Cry Rape: The True Story of One Woman's Harrowing Quest for Justice (3 page)

Perfect Victim

•

suspended—Madison Police Chief Richard K. Williams launched a three-week investigation, after which he concluded that the tattoos were “a solidarity thing” and hence no cause for concern.

Patty and Misty lived in a tucked-away working-class neighborhood on Madison’s east side. The apartment they shared had pretty hard-wood floors and affordable rent. It was, like several other residences on the block, a duplex, a rectangular ranch house split down the middle into two square apartments.

As the officers entered, Patty realized she was still naked from the waist down. She asked to get her pants, and headed for the bedroom.

The officers followed, instructing her not to touch anything. Patty found her pants on the floor and put them on. A strong perfume-like odor wafted up from the bed, which was wet in several spots. The rapist had poured out Patty’s Flowering Herbs Body Splash, tossing the empty bottle into a laundry basket. Sergeant Jarona, Patty later recalled, surveyed the scene and said, “This guy has definitely done this before.”

Jarona, whom Misty did not recognize that morning from the earlier matter involving his daughter, would play no further role in Patty’s case.

Other officers scoured the neighborhood in search of a fleeing suspect. The police thought he might be on foot, having ascertained that Patty’s Le Sabre was still parked on the street. William Kaddatz, a Madison Police Department crime scene investigator, arrived to collect evidence. Thiesenhusen called dispatch to give advance notice to Meriter Hospital that she would soon be bringing in a rape victim for a sexual assault examination. Then she took Patty to the living room to discuss the assault.

Patty was shaking all over. Misty was there, too, crying hysterically, which made it harder for Patty to focus. She was trying to remain calm for Misty’s sake, but it seemed as though everything she said set Misty off. “Let’s just get through this part, Misty, please,” Patty implored at one point. Misty exited the room.

Later, Patty would describe Thiesenhusen as “the most caring and compassionate officer I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting.” Over the years, Patty had had a few police contacts: the two previous rape attempts, the times she tried to kill herself, some trouble for shoplifting when she was a teenager, a few citations for incidents involving alcohol. Nothing had ever happened to make her fear or distrust police.

Emergency Response

17

•

Thiesenhusen spoke softly and kept asking Patty how she was doing.

She was not pushy or impatient, even when Patty was uncertain or confused.

Perhaps because she put Patty at ease, Thiesenhusen managed to gather a great deal of pertinent information in just a few minutes. She learned that Patty was sleeping on her stomach when she awoke to feel a knife at her throat. Patty thought the knife was serrated, possibly a bread knife. The intruder first attempted anal sex, which lasted about a minute; then he made her perform oral sex, which lasted about five minutes; lastly, he had her put a condom on him and penetrated her vaginally, until he seemed to climax. There were signs of familiarity—

his saying “I know” when Patty said she couldn’t see, his crude inquiries regarding her daughter.

Thiesenhusen asked whether Patty could think of possible suspects, especially anyone who would have known about the unlocked door.

Patty came up with a name: Dominic, her daughter’s boyfriend. She really didn’t believe it could be him, but said “he kind of fit.” Patty was thinking about her rapist’s skin color—not real dark, as though he were Mexican or biracial—and his white sweatpants, like those she had seen Dominic wearing while visiting Misty.

Misty, when Thiesenhusen spoke to her, also mentioned Dominic—

not as a suspect but as the only other person who had recently spent the night at the apartment. She said he had been there twice that week, on Monday and again on Tuesday night. Did Dominic or any of her other friends know the door was frequently unlocked? Yes, said Misty, this was something “everyone” knew.

Patty and Thiesenhusen left the duplex around 5 a.m. On the way to the squad car, Patty remembered that her assailant had touched the TV, as well as the light switch and the snooze button on her alarm clock.

Patty stayed in the squad car while Thiesenhusen conveyed this information to Kaddatz. Suddenly the squad door opened and there was Patty’s mother, whom Misty had called. Patty and her mom hugged and cried. “I was so scared,” Patty told her. “I thought he was going to kill me.”

Thiesenhusen drove Patty to Meriter Hospital. In the waiting room, she obtained the “statement of nonconsent” required for all crime victims. This entailed asking Patty whether she had given her permission 18

Perfect Victim

•

to be raped, cut, and robbed by a knife-wielding intruder. Thiesenhusen apologized ahead of time for asking.

Back at the apartment, Kaddatz continued his investigation. The bed had been stripped mostly bare, except for two bloodstained pillows toward the top and a bunched-up bedsheet toward the bottom. Kaddatz confirmed that the smell from the wet spots on the bed matched that of the empty bottle of Flowering Herbs Body Splash. He took photos of the room and close-ups of all evidence. If he noticed the small bag of marijuana on Patty’s dresser—she didn’t smoke herself but had some on hand for friends—he decided to overlook it. When Patty returned later, she found it was still there, surrounded by fingerprint dust.

Kaddatz made a field sketch of the room and the apartment. He and another investigator searched inside and out for the knife, condom, and condom wrapper, without success. They dusted the television, the kitchen phone (which had not been disabled, as Patty believed), the area around the bedroom light switch, and the vinyl pouch that had contained Patty’s money. No latent fingerprints were found.

Starting at 6:11 a.m., Kaddatz began collecting items: Patty’s discarded bra, the pillowcases, the perfume bottle, the phone and the cord that went from it to an answering machine, the alarm clock (which he unplugged without checking what time it showed, or when the alarm was set for), a pink and white bedspread, and a blue queen-sized flat bedsheet. The items were bagged and tagged, along with the plastic gloves used to collect them.

Kaddatz’s investigation was completed by 8 a.m., and the collected items were taken to the police property room. One of these items contained the key to solving the crime.

3

Under Examination

Jill Poarch was at home sleeping when the call came in. A woman had been sexually assaulted and Poarch needed to perform an examination.

She was the nurse on call for Meriter Hospital’s SANE program, which stands for Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. She also worked full time in the hospital’s emergency room. Like other SANE nurses, Poarch had received extensive classroom and clinical instruction, followed by a period in which she was paired with a more experienced nurse. But she had been doing these exams for four and a half years now, usually working solo. Poarch arrived at the hospital around 5:20 a.m., the same time as Patty.

Hospitals across the country have set up SANE programs because sexual assault examinations require special skills. Besides giving aid and comfort to victims of terrible crimes, SANE nurses are trained to collect evidence. They work closely with police and are often called on to testify in court. In a sexual assault, the victim’s body becomes the crime scene, possibly containing wounds, excretions, hair, or other evidence. It must be probed, combed, photographed, and documented. For some victims, the examination is nearly as traumatic as the assault itself. Poarch, a good nurse, tried to make it no more traumatic than it had to be.

She began by introducing herself and asking Patty what happened.

She needed to know details—whether and where there was penetration, for instance—so she’d know how to conduct her investigation. So, with Thiesenhusen present, Poarch asked a lot of questions. Did Patty know who raped her? No. Can she describe him? About twenty years old, Hispanic or mixed race. What happened? He had a knife. He told her 19

20

Perfect Victim

•

not to look at him. Patty was worried about her eighteen-year-old daughter, in the next room. She was assaulted in her rectum and vagina, and forced to perform oral sex. Did he ejaculate in her rectum? No. Did he ejaculate in her vagina? She thought so, but he was wearing a condom. Did he kiss her, lick her, use any kind of lubricant? No, no, no.

Had she taken a shower, douched, brushed her teeth, or changed clothing since the assault? None of the above. Then came questions about Patty’s medical history, through which it emerged that she’d had a hysterectomy and could not get pregnant. Had she ever been treated for a sexually transmitted disease? No.

Poarch explained to Patty what the sexual assault examination would entail, that it was invasive and unpleasant, and that she needed to sign releases allowing portions to be videotaped and information made available to the police. Poarch saw that there were cuts on Patty’s face, neck, and hand. No one mentioned to her that Patty was visually impaired, but she noticed that Patty didn’t seem to look at her directly and held the consent forms very close to her face to see where to sign. So she asked whether there was some problem with her eyesight.

“I’m legally blind,” Patty replied, explaining that she had macular degeneration. Poarch wasn’t sure how to spell this, so she just put down

“legally blind.” She asked Patty whether she wanted an advocate from the Rape Crisis Center, which would delay the examination. Patty declined. “I just want to get out of here,” she said. Most victims, in Poarch’s experience, declined an advocate, for precisely this reason. (Later, the hospital began calling the local Rape Crisis Center at the same time as the SANE nurse, so an advocate was on hand right away. Subsequently, most victims wanted the advocate present.) Patty’s mother arrived, and for a while the two were in the room alone. Perhaps it was the intensity of Misty’s reaction, or the fear that came from not knowing, but Patty’s suspicions began to center on Dominic. “I think I know who did this,” she said. Her mother had some preternaturally apt advice: “If you don’t know for sure, don’t say anything.”

The sexual assault exam began at 6:30 a.m. Thiesenhusen remained in the room throughout. Two clean sheets were spread on the floor, one on top of the other. Patty stood on these and removed her clothes. Her clothes and the top sheet were bagged and tagged; the bottom sheet,
Under Examination

21

•

which collects mainly dust from the floor, was discarded. Patty provided a urine sample, not wiping afterward so as not to remove evidence.

Then she was asked to lie naked on a table for a head-to-toe examination. Her knees were up high, her legs spread apart, her feet in stirrups.

Hair samples were taken as well as saliva and vaginal swabs. Blood was drawn—separate vials for the evidence kit and tests for syphilis and HIV. These were baseline samples only, since any infection from the assault could not yet be detected. Patty’s pubic area was combed, and pubic hair samples collected.

Poarch examined Patty’s vagina with a Wood’s lamp, which casts ultraviolet light to detect body fluids like semen. None were found. She also did a “wet mount exam,” which involved taking a swab from Patty’s vagina and examining it under a microscope in search of sperm; again, nothing. Poarch inserted a medium speculum into Patty’s vagina to look for evidence of internal injury. Lastly, she used a colposcope—a kind of sophisticated magnifying glass attached to a video camera—to probe Patty’s vagina and rectal areas. With this, she documented a bruise to Patty’s inner left thigh and an abrasion on her anus. Poarch described it as a small scratch. This surprised Patty, because it hurt like an open wound—a searing pain.

Patty’s various injuries were measured and recorded. There were two lacerations, both superficial, on her left cheek; one was seven centimeters long, the other four centimeters. On the left side of her neck was another laceration that measured five centimeters. It was hooked, like a check mark. The cut on the back of Patty’s left forefinger was only one centimeter long, but it was deep enough that Poarch summoned a doctor, who put in two sutures of 5.09 nylon. The apparently fresh bruise on Patty’s thigh measured one-by-two centimeters. The abrasion on her anus—at a position recorded as “ten o’clock”—was round and measured one centimeter in diameter.

Poarch gave Patty a tetanus shot and two antibiotics: 500 milligrams of Cipro to prevent gonorrhea and a gram of erythromycin to prevent chlamydia. She did not do a pregnancy test or offer “morning after”

birth control pills, due to Patty’s hysterectomy. Patty was given a printed list of aftercare instructions, which advised her to be on the lookout for swelling and infection, and to arrange a follow-up visit with her primary physician to remove the sutures from her finger and test for 22

Perfect Victim

•

hepatitis and HIV. This form, which Patty had to sign, included an admonition to “buckle up” on the way home. Poarch told Patty to call her if there was anything she needed. Patty would indeed call, a few weeks later; it would be a conversation that made this sexual assault different from any other in Poarch’s experience.

The exam ended at 7:55 a.m. Officer Thiesenhusen gathered the

“evidence from the victim”—blood, hair, saliva swabs, pubic combings, vaginal swabs, urine, clothing, and the sheet over which she undressed.

A form documenting the chain of evidence was completed and signed by Poarch at 8:10 a.m. Thiesenhusen would return to the hospital the next day to collect thirteen pages of records produced by Poarch, including an anatomical sketch showing the location of Patty’s injuries.

Patty’s mother had left, but Patty’s longtime friend Mark was waiting for her outside the examination room. Patty and Mark hugged, and both began crying. Patty had known Mark, then forty-three, for several years; the two of them had dated off and on for the last year and a half.