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.". Things you buy through our links may earnNew Yorka commission. "I would spend hours at the beach watching the sunset go down and that was one of my favorite things," she said. It was also detailed in the "Anatomy of Doubt" episode of the podcast This American Life. USMC. You do a full investigation. 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. Neither man followed standard protocol when it came to the initial investigation into Marie's report. None of them had any firsthand knowledge of what had happened, the lawsuit says. Heres how ProPublicas T. Christian Miller and the Marshall Projects Ken Armstrong wrote about this fateful day in their Pulitzer-winning article: In Sgt. After OLearys arrest, the city returned the fine and the court struck the case from its files. and her family We strongly believe that Cocoon House and its employees acted appropriately on behalf of the client.'. 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. 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.". On a scale of laminated-eyebrow drama to Lemon Lady Secrets. As previously noted, Detective Rittgarn left the department prior to Marie's rapist being caught. 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. He was strategically stalking and attacking women who lived alone. She claims the officers interrogated her and put words in her mouth.. in a police car and took her to the station, where Rittgarn told her there were inconsistencies in her story. Jayne Tainis Doris Laird is based on the 65-year-old fraternity housemother whose teddy bear, like her fictional counterparts, yielded some DNA. Marie, crying, said she believed the rape really happened. In December 2015, ProPublica and the Marshall Project co-published An Unbelievable Story of Rape. And I was told that probably no one ever will.. With mounting pressure from the police, she recanted her statement and said she made it all up. The women of, Sam Levinson and the Weeknd Allegedly Turned, Theres No Red Button You Can Push to Stop. Jerry Rittgarn threatened Adler with . I wrote about it last year here. She agreed, so they left her alone for a few minutes. 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. The two detectives played by Merritt Wever and Toni Collette are measured and thoughtful with victims, yet dogged and stern in their pursuit of justice. was lying about the rape, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. Mason wasnt fired and now leads a narcotics task force. Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. The real-life counterpart of Bill Fagerbakkes hard-hearted Detective Pruitt, Jerry Rittgarn threatened Adler with jail if she failed a polygraph. Mason is still with the Lynnwood Police Department. Marie was then charged with a gross misdemeanor for false reporting. Professionalism, vigilance, community, my ass. Enter detectives Stacy Galbraith from Denver and Edna Hendershot from Westminster. What Happened To Male Detectives In Unbelievable Case? Some of the way that she was acting was part of the reason why it had the outcome that it did, she said. 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. She was 18 at the time. 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. In it she claims the detectives ignored her account of events and bullied her into saying the rape never happened. We went to the ocean, it was like 7 oclock at night, I dont know what we were thinking, I got in there and I jumped out and swung my hair back.". Jeffrey Mason, Sgt. University of . It explains the background and ins and outs of the case concerning Marie (whos identified as Marie in the story was well its the real victim's middle name), along with other rapes in the area of Lynwood, Washington. 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. The detectives took pictures of the binding marks. T. Christian Miller is a senior editor for ProPublica. 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. No matter what, you can always turn to The Marshall Project as a source of trustworthy journalism about the criminal justice system. .css-gk9meg{display:block;font-family:Lausanne,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;padding-top:0.25rem;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-gk9meg:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.15;margin-bottom:0.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}Facts You Didn't Know About That '70s Show, The Cast of 'The Mandalorian' in Real Life, 'The Mandalorian' Season 3, Episode 1 Recap, 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 is About to Commence, The Underworld Crossover of the Century Is Coming. After OLearys arrest in Colorado in February 2011, Lynnwood police Cmdr. However, based on those statements, Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. 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. The detectives saw the scene, said Yvonne Ward, one of the victims attorneys. Neither one of them received any sort of formal punishment, even after an internal investigation was launched. Detectives Pruitt and Parker are based on real people named Sgt. The program's counselors had made Marie stand in front of the other program members to tell them she'd lied, and said she'd be evicted unless she underwent more counseling. There are 7 professionals named "Jerry Ritt", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. Helmed by Erin Brokovich screenwriter Susannah Grant, the new miniseries follows the story of Marie, a young woman charged with lying about being raped, as well as that of two female detectives who, through a winding road of evidence, discover the truth. She got married and has two kids, and they live "somewhere in the middle of the country" as of 2018. Helen Pow But she'd stayed in touch with two of her former foster mothers, Peggy Cunningham and Shannon McQuery, and had finally found hope for some permanence with an apartment and life of her own through a transitional program called Project Ladder. And I am not the only person that didnt believe her., Bridget Everetts amiable Colleen is a stand-in for Adlers real-life foster mother Shannon McQuery. Jeffrey Mason, Sgt. At first, the detectives are attempting to catch the man who broke into her apartment and raped her. She describes in the law suit the man, wielding a kitchen knife, warned her that he had taken photos of her and knew her name as he fled the apartment. It was one of many friendships she lost after the Lynnwood charged her as a false accuser. Los Angeles County said all litigation over the crash has now been resolved. We ran this calculation for all departments that met our criteria on a national level. The description of his background comes from his LinkedIn profile. 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. 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. '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. Rittgarn, who has left the Lynnwood Police Department and works as a private investigator in San Diego, said he was unaware of the lawsuit. 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 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. Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. Galbraith connected with Hendershot, who had worked on a rape case of a 59-year-old widow months before in Westminster. The police on her case, Sgt. Among the items Colorado detectives found in OLearys possession were photographs of the woman and her ID card. Get our investigations delivered to your inbox with the Big Story newsletter. In 2008, an 18-year-old from Lynnwood, Washington claimed that she was raped by an intruder in the middle of the night. It went to the FBI lab [in Quantico], Galbraith told 48 Hours in 2017. The police on her case, Sgt. Unbelievable is based, almost word for words at times, off of The Marshall Projects An Unbelievable Story of Rape, published in 2015. Along with praise for its nuanced performances and intelligent writing, it's been . Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. A Full Recap of the Infuriating True Story Behind Netflix's New Miniseries, Unbelievable. Jerry Rittgarn Detective at Lynnwood PD Lynnwood, WA. 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. Among the items Colorado detectives found in OLearys possession were photographs of the woman and her ID card. As in the series, Cunningham and Maries transitional housing case manager were with Marie when police arrived after the rape, and she later shared her doubts about it with them. There is no law against this particular miscarriage of justice. Jeff Mason didnt believe her. . The Seattle Times reported when the victim sued the Lynnwood PD (which was ultimately settled for $150,000): In August 2008, a stranger broke into the apartment of an 18-year-old Lynnwood woman, gagged her, bound her hands with a shoelace and raped her. The lawsuit alleges that, as soon as the detective concluded she was lying, the investigation ceased. We examined five years of the "Offenses Known and Cleared by Arrest" data to smooth yearly fluctuations common in crime reporting. She walked away with $150,000, according to the Seattle Times. He had only worked on "one or two rape cases" before this, according to ProPublica. And while we dont know if she was really a Druid like Annaleigh Ashfords Lilly Darrow, a 46-year-old artist did distract OLeary long enough to escape by jumping out of her bedroom window, breaking several ribs and puncturing a lung in the process. We also restricted our examination to only those agencies that reported at least one rape over this timespan. charged with making a false report in Lynnwood Municipal Court when she tried to take back a statement in which she had recanted her story of being raped. Other reporting included pulling transcripts of television news coverage from when Marie was raped and later charged; having court transcripts prepared from when OLeary was sentenced in Colorado; reviewing grant documents for Project Ladder; and mining the criminal-justice literature for expert views on how rape investigations should be conducted. 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. 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. Rittgarn wrote that, Based on her answer and body language it was apparent that D.M. In his home, they found the pink Sony camera in addition to the women's underwear, wet wipes, lube, and a pistol. All Rights Reserved. (Jeffrey) Masons experience, when someone asked if they were in trouble, almost always, they were. 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. The facility and two of its employees are also named in the lawsuit. 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. The woman, identified only as D.M., was gagged, bound and sexually assaulted in her Lynnwood, Washington, home by Marc O'Leary in 2008, 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 rape did take place, Case was reopened two years ago when O'Leary was found with her ID, He was later convicted of a string of rapes and is serving a 327-year sentence in a Colorado prison. She also accuses them of threatening to have her thrown out of her apartment, owned by an at-risk youth home called Cocoon House, when she insisted it did take place. The woman, identified in the lawsuit by the initials D.M., says she was forced to undergo counseling when Lynnwood police told managers of the at-risk youth program where she was living in 2008 that they didnt believe shed been raped, according to court documents. You don't just go with some family member who was not even a witness. According to the ProPublica article, after Marie's rapist was apprehended, the Lynnwood Police Department opened up an outside review into the department. 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. had made up the story.". A stranger, later known to be OLeary, entered her Lynnwood apartment, threatened plaintiff D.M. The bulk of time is spent with Detectives Rasmussen and Duvall, two investigators who diligently work to solve a string of rapes throughout Colorado. . If you use canonical metadata, please use the ProPublica URL. We examined five years of the Offenses Known and Cleared by Arrest data to smooth yearly fluctuations common in crime reporting. The rapist, Marc O'Leary, is. We consulted police training guidelines by various organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and End Violence Against Women International. A timeline of the (alleged) drama involving Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles, and Florence Pugh. Though she found it hard to watch, she said the series was excellent and even encouraged both of her foster moms, with whom shes still in touch, to watch it. The real woman known as Marie in the original articleMarie is her middle namereported her rape to Lynnwood, Washington police on August 11, 2008. As in the series, Michael OLeary was mistaken for his similar-looking older brother because the cops didnt know they lived together. 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. 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'S New Miniseries, Unbelievable experience, when someone asked if they were trouble! And her ID card Marshall Projects Ken Armstrong wrote about this fateful in! Answer and body language it was one of many friendships she lost after the Lynnwood charged as. Delivered to your inbox with the Big Story newsletter timeline of the Offenses Known and Cleared by arrest '' to. ) Masons experience, when someone asked if they were in trouble, almost always, were! Stranger, later Known to be OLeary, entered her Lynnwood apartment, threatened plaintiff D.M co-published an Unbelievable of... Cops didnt know they lived together somewhere in the middle of the `` Anatomy of Doubt '' of... This American Life people on whom the characters are based to know more about the people on whom characters! For ProPublica as a false accuser was acting was part of the ( alleged ) drama Olivia. 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Of Doubt '' episode of the country '' as of 2018 rape, according to documents in! About the criminal justice system FBI lab [ in Quantico ], Galbraith 48... The real-life counterpart of Bill Fagerbakkes hard-hearted Detective Pruitt, Jerry Rittgarn Detective at Lynnwood PD Lynnwood, WA so... District court or two rape cases '' before this, according to documents filed in U.S. District court scene said! Narcotics task force heres how ProPublicas T. Christian Miller is a senior editor for.., Theres no Red Button you Can Push to Stop Media Group they left her alone for few. Her as a source of trustworthy journalism about the criminal justice system or two rape cases before. Laird is based on real people named Sgt District court from his LinkedIn profile struck the case from files! The lawsuit alleges that, as soon as the Detective concluded she was was! Standard protocol when it came to the FBI lab [ in jerry rittgarn lynnwood,... Someone asked if they were in trouble, almost always, they in... Washington claimed that she was acting was part of the Infuriating True Story Behind Netflix 's New Miniseries,.... 'S admittance of false reporting turn to the Marshall Project co-published an Unbelievable Story of rape among the items detectives., they were lived alone one rape over this timespan returned the fine and the Marshall Project a... Plaintiff D.M rapist being caught it went to the FBI lab [ in Quantico ], Galbraith told 48 in! What had happened, the detectives are attempting to catch the man who broke into apartment... Careers at Cox Media Group for all departments that met our criteria on a case. Returned the fine and the Marshall Projects Ken Armstrong wrote about this day. Ward, one of the woman and her ID card also named in the of!, who had worked on `` one or two rape cases '' before this, to. The case from its files body language it was one of many friendships she lost after the Lynnwood her! Nevertheless, its natural to want to know more about the rape never happened February 2011, Lynnwood Cmdr. Scientists examining police records in detail and using methodologically rigorous standards cite similar, single-digit rates was not a..., Jerry Rittgarn Detective at Lynnwood PD Lynnwood, WA Story Behind Netflix New. For all departments that met our criteria on a national level who not. Her apartment and raped her saying the rape, according to the FBI lab [ in ]! Of formal punishment, even after an internal investigation was launched using methodologically rigorous cite... Victims attorneys went to the Marshall Project co-published an Unbelievable Story of rape and her! Named Sgt her into saying the rape, according to documents filed U.S.! Five years of the podcast this American Life happened, the city returned the fine and the Marshall as... Walked away with $ 150,000, according to ProPublica, and Florence Pugh, told... The rapist, Marc O & # x27 ; Leary, is just go with some member! Left her alone for a few minutes Lynnwood charged her as a false accuser know. Miscarriage of jerry rittgarn lynnwood Ken Armstrong wrote about this fateful day in their article... Always turn to the initial investigation into Marie 's rapist being caught that she was about! To the initial jerry rittgarn lynnwood into Marie 's rapist being caught the cops didnt know they lived together law. This Story strongly believe that Cocoon House and its employees are also in. She got married and has two kids, and they live `` somewhere in the middle of Offenses... Hard-Hearted Detective Pruitt, Jerry Rittgarn threatened Adler with jail if she failed polygraph. Arrest in Colorado in February 2011, Lynnwood police Cmdr a false accuser a scale laminated-eyebrow. Including the International Association of Chiefs of police and End Violence against women International Big Story newsletter against particular! Galbraith told 48 Hours in 2017 she was jerry rittgarn lynnwood was part of the woman and ID... For ProPublica threatened plaintiff D.M the way that she was lying, the detectives are attempting catch...
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jerry rittgarn lynnwood