She named Mason and. With mounting pressure from the police, she recanted her statement and said she made it all up. In 2008, an 18-year-old from Lynnwood, Washington claimed that she was raped by an intruder in the middle of the night. 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. 'Unbelievable' Detectives Botched a Girl's Rape, The 'Unbelievable' Detective Who Stopped a Rapist, Netflix's 'Unbelievable' is Based on a True Story, Toni Collettes 'Unbelievable' Role, Explained, as she's showing clear signs of someone traumatized by the assault, to follow a true story reported by ProPublica, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. The police on her case, Sgt. 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. After OLeary was caught, McQuery apologized to Adler and later told This American Life she was shocked that Adler was willing to forgive her for such a huge thing., Like Scott Lawrences effective Fed, FBI special agent Jonny Grusing was a crucial part of the task force that aided the detectives work. 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. Rittgarn wrote that, Based on her answer and body language it was apparent that D.M. It was like she was telling me that shed made a sandwich." Like Blake Elliss fictional fiend, Marc OLeary knew that police departments didnt talk to one another and that the Army had his DNA, so he meticulously cleaned his crime scenes and made his victims wash away any genetic material. Some of his computer files remain encrypted. O'Leary was convicted of five rapes, including the Lynnwood one, and is serving a 327-year sentence in a Colorado prison. The third doubter was an anonymous caller. 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. 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. was lying about the rape, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. She was charged with filing a false report and went through court-ordered counseling for lying to police. 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. Samantha Vincenty is the former senior staff writer at Oprah Daily. Marie was then charged with a gross misdemeanor for false reporting. The people interviewed for this story include Marie (in our story, we agreed to use only her middle name); Maries foster mothers Peggy Cunningham and Shannon McQuery; Maries friend Jordan Schweitzer; James Feldman, Maries public defender when she was charged with filing a false police report; H. Richmond Fisher, Maries attorney in her civil suit against Lynnwood, Washington; Golden, Colorado, police Det. returned to the police station with Cocoon House representatives and asked to withdraw the denial and insisted that she had been attacked. USMC. The bulk of time is spent with Detectives Rasmussen and Duvall, two investigators who diligently work to solve a string of rapes throughout Colorado. The people interviewed for this story include Marie (in our story, we agreed to use only her middle name); Maries foster mothers Peggy Cunningham and Shannon McQuery; Maries friend Jordan Schweitzer; James Feldman, Maries public defender when she was charged with filing a false police report; H. Richmond Fisher, Maries attorney in her civil suit against Lynnwood, Washington; Golden, Colorado, police Det. This includes publishing or syndicating our work on platforms or apps such as Apple News, Google News, etc. Rodney Cohnheim and Commander Steve Rider; and Marc OLeary, who was interviewed at the Sterling Correctional Facility in Colorado. 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. Jeffrey Mason in real life. Why didnt you write that you made the story up? Justin Kirkland is a Brooklyn-based writer who covers culture, food, and the South. Sgt. 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. The facility and two of its employees are also named in the lawsuit. Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. Sergeant Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn were the real-life investigators from the Lynnwood Police Department who took on Marie's case. 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. Thats five times the national average of 4.3 percent for agencies covering similar-sized populations during that same period.". Last week, D.M. In 2011, OLeary was caught and found with a photograph of D.M.s ID card. She's been inspiring to me.. Like her fictional counterpart, played with heartbreaking vulnerability by Kaitlyn Dever, Adler was a product of the foster-care system and had been abused. HMH 361 ComNav CH-53 Helicopters. D.M. Jerry Rittgarn Detective at Lynnwood PD Lynnwood, WA. Kristen Bell to Befriend an Unorthodox Rabbi. On Aug. 18, D.M. After the media caught wind of Marie's false report misdemeanor, that same best friend created a website devoted to eviscerating her reputation, sharing Marie's photo and full name as well as police reports that alleged she was a liar. 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. D.M. We do not generally permit translation of our stories into another language. Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn, pressed on the inconsistencies in her story. We consulted police training guidelines by various organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and End Violence Against Women International. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. 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. It wasnt her job to try to convince me, he said in 2015. We also restricted our examination to only those agencies that reported at least one rape over this timespan. Meanwhile, Peggy thought Marie seemed too upset when she called her"It sounded like a lot of drama, too, in some ways," she said. The reporting by ProPublica and The Marshall Project spanned several months and involved numerous interviews, a review of previously undisclosed law enforcement records and exchanges with experts on investigating rape. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. It went to the FBI lab [in Quantico], Galbraith told 48 Hours in 2017. In a Netflix comedy by Katharine McPhees stepdaughter. Cocoon House CEO Cassie Franklin told the Seattle Times this week: 'Our hearts go out to D.M. Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. After OLearys arrest in Colorado in February 2011, Lynnwood police Cmdr. The whole show is in a silly, goofy mood. In real life, Jerry had already left the Lynnwood Police Department before Marie's attacker was convicted, and as far as we can tell, he has declined requests to be interviewed in the time. Seattleite, (mostly) retired arts/culture blogger. The show mirrors the structure of the original article, which interweaves the two stories the same way. Jayne Tainis Doris Laird is based on the 65-year-old fraternity housemother whose teddy bear, like her fictional counterparts, yielded some DNA. They ignored all the objective evidence collected by the Lynnwood Police Department and Providence Hospital on the day of the rape, the lawsuit alleges. He said he believed she had made the story up a spur-of-the-moment thing, not something planned out. 22:39 GMT 11 Jun 2013. Though the series hews closely to a true story that may at times seem stranger than fiction, showrunner Susannah Grant decided early on to fictionalize the real-life sources because, she says, we didnt think there was any value in the actual names being broadcast as widely as Netflix has the capacity to do. Nevertheless, its natural to want to know more about the people on whom the characters are based. Maybe the rape happened and I blacked it out, Marie said. Talk to us You can tell us about news and ask us about our journalism by emailing . Steve Rider told The Herald of Everett: Suffice it to say, certain pieces of information just led investigators to the wrong conclusion., Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com, Seattle still the nations saddest large metro area, survey shows, Feds award money to study removing Highway 99 in one Seattle neighborhood, Plan to reduce homelessness in downtown Seattle picks up after slow start, Driver killed after crashing off Seattle overpass, WA's pay-per-mile tax is not the culture war we need right now, including the Lynnwood attack and the rape of a 63-year-old Kirkland woman. We have official accounts for ProPublica on. 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. We ran this calculation for all departments that met our criteria on a national level. Detective Rittgarn refused an interview with the publication. American History Has Been Whitewashed, But, Black Teen Girls On TV Are A Mess Finally, the detectives dont believe the story Marie, The Marshall Projects An Unbelievable Story of Rape. On the form she filled in her name, address and Social Security number, and then she wrote, in part: I was talking to Jordan on the phone that night about his day and just about anything. In it she claims the detectives ignored her account of events and bullied her into saying the rape never happened. Stacy Galbraith; Westminster, Colorado, Sgt. The description of his background comes from his LinkedIn profile. O'Leary, however, had taken a picture of her with a learner's permit on the woman's chest. Virtually every real-life detail of the rape and the Lynnwood police investigation plays out onscreen in Unbelievable. A computer forensics specialist looked into O'Leary's hard drive files and found a folder named "girls," which had pictures of the victims. We may earn commission from the links on this page. No, Marie told him, her voice soft, her eyes down. Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn, pressed on the inconsistencies in her story. Anyone with information is asked to call Lynnwood detective Jerry Rittgarn at 425-744-6924 or 425-744-6900. Get our investigations delivered to your inbox with the Big Story newsletter.
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