Of course, they weren't the only factors: The case wasnt helped by the fact that Maries foster mothers called to tell the police they also believed Marie was lying about the rape. But most recent research suggests that false reporting is relatively rare. Join Facebook to connect with Jerry Rittgarn and others you may know. But most recent research suggests that false reporting is relatively rare. Jeff Mason didnt believe her. If anyone is at all (still) curious as to why so many sexual assaults go unreported, this should be exhibit A. I have watched videos of police officers planting evidence on innocent people that are less infuriating. After the attack, she says she was forced to stand up in front of a group of teens at a Cocoon House-run program and confess that she'd lied about the rape, something which resulted in her having to see a councilor. Rittgarn told Marie that her story and the evidence didnt match. Elsewhere in the country, two other female detectives are also tracking an influx of rapes and are working together to try and catch the guy, who ends up being the same one who harmed Marie. 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. When Mason, accompanied by Detective (Jerry) Rittgarn, went to pick up Marie at about 3:30 p.m., they found her outside her apartment, sitting on the grass. Rittgarn asked Marie. Their suspicions were based on comments from three people who said that they doubted her story, according to the suit. The current commander of Lynnwoods Criminal Investigations Division, Steve Rider, told The Marshall Project that the handling of this case was a major failing and believes Marie was victimized twice once by her assailant and another by the police station she believed she could trust. Thats five times the national average of 4.3 percent for agencies covering similar-sized populations during that same period.". Galbraith had admired her new partner, Edna Hendershot, from a distance ever since their paths crossed at a police briefing for a big drug bust Hendershot had taken part in. That year, she reported being bound, gagged, and raped by a man who broke into her home. FBI figures show that police annually declare around 5 percent of rape cases unfounded, or baseless. With mounting pressure from the police, she recanted her statement and said she made it . It was like she was telling me that shed made a sandwich." As in the series, Michael OLeary was mistaken for his similar-looking older brother because the cops didnt know they lived together. Netflix The detectives who disbelieved Marie and coerced her into recanting her story also faced fairly minimal repercussions in real life. As portrayed in Unbelievable, Marie settled a lawsuit with Lynnwood after they tried to give her a measly $500 reimbursement of the court fees for her false reporting misdemeanor. Kristen Bell to Befriend an Unorthodox Rabbi. Everything You Never Thought to Ask About In-flight Entertainment, Warner Bros. Discoverys licensing chief on how movies and TV get on planes, editing decisions, and the curious case of. Today, Rittgarn is retired from the force and working as a private investigator. Lets Do the Thing: How Online Were You in February 2023? He told me that based on subsequent interviews and inconsistencies with D.M., her foster mother, and her friendwho [sic] she had talked with on the phone prior to the report, he believed and others believed that D.M. Jayne Tainis Doris Laird is based on the 65-year-old fraternity housemother whose teddy bear, like her fictional counterparts, yielded some DNA. A Full Recap of the Infuriating True Story Behind Netflix's New Miniseries, Unbelievable. 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. 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. was also taken to the emergency room at Providence Hospital in Everett, where a doctor made notes of rape trauma. Last week, D.M. The Lynnwood detectives, Pruitt and Parker, are Jerry Rittgarn and Sgt. The victim, who now lives in Wyoming, and her lawyer also declined to comment to the Seattle Times. 2023 Cox Media Group. We received thousands of pages of documents through public-records requests filed with the following agencies: the police departments in Lynnwood and Kirkland, Washington; the police departments in Golden, Westminster, Aurora and Lakewood, Colorado; and the prosecuting attorneys offices in Snohomish County, Washington, King County, Washington, and Jefferson County, Colorado. Galbraith connected with Hendershot, who had worked on a rape case of a 59-year-old widow months before in Westminster. Years later, an external review characterized the police interrogations of her as bullying and coercive with minor inconsistencies in her statements misjudged and strong evidence ignored. 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. Unlike her avatar, she left her Costco job handing out food samples days after her 2008 rape. While the other survivors of Marc OLearys crimes have been anonymized in Unbelievable, their experiences also reflect the true stories that allowed the detectives to connect their cases. Rodney Cohnheim and Commander Steve Rider; and Marc OLeary, who was interviewed at the Sterling Correctional Facility in Colorado. He had only investigated one rape before working with Marie. Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: As part of your account, youll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime. 2 yr. ago The LinkedIn profile looked abandoned to me, but he does show up on other sites. 's photograph and ID card in his wallet. View the profiles of people named Jerry Rittgarn. Former Lynnwood police Det. The police on her case, Sgt. As Chris says in the finale, had Adlers case been better investigated, police would likely have caught the rapist sooner. Social scientists examining police records in detail and using methodologically rigorous standards cite similar, single-digit rates. From research and studies summarized in a Department of Justice-funded study, Policing and Prosecuting Sexual Assault in Los Angeles City and County, 2012 by Cassia Spohn and Katharine Tellis and from an analysis by ProPublica and The Marshall Project of FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program data, 2008-2012. Without reading Marie her rights you have the right to an attorney, you have the right to remain silent the detectives asked Marie to write out the true story, admitting she had lied, admitting, in effect, that she had committed a crime. He Fought Back, Exposing the Insurers Inner Workings. The real woman known as Marie in the original articleMarie is her middle namereported her rape to Lynnwood, Washington police on August 11, 2008. From the crime scene, they identified muddy track marks that came from Adidas ZX 700 mesh shoes. The eight-episode series works on two different timelines. For more stories like this, sign up for our newsletter. The journalists who wrote it, T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, were separately working on the story for their respective outlets when they decided to collaborate on one long piece. According to ProPublica's article, an internal review found that from 2008 to 2012, "10 of 47 rapes reported to Lynnwood police were unfounded21.3 percent. She requested and received a personal apology from lead detective Jeffrey Mason. You cant republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually. filed a federal civil rights suit against the city of Lynnwood, Rittgarn, Mason and Lynnwood Police Chief Steven Jensen. The rapist, Marc O'Leary, is. The woman claims she signed that statement under duress after having been questioned for hours without an attorney. 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. University of . In a testament to her resilience, Marie's carved out a life for herself far from Lynnwood. 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. When I went to sleep I dreamed that someone broke in and raped me. When she wouldn't, they pressured her further until she ultimately reneged on her confession. After the man left, Marie maneuvered a drawer open with her feet, cut herself free with scissors, and called for help. No matter what, you can always turn to The Marshall Project as a source of trustworthy journalism about the criminal justice system. For more information about canonical metadata, You cant edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. 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. She is charged with false reporting, ostracized from friends and family, and made a pariah by local media. When Marie's rapist was caught, Detective Rittgarn had already left the Lynnwood police department. Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. A Washington state woman who was a victim of a serial sex offender is suing police after they allegedly discounted her story, ignored evidence proving she was raped and then slapped her with a $500 fine for making a false statement. Neither officer faced any disciplinary action for the botched investigation. An 18 year old girl reported a brutal assault. With mounting pressure from the police, she recanted her statement and said she made. Among the items Colorado detectives found in OLearys possession were photographs of the woman and her ID card. From there, the show continues to follow a true story reported by ProPublica. After collecting sufficient evidence, detectives eventually arrested Marc O'Leary, a former Marine. The victim was too attacked by a man in a black mask who took her pink camera to shoot pictures of her before forcing her to shower. Jeff Mason didn't believe her. If you havent read it yet, I recommend reading the whole thing soon. .css-ssumvd{display:block;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.0625rem;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.25;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-ssumvd:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-ssumvd{letter-spacing:0rem;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}Gayle Says March Is a Good Month for TV Lovers, Sheryl Lee Ralphs Definition of True Love, What We Know About The Little Mermaid Remake, Oprah Congratulates Kimmel on 20 Years of His Show, Nikole Hannah-Jones on "The 1619 Project", Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Wakanda Forever Podcast, Oprah Is Acting in Tyler Perrys Next Netflix Film, Gayle Wears the Same Dress on CBS 11 Years Later. Donations from readers like you are essential to sustaining this work. But nope. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. Los Angeles County said all litigation over the crash has now been resolved. with a butcher knife, bound her wrists with a shoe string he had removed from her shoes, stuffed a pair of underwear in her mouth as a gag, blindfolded her, and took photographs of her, according to the lawsuit she filed. Violating her rights, Rittgarn and Mason told Marie to write out what "really" happened. Its okay to put our stories on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. The police on her case, Sgt. Like the real college student whose rape brought Galbraith to Hendershots door, Danielle Macdonalds Amber Stevenson remembers important details: the rapist using a pink Sony camera that had been stolen from Hendershots 59-year-old victim (Vanessa Bell Calloways Sarah) and an egg-shaped birthmark on the attackers calf. Enter detectives Stacy Galbraith from Denver and Edna Hendershot from Westminster. Some of his computer files remain encrypted. Looking into similar crimes, the women discovered a case in Lakewood, another Denver suburb, where a masked man attacked and bound a woman at knifepoint in her home. We may earn a commission from these links. If you share republished stories on social media, wed appreciate being tagged in your posts. She says the officers bullied her for hours, without a lawyer present, into recanting her account and, when she later tried to insist the rape did take place, she was charged $500 for false reporting. Based on the story of a teenager whose rape was discounted by the male detectives investigating her case, the show also concentrates on the female detectives who, years later, connected her assault to a serial rapist they had caught. 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. All Rights Reserved. The detectives saw the scene, said Yvonne Ward, one of the victims attorneys. called a neighbor, who called police. Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn. The trucks license plate led to OLeary. Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. (Jeff) Mason concerning his follow-up case. The records obtained through these requests included investigative reports filed by detectives in Lynnwood and elsewhere; crime-scene photos and surveillance footage collected by the various law-enforcement agencies; the two case reviews of how the Lynnwood police handled the investigation of Maries rape report; and video of Marc OLeary being interviewed by police after his arrest in Colorado. In it, a young woman named Marie (played by Booksmart's Kaitlyn Dever) tells police she's been the victim of rape by a masked stranger who broke into her home. returned to the police station with Cocoon House representatives and asked to withdraw the denial and insisted that she had been attacked. Claiming police coerced her into recanting her story, the woman was charged with false reporting and fined $500 when she later tried to insist the rape did happen. Netflixs latest true-crime series, Unbelievable, follows a group of detectives who try to get to the bottom of a string of rapes in the mid and northwest, along with figuring out if one girl whos reported a rape is telling the truth or not. He told This American Life that learning he'd been mistaken "was so shocking that this has been the one thing where I seriously step back and question if I should continue doing what I'm doing." When Marie's rapist was caught, Detective Rittgarn had already left the Lynnwood police department. Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. , updated She took a plea deal where she received supervised probation, paid $500 for court costs, and attended mental health counseling. KIRO 7 News Seattle facebook feed(Opens a new window), KIRO 7 News Seattle twitter feed(Opens a new window), KIRO 7 News Seattle youtube feed(Opens a new window), Woman loses $29K after being targeted by banking scam with victims in 9 states, Driver killed after car goes off overpass in Georgetown, Tacoma police looking for two alleged retail thieves, Man caught with nearly $3K in stolen fragrance, allegedly planned to trade for fentanyl pills, Cheerleader performs solo after team quits before state championships. 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. Unbelievable will, suffice to say, shock you. Tearfully, she described her past all the foster parents, being raped when she was 7, getting her own place and feeling alone. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. I wrote about it last year here. This includes publishing or syndicating our work on platforms or apps such as Apple News, Google News, etc. Anyone with information is asked to call Lynnwood detective Jerry Rittgarn at 425-744-6924 or 425-744-6900. You do a full investigation. What do you think should happen to someone who would lie about something like this? Along with Esquire, his work has appeared in NYLON, Vulture, and USA Today. However, based on those statements, Professionalism, vigilance, community, my ass. She was 18 at the time. She got married and has two kids, and they live "somewhere in the middle of the country" as of 2018. Sgt. 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. Covering Rammsteins Du Hast in Berlin. According to police reports and statements filed with the lawsuit, D.M. To calculate the rate, we summed the number of unfounded rapes and divided it by the number of reported rapes. Also named in the suit are Rittgarn, Mason and Lynnwood Police Chief Steven J. Jensen. After I got off the phone with him, I started thinking about all things I was stressed out and I also was scared living on my own. T. Christian Miller is a senior editor for ProPublica. Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. From what Mason wrote up later, he wasted little time confronting Marie, telling her there were inconsistencies between her statements and accounts from other witnesses. Rittgarn, Mason and Lynnwood police Chief Steven J. Jensen a man who broke into her home are! 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