

I wonder if all pictured victims have been identified.

[alh]

All these efforts to push the myth that false rape reports are common clearly paid off, as Marie’s disturbing story shows. And not just with this one victim who was strong-armed into “admitting” she lied when she did not. “In the five years from 2008 to 2012, the department determined that 10 of 47 rapes reported to Lynnwood police were unfounded — 21.3 percent,” Miller and Armstrong write. “That’s five times the national average of 4.3 percent for agencies covering similar-sized populations during that same period.” How many other victims are out there, branded as liars, just because the cops would rather believe that women are hysterical rather than that rape is a crime that happens as much as it does?

Somehow I fear that this story, which has a real victim and real consequences, will not get nearly as much national attention as was paid to the story of the Rolling Stone getting snookered by a fabulist at UVA. The very real struggles that rape victims have being believed isn’t as enticing a story as the baseless fears so many men have about false accusations. Like the police who ganged up on Marie, it is still easier for many of us to believe that women make all this up rather than this is a thing that is actually happening.

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/16/they_charged_a_rape_victim_for_lying_chilling_case_deserves_same_attention_as_rolling_stone_scandal/

[Magnetron]

I’m always surprised by people’s reactions when they have screwed up royally.

“We strongly believe that Cocoon House and its employees acted appropriately on behalf of the client.”

“an unfortunate situation for everyone involved.”

Public shaming of a rape victim is not acting appropriately. In case they forget, nobody at Lynnwood Police was even reprimanded. The rape and the “second victimization” at the hands of the police are not “unfortunate” for the victim; it is something much worse. Maybe unfortunate for Lynnwood, stuck with Grade One a-holes for police.

[dadoftwingirls]

I wonder if the Lynnwood police had found this guy and the photos, would this story have come out as they had enough evidence to prosecute for the current crimes and not have to bring up the DM case.

[rumrunner]

daughter’s college sent out a notice that off campus parties have been targeting students with date rape drugs and committing sex assaults and how to avoid becoming a victim. I wold love 5 minutes with those who threw these house parties.good grief it was so easy to have sex when I was in college, who in their right mind would have to resort to this?

[lookingforward]

Stunned a children’s advocate would feel empowered to raise doubts, one day later. One day.