Jerry Rittgarn Detective at Lynnwood PD Lynnwood, WA. Hendershot is now a sergeant in the Westminster Police Department. According to police reports and statements filed with the lawsuit, D.M. UnitedHealthcare Tried to Deny Coverage to a Chronically Ill Patient. The description of his background comes from his LinkedIn profile. Mason now admits on record that Peggy's doubt was the main reason he fully shifted to disbelieving Marie. According to the Seattle Times, two-and-a-half years later Lynnwood police reopened the investigation, after Marc O'Leary, a man wanted for a string of sex attacks in Washington state and Colorado, was found to have D.M. When she wouldn't, they pressured her further until she ultimately reneged on her confession. Former Lynnwood police Det. University of . 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. But the only unsavory loose end from the finale is what happened to the men who discredited Marie. Donations from readers like you are essential to sustaining this work. She agreed, so they left her alone for a few minutes. The victim was too attacked by a man in a black mask who took her pink camera to shoot pictures of her before forcing her to shower. Among the items Colorado detectives found in OLearys possession were photographs of the woman and her ID card. 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. 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. Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. Jayne Tainis Doris Laird is based on the 65-year-old fraternity housemother whose teddy bear, like her fictional counterparts, yielded some DNA. Parker. 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. When Marie's rapist was caught, Detective Rittgarn had already left the Lynnwood police department. three days after the assault, officers picked up D.M. Rittgarn, who has left the Lynnwood Police Department and works as a private investigator in San Diego, said he was unaware of the lawsuit. Bill Fagerbakke played Det. 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. Now a married mother of two who turns 29 this year, shes a long-haul trucker, driving an 18-wheeler cross-country. At the hospital, a doctor noted injuries to both her wrists and abrasions on her genitals. LYNNWOOD, Wash. The city of Lynnwood will pay $150,000 in a settlement with a rape victim, after Lynnwood police claimed she lied about the attack in 2008. In a Netflix comedy by Katharine McPhees stepdaughter. 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. 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. Jeffrey Mason, Sgt. Galbraith had admired her new partner, Edna Hendershot, from a distance ever since their paths crossed at a police briefing for a big drug bust Hendershot had taken part in. Get our investigations delivered to your inbox with the Big Story newsletter. Unlike her avatar, she left her Costco job handing out food samples days after her 2008 rape. 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.". Evidence proved her right. (For example, yesterday can be changed to last week, and Portland, Ore. to Portland or here.), You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. We ran this calculation for all departments that met our criteria on a national level. A Washington state woman who was a victim of a serial sex offender is suing police after they allegedly discounted her story, ignored evidence proving she was raped and then slapped her with a $500 fine for making a false statement. This led to them completely mismanaging Maries case and caused them to believe that she had made up the whole story for attention. The woman claims she signed that statement under duress after having been questioned for hours without an attorney. Mason is still with the Lynnwood Police Department. 17-Down, Three Letters: Party for One artist Carly ___ Jepsen. (Jeffrey) Masons experience, when someone asked if they were in trouble, almost always, they were. All rights reserved. Words or thoughts attributed to anyone in this story are drawn from these interviews or documents. She recently watched the series, according to ProPublica reporter Ken Armstrong; with Adlers permission, he tweeted some of her thoughts about the show. And for him to know that we figured you out. Galbraith is now a Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent. Cocoon House CEO Cassie Franklin told the Seattle Times this week: 'Our hearts go out to D.M. They themselves took those pictures. According to the ProPublica article, prior to the rape Marie's happiest memories were of time spent practicing photography with her then-best friend. You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. Jerry Rittgarn, were focused more on Marie than on the felony crime. We also ran the same calculation for Washington state law enforcement agencies that cover cities of the same size as Lynnwood to account for possible variations due to the size of a jurisdiction or local laws. If you havent read it yet, I recommend reading the whole thing soon. 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. However, based on those statements, After claiming police coerced her into recanting her story,. The Lynnwood police told her the news, giving her an envelope on counseling for rape victims. Jun 1985 - Jun 19894 years 1 month. Pretty positive or actually positive? 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. Like her fictional counterpart, played with heartbreaking vulnerability by Kaitlyn Dever, Adler was a product of the foster-care system and had been abused. Among the items Colorado detectives found in OLearys possession were photographs of the woman and her ID card. She was charged with filing a false report and went through court-ordered counseling for lying to police. A stranger, later known to be OLeary, entered her Lynnwood apartment, threatened plaintiff D.M. After OLearys arrest, the city returned the fine and the court struck the case from its files. Why didnt you write that you made the story up? We used the 2015 Pulitzer Prizewinning ProPublica/Marshall Project story (and its follow-up reporting) that inspired Unbelievable as a road map to make this character-by-character guide to the facts behind the Unbelievable fictionalizations. 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. Along with Esquire, his work has appeared in NYLON, Vulture, and USA Today. While Hendershot never suspected or chatted up an off-duty police officer in a bar to get his DNA, as Grace does in episode six, she did stay behind so Galbraith could arrest OLeary solo, as seen in episode seven. 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. We examined five years of the "Offenses Known and Cleared by Arrest" data to smooth yearly fluctuations common in crime reporting. The records obtained through these requests included investigative reports filed by detectives in Lynnwood and elsewhere; crime-scene photos and surveillance footage collected by the various law-enforcement agencies; the two case reviews of how the Lynnwood police handled the investigation of Maries rape report; and video of Marc OLeary being interviewed by police after his arrest in Colorado. If you use canonical metadata, please use the ProPublica URL. In 2011, Galbraith worked on a Denver case where a young woman living alone was sexually assaulted by a man in a black mask who documented the rape with a digital camera. Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. Nobody can get into it. Jeffrey Mason and Detective Jerry Rittgarn, and this is what happened to them after incorrectly seeking a false confession from Marie. 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. It wasnt her job to try to convince me, he said in 2015. in a police car and took her to the station, where Rittgarn told her there were inconsistencies in her story. Professionalism, vigilance, community, my ass. 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. Two months after Adler was charged with false reporting, McQuery told the police investigating a new, similar rape nearby about her case. She claims the officers interrogated her and put words in her mouth.. We also ran the same calculation for Washington state law enforcement agencies that cover cities of the same size as Lynnwood to account for possible variations due to the size of a jurisdiction or local laws. The police called her a liar. 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. Please contact. We also restricted our examination to only those agencies that reported at least one rape over this timespan. As for the people Marie initially deals with, in the series they are Detectives Parker and Pruitt. in court documents, was gagged, bound and sexually assaulted at knife-point in her Lynnwood apartment by an intruder five years ago. We consulted police training guidelines by various organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and End Violence Against Women International. He told police that hed fantasized about rape since he was a kid and that his assaults were a type of rape theater inspired by the Star Wars scene in which Jabba the Hutt chains up Princess Leia. Detective Stacy Galbraith and Sergeant Edna Hendershot. 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. We just want to dive into a pool without having to hold onto our bottoms. 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. But shes actually telling the truth; she really was raped. Then there was an investigation. New Report Says Nurses at Illinois Facility Forced Patients to Dig Through Their Own Feces, Records Reveal Medical Response Further Delayed Care for Uvalde Victims, Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That Itll Weigh Down the Economy for Years, Hoping to Prevent Repeat of Botched Response to Uvalde, Lawmaker Calls for Improved Training for Police, EMTs, If youre republishing online, you must link to the URL of this story on propublica.org, include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up language and link, and use our. 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. At first he could not recall the case, except that he. 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. The rapist, Marc OLeary, is currently serving a 327 1/2-year sentence in Colorado for raping multiple women, including the Lynnwood woman and a Kirkland woman. Jeffrey Mason, Sgt. 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. Jeffrey Mason in real life. In Marie's case, neither of her foster moms thought she was behaving like it really happened, for different reasons: Shannon decided Marie didn't seem sad enough just hours after the crime, telling ProPublica, "There was just no emotion. 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. The description of his background comes from his LinkedIn profile. The real-life counterpart of Bill Fagerbakkes hard-hearted Detective Pruitt, Jerry Rittgarn threatened Adler with jail if she failed a polygraph. called a neighbor, who called police. She's excited, because now she can go on in a whole new wonderful chapter of her life. 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. Marie dialed Stacy Galbraith in the fall of 2016; she'd been working as a truck driver by then and called from the road. When the woman reported the attack to Lynnwood police, she says detectives Jerry Rittgarn and Sgt. The character of Detective Pruitt (played by Bill Fagerbakke) is loosely based on Jerry Rittgarn, who was the one who first blatantly told Marie he didn't believe her story. Rittgard left the police force before OLearys arrest, but the case review found that threatening her with imprisonment and the possible loss of her housing was coercive, cruel, and unbelievably unprofessional. In the book-length follow-up to their original reporting, journalists T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong said Rittgarn had objected to his work being labeled as bullying and wanted money to talk to them. The detectives saw the scene, said Yvonne Ward, one of the victims attorneys. Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn, pressed on the inconsistencies in her story. Jerry Rittgarn declined to be interviewed. The journalists who wrote it, T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, were separately working on the story for their respective outlets when they decided to collaborate on one long piece. Michael was tailed by members of Grusings team to get his DNA. VIDEO: Rape victim was called a liar by police. She is charged with false reporting, ostracized from friends and family, and made a pariah by local media. Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). (Jeff) Mason concerning his follow-up case. Marie said she didnt know of any discrepancies. Donations from readers like you are essential to sustaining this work. The victim, now 23, is living out of state and engaged to be married, according to her attorneys. O'Leary was convicted of five rapes, including the Lynnwood one, and is serving a 327-year sentence in a Colorado prison. Lets Do the Thing: How Online Were You in February 2023? 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