© Wesley Allsbrook
MARCH 12, 2009 LYNNWOOD, WASHINGTON
No one came to court with her that day, except her public defender.
She was 18 years old, charged with a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.
Rarely do misdemeanors draw notice. Her case was one of 4,859 filed in 2008 in Lynnwood Municipal Court, a place where the judge says the goal is "to correct behavior — to make Lynnwood a better, safer, healthier place to live, work, shop and visit."
But her misdemeanor had made the news, and made her an object of curiosity or, worse, scorn. It had cost her the newfound independence she was savoring after a life in foster homes. It had cost her sense of worth. Each ring of the phone seemed to announce another friendship, lost. A friend from 10th grade called to ask: How could you lie about something like that? Marie — that's her middle name, Marie — didn't say anything. She just listened, then hung up. Even her foster parents now doubted her. She doubted herself, wondering if there was something in her that needed to be fixed.
She had reported being raped in her apartment by a man who had bound and gagged her. Then, confronted by police with inconsistencies in her story, she had conceded it might have been a dream. Then she admitted making the story up. One TV newscast announced, "A Western Washington woman has confessed that she cried wolf when it came to her rape she reported earlier this week." She had been charged with filing a false report, which is why she was here today, to accept or turn down a plea deal.
Comment: That neither of the two detectives who investigated Marie's case were disciplined is reprehensible. Because of their actions, 4 more women were raped, traumatized beyond by belief by a psychopath. Reading stories like this, where the police are almost as responsible as a rapist for causing trauma to a victim of sexual assault, it's no wonder that so many rapes go unreported. Until every police officer is properly instructed on how to handle rape cases, there will be more Marie's, people who are victims that the police turn into suspects. It's all part of the epidemic of rape culture in America.