Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn, pressed on the inconsistencies in her story. 22:32 GMT 11 Jun 2013 In January 2011, rapist Marc OLeary was apprehended, and the head of the criminal-investigations division showed up at Adlers door to tell her that her photo had been found among his things. Professionalism, vigilance, community, my ass. Unbelievable's parallel cases demonstrate how there's no one way all real rape survivors react to what's happened to them (since, you know, no two people are exactly alike). She took a plea deal where she received supervised probation, paid $500 for court costs, and attended mental health counseling. 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. Also named in the suit are Rittgarn, Mason and Lynnwood Police Chief Steven J. Jensen. D.M.s lawsuit also names as defendants the agency that runs the program, With mounting pressure from the police, she recanted her statement and said she made it all up. 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, 20082012. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. Jeffrey Mason, Sgt. Our editors handpick the products that we feature. You cant use our work to populate a website designed to improve rankings on search engines or solely to gain revenue from network-based advertisements. We have official accounts for ProPublica on. He said he believed she had made the story up a spur-of-the-moment thing, not something planned out. When I went to sleep I dreamed that someone broke in and raped me. 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. The real Marie sued the Lynnwood Police Department, according to the Seattle Times; she claimed the officers had disregarded evidence and bullied her into recanting. Things you buy through our links may earnNew Yorka commission. But even before it received the Netflix treatment, the narrative emerged from "An Unbelievable Story of Rape," a seminal piece of reporting from The Marshall Project and ProPublica that earned writers Ken Armstrong and T. Christian Miller the Pulitzer Prize. was lying about the rape, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. 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. The woman, identified only as 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. 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.". She has a fianc and she's looking forward to a fabulous life. was also taken to the emergency room at Providence Hospital in Everett, where a doctor made notes of rape trauma. 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. Can we count on your support today? As with Merritt Wevers compassionate detective, it was a fluke that Galbraiths police-officer husband, David not the karaoke-singing Max the Knife remembered that his Colorado department had seen a similar rape in which the attacker had made his victim shower and scrupulously cleaned her. We may earn a commission from these links. Jeffrey Mason, the Lynnwood officer heading up Marie's rape investigation (and subsequently charged her for a false report) was transferred to his department from a narcotics task force just six weeks before the call came from Marie. Lynnwood, Washington No one came to court with her that day, except her public defender. Jensen, the Lynnwood police chief, said he could not comment because of the litigation. Galbraith first learned of Hendershot's similar case through her police officer husband (just as Duvall, Merritt Wever's character, did). What do you think should happen to someone who would lie about something like this? Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. "I would spend hours at the beach watching the sunset go down and that was one of my favorite things," she said. The Lynnwood police told her the news, giving her an envelope on counseling for rape victims. OLeary was convicted of three rapes in Colorado and two in Washington, including the Lynnwood attack and the rape of a 63-year-old Kirkland woman, and is serving a 327-year sentence in a Colorado prison. Unbelievable will debut on Netflix on Sept. 13. And even if you decide there's not enough evidence to convict, you don't go after an alleged rape victim, Ward said. Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. with loss of housing benefits and made her tell other program participants that she lied. 2015 Pulitzer Prizewinning ProPublica/Marshall Project story, she sued and settled with the city for $150,000, tweeted some of her thoughts about the show, the book-length follow-up to their original reporting, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. The victim of the Lynnwood attack last week filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the city of Lynnwood, claiming detectives disregarded evidence of the assault, bullied her into saying it didnt happen and then threatened to have her thrown out of her apartment when she insisted it did. It wasnt until 2 years later, when former Washington state resident Marc OLeary was arrested for several rapes in Colorado, that Lynnwood police reopened their investigation. After collecting sufficient evidence, detectives eventually arrested Marc O'Leary, a former Marine. Jerry Rittgarn, were focused more on Marie than on the felony crime. Along with Esquire, his work has appeared in NYLON, Vulture, and USA Today. He then raped her. The Lynnwood detectives, Pruitt and Parker, are Jerry Rittgarn and Sgt. Unbelievable is based, almost word for words at times, off of The Marshall Projects An Unbelievable Story of Rape, published in 2015. Jayne Tainis Doris Laird is based on the 65-year-old fraternity housemother whose teddy bear, like her fictional counterparts, yielded some DNA. '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. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. A Full Recap of the Infuriating True Story Behind Netflix's New Miniseries, Unbelievable. Sgt. Rodney Cohnheim and Commander Steve Rider; and Marc OLeary, who was interviewed at the Sterling Correctional Facility in Colorado. D.M. However, based on those statements, None of the evidence police collected linked him to his brothers rapes. 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. Neither officer faced any disciplinary action for the botched investigation. Trevor Materasso; Lakewood, Colorado, police detective Aaron Hassell; Kirkland, Washington, police officer Audra Weber; Lynnwood police Sgt. It went to the FBI lab [in Quantico], Galbraith told 48 Hours in 2017. Mason wasnt fired and now leads a narcotics task force. 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. 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. UnitedHealthcare Tried to Deny Coverage to a Chronically Ill Patient. 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. 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. and her family We strongly believe that Cocoon House and its employees acted appropriately on behalf of the client.. Bill Fagerbakke played Det. Former Lynnwood police Det. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. The description of his background comes from his LinkedIn profile. 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. After OLearys arrest in Colorado in February 2011, Lynnwood police Cmdr. 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. , updated Cocoon House CEO Cassie Franklin told the Seattle Times this week: 'Our hearts go out to D.M. Between the different cases, the police had also recovered a small number of skin cells and learned that he had a dark mark on his calf. 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." She recently watched the series, according to ProPublica reporter Ken Armstrong; with Adlers permission, he tweeted some of her thoughts about the show. . She's excited, because now she can go on in a whole new wonderful chapter of her life. VIDEO: Rape victim was called a liar by police A Lynnwood woman was raped, only for police to call her a liar. Mission accomplished. 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. Galbraith came across a victim she didn't recognize while looking through the images. But she went through the story again only this time, saying she believed the rape had happened instead of saying it for certain. Donations from readers like you are essential to sustaining this work. In 2008, an 18-year-old from Lynnwood, Washington claimed that she was raped by an intruder in the middle of the night. Rarely do. Cocoon House, and two of its employees. Mason told ProPublica, "It wasnt her job to try to convince me. This story was produced in collaboration with ProPublica. Rittgarn, who has left the Lynnwood Police Department and works as a private investigator in San Diego, said he was unaware of the lawsuit. We ran this calculation for all departments that met our criteria on a national level. No matter what, you can always turn to The Marshall Project as a source of trustworthy journalism about the criminal justice system. By The police on her case, Sgt. Come for the Seinfeld references, stay for the Producers references. Unbelievable will, suffice to say, shock you. Did Cirie go too far by bringing family matters into the game? Seattleite, (mostly) retired arts/culture blogger. 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. She and her husband took in the high-schooler for a short time when her previous foster familys plans to adopt her fell through. She eventually left Washington, now working as a long-haul truck driver and married with two children. And I was told that probably no one ever will.. So lets just state the obvious: Neither one of these men was the best man for the job as neither of them were all that qualified to work on a rape case. At first he could not recall the case, except that he. A computer forensics specialist looked into O'Leary's hard drive files and found a folder named "girls," which had pictures of the victims. When the woman reported the attack to Lynnwood police, she says detectives Jerry Rittgarn and Sgt. In his home, they found the pink Sony camera in addition to the women's underwear, wet wipes, lube, and a pistol. She got married and has two kids, and they live "somewhere in the middle of the country" as of 2018. We consulted police training guidelines by various organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and End Violence Against Women International. The lawsuit alleges that, as soon as the detective concluded she was lying, the investigation ceased. The women of, Sam Levinson and the Weeknd Allegedly Turned, Theres No Red Button You Can Push to Stop. 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. Evidence proved her right. Marie said she didnt know of any discrepancies. Neither one of them received any sort of formal punishment, even after an internal investigation was launched. (Warning: Unbelievable spoilers below). The third doubter was an anonymous caller. 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. She was charged with filing a false report and went through court-ordered counseling for lying to police. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. As in the series, Michael OLeary was mistaken for his similar-looking older brother because the cops didnt know they lived together. "Based on her answers and body language it was apparent that [Marie] was lying about the rape," he wrote in a report. Knowing that youre behind us means so much. Meanwhile, Peggy thought Marie seemed too upset when she called her"It sounded like a lot of drama, too, in some ways," she said. 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. Since its debut last Friday, Netflix's Unbelievable has become one of the most acclaimed shows of the year. She's soon accused of making it all up, and is subsequently punished for the "lie" again and again. All Rights Reserved. We excluded agencies that did not report crime statistics in any given month, as well as those that reported no crimes of any kind in a year. While no good came out of this for Marie at the time, her case has since helped shape how rapes are now processed, with Rider explaining, We learned a great deal from this. The other, Detective Jerry Rittgarn, left the department of his own accord. We do not generally permit translation of our stories into another language. Rittgarn left the police department before Maries rapist was caught in 2011, while Manson simply moved back to his position at narcotics. After an internal investigation was launched one came to court with her day. Of, Sam Levinson and the Weeknd Allegedly Turned, Theres No Red Button you can always to. Called a liar Coverage to a Chronically Ill Patient ; Lynnwood police Cmdr this. And hounding led to Marie 's admittance of false reporting detectives, Pruitt and,. Participants that she lied was caught in 2011, Lynnwood police Cmdr, where a doctor made notes rape! Attended mental health counseling called a liar her fell through sustaining this work links... 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