Cry Rape: The True Story of One Woman's Harrowing Quest for Justice (9 page)

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said, explaining that the last time they were intimate was during the trip to Sheboygan, just as Patty had said. “I like her, but I’ll be honest with you: I’m looking to settle down with someone, but not with Patty.” She was too jealous; once she “became unglued with me at a bar” when he began talking to a female acquaintance.

Mark was a fount of information pertinent to Woodmansee’s case.

He told the detective Patty was overly concerned about her weight and that “her doctor has her on Prozac.” She “gets real emotional about things” and had a lot of stress from her two jobs. Like him, she tended to drink too much. “At times,” he said, “Patty seems like she might have what someone calls a mental chemical depreciation.” Woodmansee put this nonsense term in his report, and later on his list, as though it were some actual diagnosis.

Was Patty suicidal? Mark, noting that Patty’s brother and nephew had taken their own lives, replied, “I have a fear that she will commit suicide, but she’s never really laid that on me heavy.” He said Patty had confided to him that she was sexually molested as a child, by her stepfather. Mark found it strange that Patty maintained a cordial relationship with this man. But he also was convinced, based on his talks with Patty, that the abuse did occur.

What about Patty’s visual impairment? “I don’t know how blind she is,” replied Mark. “If we’re driving down the street and I look at a woman she’s right on it and gets upset.”

Could he describe Patty’s demeanor on the day of the assault? “She seems pretty tough over this,” said Mark, noting that people react differently to being sexually assaulted. “She wasn’t overly emotional.” He added that Patty had mentioned the anal assault and complained about pain in this area.

How did Mark feel about Patty staying at his house? Conflicted. On one hand, it seemed almost as though Patty were moving in, and he was uncomfortable with that. He did not wish to pursue a relationship, and she understood that. Although the two shared a bed, they were not intimate. Mark wanted it to stay that way. On the other hand, “I’m not going to make her go home. I’m taking it day by day.”

Did Mark have any concerns about Patty? Yes, he told Woodmansee, according to the detective’s report; he was worried about “her scorn” if he did extricate himself from the relationship. “Obviously 56

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a sexual assault must have occurred,” he said, since Patty told him

“there was all this evidence.” Woodmansee explained that while items were collected, no one had yet determined if there was evidence of an assault.

“Do you think she would make this up?” Woodmansee asked. Mark wasn’t sure. “I think in some instances, Patty . . .” He paused, fumbling for words. “I guess her temper takes over her rational mind. I would hope she wouldn’t do something like that but there is something that makes me think she could make this up to get me to stay with her, but I hope not.”

Woodmansee had what he was looking for. He thanked Mark for his time and escorted him from the building. The next day Woodmansee contacted Kaddatz, the crime scene investigator, and asked him to process Patty’s alarm clock, to see if he could determine what time it had been set for. Kaddatz said this information had been lost when the clock was unplugged. He checked it for fingerprints, finding none.

During the next week and a half, while he waited for the sexual assault kit results, Woodmansee took no further action on Patty’s case, other than to discuss his suspicions with other detectives. He also had Detective Draeger listen to the tape of Patty’s 911 call; she agreed that Patty sounded too calm. One of Woodmansee’s supervisors, Captain Jeffrey LaMar, said he had heard from residents of the Fairmont Avenue area who were worried about a possible rapist on the loose. If Woodmansee’s suspicions proved correct, and Patty was making it up, LaMar advised, the department should issue a press release to put such concerns to rest.

On September 29, a Monday, Woodmansee got a call from the state crime lab. Its examination of the sexual assault kit turned up no semen or other evidence. Woodmansee also had Kaddatz run tests on items collected from the crime scene. The Flowering Herbs Body Splash bottle was checked for fingerprints; none were found. Patty’s pants and shirt were examined for traces of blood; again, the result was negative.

The other items—Patty’s bedding, bra, and bedroom phone—remained unexamined.

Tom Woodmansee had all of the evidence he needed. He called Patty to set up a meeting at the detective bureau. His intention was to
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confront her, but he didn’t tell her that. Instead he lied, saying he needed some additional hair samples. They arranged to meet at 6 p.m.

on Thursday, October 2. Patty came away from the call believing there had been a break in the case. Finally, she thought, some good news.

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The Confession

Patty arrived at police headquarters in an upbeat mood. Misty had dropped her off, and she arrived carrying a wrapped birthday present for Brenda, whom she planned to see later. Woodmansee met Patty inside the building and led her down a hallway to a room with a small table and large windows. After a few minutes he took her to a tiny room in the building’s basement. It was a former jail cell, with cement block walls and no windows. It contained a table and chairs, a sink against one wall, and a toilet. Woodmansee introduced Patty to another detective, Linda Draeger, who would be sitting in. Patty was glad to have a woman present. Discussing a sexual assault with a male detective was difficult, and she assumed a woman would be more sympathetic. She was in for quite a surprise.

Woodmansee got coffee for everyone and closed the door behind him. Draeger asked about the wrapped package on the table, and Patty explained that it was a birthday present for her sister. It was just a T-shirt, she said jokingly: “Cheap, but a gift nonetheless.” No one laughed.

The detectives got right to the point. “I know who did this,” Woodmansee announced. Patty was heartened, thinking this was the good news she was hoping for. Then he lowered the boom: “You did.” Patty laughed. She thought he was joking. He wasn’t. Woodmansee said he believed Patty made a false allegation, that there had been no sexual assault. “I know you made this up.”

Patty was thunderstruck. She had no idea this was coming. She began breathing heavily. “I can’t believe this,” she said. “I’m scared to 58

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sleep in my room.” How could the police not believe her? “There was someone in there,” she insisted. “He was in there a long time.”

Woodmansee had had enough. He told Patty he had worked many hours on her case and produced many pages of reports, all of which led him to the same conclusion: it didn’t happen. Meanwhile, he had put off investigating several other cases—child abuse cases, she remembered him saying. This made her feel guilty. “I know, I know it was for nothing,” she said, according to his report. Woodmansee said he knew Patty suffered from depression and had seen a counselor in the past. He mentioned her past suicide attempts and the fact that her brother and nephew had taken their own lives. He brought up her past history of sexual abuse as a child. She and Mark were not getting along, and she had problems with Misty. She had lied to her daughter about having named Dominic as a suspect. And Mark had given him reason to believe she was capable of making up the whole thing.

Patty asked that her case be assigned to another detective and was told this would not happen because the rape did not occur. She offered to take a lie detector test or undergo hypnosis to prove she was telling the truth. Draeger said Patty could hire a polygraph examiner if she wanted, but police had no need for this information because they knew she was lying.

Woodmansee proceeded to cite the inconsistencies and lack of evidence that led him to conclude the rape did not occur. Blood was not found where he thought it should be. The alarm clock times did not add up. The closet she claimed to have stood in was full of stuff. She could not see the suspect, yet seemed to have no trouble picking up the knocked-over grill. Her vision, said Woodmansee, did not appear to be noticeably bad. Patty, typically, agreed with this attempt to minimize her disability: “I don’t think it is that bad.”

The state crime lab, Woodmansee told Patty, found no evidence of sexual assault. All of the other detectives he talked to thought she was lying. He said the sexual assault nurse at Meriter found no sign of trauma. All of Patty’s injuries were consistent with self-infliction. There was no sperm on the cotton swabs, no stray pubic hairs, nothing to prove she was raped. “There wasn’t even any rubber residue,” Woodmansee told her, explaining that a test for latex residue from the condom she claimed her assailant used had come back negative. This was a 60

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complete fabrication, a “ruse” he concocted to increase the pressure on Patty to confess. These are all things Woodmansee admitted, either in his report or later, under oath.

By Patty’s account, he also told her, “You don’t act like a rape victim.”

He later denied saying this; Draeger said she couldn’t remember. Patty said he warned that, unless she confessed, the consequences would be more severe. She would be charged with the crime of obstruction, the media would be notified, and everyone—Mark, Misty, and Dominic—

would be told she lied. “If you thought I was good working for you,” she remembered Woodmansee saying, “you should see me working against you.” But if she admitted to lying, the matter could be resolved quietly.

The police would help her cut a deal with the district attorney’s office, perhaps to get into a first offenders program. Woodmansee later denied making these statements; Draeger couldn’t remember.

Patty also maintained that she asked to come back the next day with a counselor or an attorney, but Woodmansee refused, saying, “You’ll just change your story.” Woodmansee and Draeger later denied this. Patty asked to leave to smoke a cigarette but was not allowed, even though she offered to leave her purse and package to ensure she would return.

Draeger said she let Patty smoke in the room, in violation of the building’s no-smoking rule, to spare her from inclement weather. It was one of the few things about the events of October 2 that the veteran detective was later able to recall, and it was a critical point, since the only way police could legally question Patty without giving her Miranda warnings was if she was free to leave at any time. Draeger said it three times, three ways, all under oath: it was “cold and crummy,” “cold and raining,” and “cold and rainy.” Actually, according to the National Cli-matic Data Center, Madison’s weather that night was unseasonably warm—sixty-six degrees at 6 p.m.—with scattered clouds and no mea-surable precipitation.

At some point, Draeger asked Patty if she knew the story about

“The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” Draeger would later testify that she wanted Patty to “understand the importance of clearing up what had happened because I wouldn’t want to see her in a situation where later down the road she may file another report and because there’s one sitting out here that’s questionable, this one might . . . bring questions to people’s minds.” The message, as Patty received it, was more blunt: if
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she didn’t admit to making this up, she could never again expect police to believe her or to come to her assistance in a time of need.

At any rate, Patty’s “confession,” as recorded in Woodmansee’s report, was couched in the language of fear. “What do you want to hear?”

she told the detectives. “I’ll say whatever you want.” Woodmansee said he wanted the truth, to which she replied, “If you’re going to drop this, I’ll say whatever you want.”

The first thing Draeger wanted to hear was contrition. “I think you owe Tom an apology,” she said, citing the time and energy he had spent on her case. “You’re right,” Patty said, “I’m sorry.” As she said this, Woodmansee noted in his report, “she looked directly at me”—which, given her visual disability, meant she couldn’t see him at all.

“Do you believe that I know this is a lie?” Woodmansee asked Patty.

“Yeah,” she responded, her will overwhelmed. “Okay, I’m lying.”

Next the detectives wanted to know why Patty had lied. She could not come up with a reason. “I don’t really know why,” she said. “I’m sorry, I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.” Had she told anyone else she lied about the incident? No. Did she ever consider telling Woodmansee she was lying? No.

This was not good enough. The detectives wanted details. When had the idea of fabricating a rape come to her? She said it was that same morning. Did she cut herself with the knife? Yes. Where did she get it?

From the kitchen. Did she cut her finger and then place it against the pillow? Sure. Did she cause the cuts on her neck by pushing the knife or dragging it? Dragging it. Where was the knife now? “I don’t know what I did with it.”

The detectives continued to press Patty as to her motivation, and she continued to draw a blank. At one point, she muttered, “I wish I were dead.” Woodmansee asked if she was suicidal on the day of the alleged assault and she said she was not. Draeger asked if there was a connection between Patty taking Prozac and her decision to fabricate a rape. No, Patty assured them, this wasn’t it either. Woodmansee said he wanted something to put in his report so it would not look as though she were doing this for no real reason. “I’m sorry,” she replied. “I just can’t.” She even asked the detectives why any woman would say that she was raped if it didn’t occur. Patty was shocked by Draeger’s response: “Women do it all the time.” Draeger later admitted saying “something similar to that.”

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After a while of not being able to come up with the reasons they sought, Patty told the detectives her confession was phony: “I’m just saying this to get out of here.” Whereupon, she recalled, Woodmansee angrily threw down his notebook and said it was time for a break. He later denied this, saying “I may have dropped it.” Draeger couldn’t remember.