Marie went on to say that "[Mason] was rubbing his head and literally looked like he was ashamed about what they had done". Claiming police coerced her into recanting her story, the woman . Lynnwood added training on the effect of trauma, which can cause rape victims memories to fragment, and adopted well-respected guidelines, which train police officers not to doubt a victim because he or she doesnt behave as expected and crucially not to accuse one of lying without definite proof. Hendershot also knew of a 2009 case that occurred in Aurorathe attackers methods were identical. His investigative experience includes major crimes, fraud, larceny, internal investigations, and vehicle identification. Ph: 269-217-6668 Another detective in Aurora explains how he learned that there is no right way for a survivor to respond to an assault. Mr. Alexander retired from the FBI after over 30 years. For me, its the case even the most craven apologists for unrestrained police power cant explain away. Steve Rider, the commander of Lynnwoods Criminal Investigations Division, also called Maries case a major failing. Still, no one in the Lynnwood Police Department faced disciplinary action. Peggy disappointed Marie at first with her muted response but then expressed her intense regret and worked to repair their relationship. 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 . This is an incredibly timely and important story because it hit at the same time the broader culture is talking about these exact issues. Anyone can read what you share. Last Friday, Netflix released their latest true crime series entitled .css-1me6ynq{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#125C68;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#125C68;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-1me6ynq:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:#595959;}Unbelievable, which is centered around The Marshall Project and ProPublica's Pulitzer-prize-winning article, An Unbelievable Story of Rape. It was a complete failure for the Lynnwood PD and something that is absolutely impossible to defend or excuse. It is painful to read, and difficult to understand how this type of behavior on the part of experienced police officers can happen in a professional police department. And although the attacker always masked his identity, one of the victims could specifically recall a distinct birthmark on his calfthe final piece to the puzzle that would ultimately expose him. Mr. Aubermann worked as a Special Agent in Detroit, Dallas, and most recently in St. Joseph, MI. The co-author of A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7, at Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., Seattle (206-624-6600 or elliottbaybook.com). So, the first step in hiring a private investigator and assessing the cost is to have a clear understanding of why you need their services. After seeing the series, many Unbelievable viewers became upset with how the police dealt with Marie's case. Since I read it over two years ago, the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning story An Unbelievable Story of Rape has never been far from my mind. There was some levity that Armstrong brought to Elliott Bay Book Company by way of talking about reporting the story for NPRs This American Life. I found it delightful to hear that Ira Glass is prone to four-letter words. Kalamazoo, MI Marie conceded and later told her case managers that she, in fact, had not been raped. Ph: 772-913-5280 Its a pretty impressive feat for Rittgarn to have his cruelty noticeable in a book about searching for a serial rapist. On the rapists computer, they found the photos he took of Marie. After another victim had been attacked in a Denver suburb, detectives went through twelve hours of surveillance tape from outside of the apartment complex, which did eventually pay off. Ron Neil founded Lair Investigations, LLC, in 1998 after serving 26 years with the Michigan Department of State Police (MSP). Wesshe Montegumry. That meant327 years in Colorado and68 years in Washington. Peggy knew Marie to have a flair for drama, and she started to nurse doubt about whether her attention-getting tale was true. Its gripping and needs no dressing up. Mr. Vander Vliet is an FBI-certified Technical Agent. Dont miss a thing by downloading Apple News here and liking Prevention. If Camus The Stranger was about the nakedness of man when faced with the absurd, this is how it might be told as a true crime story in 2018. Rittgarn was more experienced in that he had worked as a detective for 11 years already, but this experience was mostly limited to cases involving helicopters and the aerospace industry. It would be several years later before we would all learn that she was telling the truth. While it could be conceived that their genders made all the difference, for Danielle Macdonald, who portrays Amber in Unbelievable, it's more so about being educated. In the original story, authors Miller and Armstrong chose to leave out much of this information about OLeary, instead concentrating on his victims. Crown Publishers. She was jolted awake by a masked man with a knife who tied her up with her own shoe strings, blindfolded, gagged, and raped her. Marie is a testament to the harm of poor police work that derails a rape investigation. Mr. Colby has experience in school security audits, active shooter training and the development of threat assessment teams. Ive talked to Marie on time on the phone since this happened, Galbraith told CNNlast year. While still dealing with the trauma of what had just happened to her, Marie eventually buckled under the pressure and retracted her statement in a desperate attempt to escape and return home. NEXT: Top 10 BBC Drama Shows Available On Netflix Spring 2020 (According To IMDb), Netflix's Unbelievable: 5 Things They Based On The True Story (& 5 Things They Changed), 10 Things In Netflix's Unbelievable That Were Shockingly Real, Toni Collette: 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes, 10 Weird True Crime Stories Netflix Should Cover In A Documentary Next, 10 Best Netflix Original Scary Movies (According To IMDb), Top 10 BBC Drama Shows Available On Netflix Spring 2020 (According To IMDb). Oh, and were on Instagram too. Since September of 2010, he continues to be a licensed professional investigator in the State of Michigan. 11 Things that Private Investigators Can and Cannot Do February 3, 2019 Legal evidence, Surveillance Over the last thirty years, Investigation Hotline has interacted with thousands of clients who have differing perspectives and ideas as to what private investigators are able to do within their trade. royjohnson@thebureaugroup.com. A False Report is very much a book that came at the right time, as our culture continues to reckon with its conclusions. One of the two officers who blew Maries case comes across as a secondary villain. Her retraction came after detectives Sgt. He was awarded the Case of the Year by the U.S. Attorneys Office, Western District of Michigan for an investigation that resulted in the dismantlement of a drug cartel operation in Southwestern Michigan. Gerard B. Alexander is a graduate of the American University in Washington D.C. So, what really happened during Maries case? Detective Stacy Galbraith (portrayed as character Karen Duvall in Unbelievable, played by Merritt Wever) sat on the couch across from her husband, also a cop, and described her work day in detail. Personal Details & Biography. 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 that's passed since. Is longer actually better? Upon his retirement from the Ottawa County Sheriffs Office, Mr. Crumb was selected to be the Manager of Investigations and Risk Services for Amway Corporation, a position he held for over 11 years. Holland, MI Unbelievable is available to stream on Netflix now. He has testified in hundreds of criminal and civil cases at all levels of both state and federal courts. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Submit a white paper on any investigative topic. While assigned to Detroit, Mr. Vander Vliet worked bank robberies, violent crimes, and narcotics cases. Coloma, MI What I cannot escape is the cruelty built into our criminal justice system when the powerful arbitrarily decide they dont want to believe someone. "It is showing Amber's detectives were educated about survivors, they understand these cases, and Marie's detectives never really had cases like this before, and they didn't know.". His LinkedIn page indicates he works for a private investigation firm in San Diego. One person they didn't talk to was one of the two officers who were tasked with investigating the case, Detective Jerry Rittgarn, who looks to have scrubbed almost everything off of his LinkedIn . The Bureau Group is the premier private investigative firm in West Michigan. In addition to extra training for the detectives, investigators must now have "definitive proof" of lying before doubting a rape report, and any accusations of false reporting are now reviewed at a higher level before acted upon. The parallel tales allow Miller and Armstrong to juxtapose the damage of a botched rape investigation and the triumph of careful and skilled police work. Neither he or Manson were ever investigated for the way they mishandled Maries case. MHeffron5@gmail.com. Steve Crumb retired from the Ottawa County Sheriffs Office in 2005. A learners permit was placed on her chest. Even after everything she had been through, Marie still found her happiest years when she was 16 and 17. Detective Parker is the first detective to question Marie at the station, in real life and this mans name is Sgt. After collecting his DNA from a used cup at a restaurant and confirming its match to the crime scenes, they arrested him at his home for burglary and sexual assault. At 18, Marie moved into her own subsidized apartment for young adults transitioning from the system to the real world through a program called Project Ladder. Rape was a compulsion, OLeary explains, tracing its genesis to a childhood viewing of the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi, in which Carrie Fisher, nearly naked, is chained by the neck to intergalactic gangster Jabba the Hutt. According to the ProPublica report, Marie spent most of the night on the phone with her friend Jordan before finally dozing off. You also know who you are hiring when you hire the Bureau Group. And that moving phone call between Marie and Duvall at the end of the series? It was a story out of a horror movie or a Law & Order script. Her hobbies include perpetual coffee sipping and pretending to be a Chopped contestant while cooking. Hed been an investigator for more than two decades by then. As soon as they arrive, an investigation begins. Known in the real world as Sgt Jeffrey Mason and Detective Jerry Rittgarn, the two detectives who questioned Marie were subjected to both internal and external reviews in the aftermath of this whole ordeal. A black-masked man jolted awake a 59-year-old woman, tied her up, and took pictures of her. Miller handled the reporting and writing in Colorado and Armstrong handled the Lynnwood portion of things. A FALSE REPORT A True Story of Rape in America By T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong 291 pp. They moved from looking exclusively at unsolved rape cases to looking at home invasions as well, and they found an interesting case. In the series, the character based on OLeary was called Chris McCarthy, but thats really the onlything thewriters changed about this guy. williambylnn@thebureaugroup.com. Speaking with reporters years later in the very same room where he had once confronted Marie, Mason admitted: "It wasnt [Marie's] job to try to convince me. Netflix After seeing the series, many Unbelievable viewers became upset with how the police dealt with . Back when the report was published in 2015, Rider described Marie's case as a "major failing" for his department: "Knowing that she went through that brutal attack and then we told her she lied? Galbraiths real husband was indeed a police officer in another county and made the connection between the rape case his wife was investigating and another a detective at his station was handling. The vehicle was registered under Marc Patrick OLeary. We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. Miller and Armstrong interviewed OLeary in prison but it seems, understandably, as if it was hard for them to get into his head. In the show, Duvall and Rasmussen begin honing in on the OLeary brothers after they make the connection with the truck and the DNA comes back as a match. It was just nice to be on my own and not have all the rules that I had had being in foster care, Marie told ProPublica. Her record was cleared and her fees returned. As nonfiction literature, A False Report builds suspense by cutting deftly between the victims experiences, those of the two female detectives who finally broke the case and, to a lesser extent, those of OLeary, now serving a 327 -year sentence in Colorado. He said they shared writing duties, so the piece reflected their different writing and report stories. 3 records for Jerry Rittgarn. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account. "The only disappointment I. Rape Crisis England and Wales works towards the elimination of all forms of sexual violence and sexual misconduct. The in-depth piece considers every disturbing detail, most of which were studied and implemented (many times word for word) into the storys TV rendition. Jeffrey Mason, a detective on the case, the day after the assault occurred to report that Marie had a past history of trying to get attention and she was unsure whether or not the attack actually took place. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Readers in the US are encouraged to contact RAINN, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800-656-4673. Thankfully, the ramifications of this have helped change the way Lynnwoods Criminal Investigations Division approach crimes of this nature. They found her manner suspiciously unemotional, and detected slight inconsistencies in her story. This content is imported from youTube. The failures of the Lynnwood Police Department, massive and unforgivable as they are, is not the sole focus of this article, though. Mason and Det. 616-481-0751 Marie has remained anonymous from day one and her real name has never been revealed to the public. Hendershot told her about a 2010 Westminster rape case that was eerily similar to Galbratihs in Golden. Miller and Armstrong tell their story plainly, expertly and well. The first one wasnt good enough because it claimed that she dreamt her rape. According to the report, Cunningham called Sgt. In 2008, an 18-year-old named Marie reported that shed been raped. He is a licensed professional investigator in the State of Michigan. The True Story Behind Netflixs Unbelievable, The Reason Hoda Kotb Hasnt Been on the Today Show, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Miller and Armstrong teamed up for the project that became this book when they discovered they were working on it separately. The dots were connecting themselves, and amidst their search for more, they uncovered another victim who had escaped a similar attack around the same time. Its not until three years and many more rape victims later, that Maries original claims are investigated and her attacker is brought to justice by a couple of amazing female detectives. Unbelievable on Netflix: What happened to the male detectives in real life? They both developed doubts about the assault. It was Marie. He also has specialized training in installing and detecting various covert devices to include cameras, microphones, and global positioning systems (GPS). She experienced so many emotions at once, but mostly, she wished she would have never been swayed by those detectives. Even though Armstrong and Miller are two men reporting on a crime that overwhelmingly affects women, he said during the Q&A that there was a lot of input from editors, copy editors, and early readers that were women and that had a big impact in crafting the story. Jeff Mason didn't believe her. The Most Iconic Celebrity Best Friendships, The Most Iconic Old Hollywood Engagement Rings, The Most Iconic Oscar Dresses of All Time, Christie Brinkley Honors 69th Birthday in New IG. In addition, Mr. Crumb worked with Amways Special Events in coordinating and managing security for global events involving the companys 3 million-plus distributors. Matching evidence collected from two separate crime scenes confirmed to Galbraith and Hendershot that they were connected. Upon his retirement from the FBI after serving in Southwestern Michigan, Johnson moved to Washington D.C. and worked as the Special Agent in Charge for the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR). In real life, the detectives' names are Stacy Galbraith and Edna Hendershot, but again, thats pretty much the only thing that was changed in this story. She lost her subsidized apartment and many of her friends. The message could not be clearer: old theories on why to distrust women reporting rape still influence many of us today, which makes this an especially timely work. The John Grisham-worthy twist comes from the investigation of three rapes 1,300 miles away, in two suburbs and a city outside of Denver. Hes now in prison for life. But not one single officer in the entire Lynnwood Police Department was disciplined for their actions. At first he could not recall the case, except that. Makes my blood boil the way the cops treat her is exactly why many other survivors would rather suffer I silence #Unbelievable, I'm watching #Unbelievable on #Netflix #UnbelievableNetflix and the differences of approach in questioning rape victims by male and female cops is incredibly alarming. Review: Bruce Springsteen reminds Seattle no one works a room like the Boss, ZooTunes reveals a stellar concert lineup for summer 2023, Are you too fat for Universals new Mario Kart ride? On Friday, September 13, Netflix released a new limited series that truly adopts the definition of its title. View the profiles of people named Jerry Rittgarn. Crying, said she was pretty positive the rape occurred, and that wasnt affirmative enough for the cops. Neither man followed standard protocol. Where you live in the country . Then, the surfacing of a suspicious vehicle report gave them their next clue. She also "listened to the woman with a sense of alarm.". All the while, OLeary was secretly operating a group of specialized porn sites. He is a licensed professional investigator in the State of Michigan. He's declined to speak with any outlets and told Miller and Armstrong he'd only discuss the case if they paid him towhile maintaining his non-factual beliefs about "victims who lie" and a "biased story." Read the story here. And to make matters worse, she received a letter stating that she was wanted in court and being charged with false reporting, punishable by up to a year in jail. An external reviewer said that if the two police officers who interrogated Marie hadnt documented their own bullying and coercive behavior, he would have been skeptical that such conduct actually happened. After all, a review of research from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) finds that the prevalence of false reporting is very low between 2 and 10%. If you value what were doing, please consider contributing to our Patreon, and allow us to continue to grow and provide coverage of our community. If you or someone you know needs help or has been affected by sexual assault, call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. 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