[intriguing music playing]
[woman over phone] Me and him weren't really dating,
but I had a crush on him,
and since, like, they saw it as, like, oh, like, you were in a relationship.
That...
that just happens in relationships, like...
But I was, like, 12, so I told them,
I was, like, "That... that shouldn't have happened."
Was there a point, like, with the investigation
where you felt, like, the police just... you knew they weren't believing you and...
The detective told me,
"He didn't hold you down. That's not rape."
She filed the charges against me
before my rape kit or anything else came in.
[intriguing music continues]
They just didn't believe me from the start.
I have a list of more than a hundred other cases that I'm following,
so, we can keep talking if that sounds okay with you.
[intriguing music continues]
[male investigator 1] The evidence in this case is not jiving
with your side of the story.
[male investigator 2] I want you to really tell me the truth
because I have this on video.
[male investigator 3] I don't believe you. I do not believe you at all.
If you continue to lie to me, this is about to go south.
I don't know.
[male investigator 4] Everything was good. Consensual.
You guys had sex. Both you guys are grown adults.
It appears that you were using the threat of rape
to get what you wanted.
[intriguing music continues]
[male investigator 5] It's a crime to file that false report.
I have to arrest you for it.
[music fades]
Here at the Student Health Center is where physical therapy students
get to put their knowledge into... into practice.
I couldn't say that word. Here at the physical therapy center...
Oh. That's not right.
Here at the physical... No, no, no.
- Here at the Student Health Center... - [soft music playing]
Here at the Student Health Center is where physical therapy students
get to put their knowledge into practice. They get...
Well, I started journalism in high school working at the local news station.
One more time.
My first investigative piece was looking into a pothole
- and why it never got fixed. - [soft music continues]
And actually, after I published it, it did get fixed, and that felt very good.
[inhales and exhales deeply]
But nobody like... [chuckles] The stakes were very low.
Although people were getting into accidents.
It was like... It was a big pothole.
Speed limit signs that are white,
like this one behind me, mean they have to be enforced,
but if their street surveys aren't up-to-date,
police officers can't use radar or laser technologies
to pull someone over.
[Rachel, voiceover] This was easy stuff, not controversial.
Lucy's only been at the Harbor Shelter for two weeks
but has become the third adopted dog today.
[Rachel, voiceover] As an aspiring journalist,
my dream was to work at the Center for Investigative Reporting
just outside of Oakland.
[birds chirping]
I was, like, that's the... that's the most serious place you can go.
You know, it's like that and 60 Minutes or something. [chuckles]
I knew it as this amazing organization
where the best journalists go to work.
- [telephone ringing in the background] - [typing]
After a couple attempts, I landed an entry-level job.
I was working on other people's stories,
so I really wanted to find something that I could own, that I could report on.
[train horn blares]
[curious music playing]
I was searching through local news when I stumbled on a story
of a young woman being arrested for making a false report of rape.
A 20-year-old student claiming she'd been raped after a party
involving the Sacred Heart University football team.
[female reporter] But tonight Nikki Yovino is charged
with making it all up
and then fabricating the evidence.
These kinds of allegations, what they do is they...
They're problematic for the people that are accused.
And also, for all the other cases out there
that are legitimate MeToo cases where there are cases of assault,
it really muddies the waters in such a dangerous, dangerous way.
[Rachel] Nikki Yovino's case was covered all over national and local media
at the height of the MeToo movement in 2017.
Nikki was looking at up to a year in prison for the false reporting charge.
And five more years
for tampering with evidence
because she got a rape kit exam.
That sounded really punitive.
I thought Nikki's case was an anomaly,
but then I found another case a thousand miles away.
Eighteen-year-old UA student Emma Mannion
told police she was forced into a vehicle and sexually assaulted.
Today, Mannion sits behind bars.
after being charged with false reporting to law enforcement.
When a false report is made like this, then the person that makes the report
such as that, well, they need to suffer the consequences.
Filing a false report is a Class A misdemeanor
punishable up to one year in jail.
[Rachel] I gathered all the material I could find,
and I took the story to my editorial team.
[woman] Rae brought the story to a couple of editors,
and there was a lot of skepticism...
Which I understand.
I mean, it's a... it's...
it takes a lot to green-light a story
because you know we're investing incredible time, incredible resources.
In the cases Rae was looking at, uh, the women had pled guilty.
And so, there was... there was sort of a knee-jerk sense, well, they pled guilty.
They admitted it. There... There's no story here.
[male reporter] She lied about being raped...
[Rachel] Nikki pled guilty and went to prison.
- [intriguing music playing] - Emma also pled guilty.
But when I spoke to them, they both maintained that the assaults did happen.
I didn't lie to the police about anything.
I didn't lie to the detective about anything.
I didn't lie...
[Rachel] What happened during those police interrogations?
Even though the editorial team didn't green-light my story,
I couldn't let it go.
And so my editor, my supervisor, encouraged me to just keep reporting.
[dramatic music playing]
Nikki's story was reported on widely,
but no journalists had talked to Emma Mannion.
As a reporter, you really do have to keep an open mind.
Just like I'm keeping an open mind that she could be lying,
I'm also keeping an open mind that she's telling the truth.
[music stops]
My name's Emma.
I'm 23 years old,
and I'm a dance teacher.
I am born and raised in New Hampshire.
The high school that I went to had 60 kids in my graduating class.
And then I go to a school
in a completely different area.
I don't know anyone, and there's 10,000 in my freshman class.
[crowd cheering]
[Emma] It was a hard transition.
[all chanting]
[dramatic music playing]
[Emma] That Saturday,
my friend and I were just gonna go out and have fun.
We headed over to the frat row area,
and a group of guys came up to us.
Very friendly.
Seemed like normal, friendly college guys trying to talk to girls.
Like, didn't think anything of it.
- [man] What do you want to dance? - [Emma] You don't know any of that.
- [man] I can learn. - [hysterical laughing]
[laughing continues]
Hey, did I not make the conversation fun, though?
I feel like that was me now...
[dramatic music continues]
...but like...
way, way more naive.
[knocking]
[music fades]
So on November 14th, 2016, around 5:05 in the evening,
Emma called crying hysterically.
She was hyperventilating,
saying that she was sexually assaulted
in a car in a parking lot
on the strip outside a place called Mo's Mexican.
There were two guys.
They put their arms around her
and brought her to their car,
pushed her into the car,
banged her head against the car.
And she wouldn't give any more details at that time.
All I remember telling her
is that
I went out,
and something happened, and I didn't want it to happen.
And she recommended that I go to the hospital.
[eerie music playing]
[beeping]
Halfway through the vaginal exam,
the nurse came in saying that Tuscaloosa PD had arrived.
I have just a hospital gown on,
and the two detectives came in.
[eerie music continues]
There was no conversation of,
"Do you want to report? Do you want to investigate?"
"Do you want to press charges against anyone?"
It was just, "We're here to talk about your rape."
"Tell us what happened."
[police siren wails]
Three days after the hospital, they called.
They said, "Come on in."
"We'll chat a little bit more."
When I went to the police station,
I felt like I needed to keep my body completely covered.
I'm wearing jeans and a puffy vest.
And I am freezing.
[eerie music continues]
[door opening]
- Hey, Emma, how are you feeling? - I'm okay.
Uh, I told you, was it yesterday or the day before yesterday, on the phone
we just basically, we like to come back a couple days later,
sometimes you remember more detailed stuff,
so we can get just a... a better formal interview with you
and get just as detailed as we possibly can, okay?
You said
two guys pushed you in the vehicle.
And the other guys, once Steven got in the vehicle,
all the other guys stood around the vehicle.
And I just kind of...
because it's something that...
It's inconsistencies. We... We have to hash it out.
[Emma, voiceover] I was always kind of raised to respect and trust authority.
I understood him wanting me to walk through my story again.
I understood him asking clarifying questions.
[Akridge] We've been investigating this all week.
We have pulled, oh, if you...
You have any idea how many video cameras are around there?
- All of that has been pulled. - [eerie music playing]
Okay?
I'm going to tell you, from the... from the investigation,
you're not being honest with me, okay?
- [Emma] With what I just told you? - [Akridge] Yes.
I do not believe you. I do not believe you at all.
And I think you're one of those people that's taking away from my true victims.
[Emma, voiceover] I didn't understand any of the accusations.
I'm like, I haven't slept in four days.
[eerie music continues]
My... My brain isn't functioning.
I'm not lying.
[Akridge] Did you have sexual intercourse with Steven?
[Emma] Yes.
Was it wanted? Was it consensual? No.
[Akridge] Okay, did you... did you
fight him off, kick him, tell him no?
[Emma] Yes.
[emotional music playing]
[Akridge sighs] Watching the video stuff that we have,
uh, and it shows you and, I guess, Steven making out,
everything, and...
and I know you got in the vehicle.
Now imagine you're the person that's out there working overtime all week long.
Running around gathering information, talking to people, getting video.
I'm mad because...
Hey, we're... something's gonna be done about this.
[emotional music continues]
[Emma softly] I'm so sorry.
[Akridge] Well, if you're sorry, then that makes me feel better.
[Emma, voiceover] I wanted to leave.
I did not want to be in front of this man anymore.
Because all I heard was that
it was my fault, and I fucked up.
[emotional music intensifies]
[Akridge] It is a crime
to file that false report.
It is a crime to...
to lie to us.
[emotional music continues]
And...
I have to arrest you for it.
I just got to get behind your back.
If you would put your hands like you're praying.
- [Emma] Mmm. - [Akridge] Yep, flat palms to make it...
- So just fixing these up for you. - [handcuffs clicking]
[Emma] I got to jail.
I was fingerprinted, had pictures taken.
[emotional music continues]
One of the older women who was there, she's like, "Why are you here?"
And, like, the only thing I said was that I was raped,
and they told me I lied about it.
And she was just like,
"You got fucked over."
And then it hits me, and I'm like, jeez, I... I literally got fucked over.
And while I was in jail,
an article was posted online about my arrest.
My face.
My full name.
[somber music playing]
That's what I walked out to.
[Akridge sighs] Watching the video stuff that we have
shows you and, I guess, Steven making out.
Are... you get in the vehicle,
and you're initially making out or... or what?
[Emma] I don't remember.
[Rachel] I keep going back to Investigator Akridge saying
he has surveillance footage
of Emma making out with the man she's accusing.
Everything changes in that moment.
Emma's attorney shared with me all the materials he got from the police.
But the thing that's always been missing is that surveillance footage. You know?
- [Amanda] Yeah. - He has a Dropbox folder. It's not there.
And also, even if you had it,
it has nothing to do with what happened in that car.
And for as many strengths as Emma has with her case,
I mean, the biggest weakness was that she pled guilty.
Right.
[Emma] And it was, like, a week before my court date
that I read about Megan.
I cr... cried so much. [crying]
And so I told my lawyer,
I want to know what plea deal I can get.
[pensive music intensifies]
[Rachel] So many people in Tuscaloosa had heard about Megan Rondini.
The man she had accused of rape, TJ Bunn Jr.,
came from one of the town's most prominent families.
I scoured everything I could find.
Text messages, documents, police videos,
and audio recordings.
It's July the second, 2015, 5:37 a.m.
It's Investigator Jones, Investigator Hastings at DCH E.R.
- And I'm speaking with... What's your name? - Megan Rondini.
[Jones] Are you working? Full-time student here?
[Megan] No, I was taking summer classes, and I was about to go home on Sunday.
[Jones] Tell me what happened last night, who all you were with.
[Megan] Me and my friends went to trivia at Innisfree.
Um... it was like me
and a group of ten of my other friends.
[Megan] I know of his... I'm...
I'll gonna call him Sweet T because that's like his nickname or whatever.
I mean, I see him there all the time, but like,
it's not like we talk to each other. Like, I just know who he is.
I'm not even sure he, like, knew who I was.
[Megan] I was leaving.
Somewhere along the line, he picked me up.
[eerie music playing]
And it was me and another guy named Jason,
in the back of his car.
[eerie music continues]
Sweet T took us to his house.
[crickets chirping]
We were in a room
with, like, all the animals he had shot or whatever.
Like, I don't know. He goes hunting a lot.
And he told Jason to go to bed, and he told me
to go upstairs to his room.
[Jones] Did you ever, uh, resist him?
- Uh... Swing at him... - [Megan] I was just trying...
I mean, I was... I... I...
I know he's, like, an influential person in Tuscaloosa,
and I was trying to be really nice to him
and just be like, my friends are waiting on me...
[sobbing] ...and, uh...
I just really need to leave.
- [crying] - [Jones] Oh.
I'm gonna go ahead and end the interview right now.
[somber music playing]
[Rachel] According to the police report, when officers first came to his door,
TJ Bunn denied having anyone over the night before.
But after a short call with his attorney,
he changed his story.
[Jones] Can you just tell me kind of what happened last night?
[TJ Bunn] Sure. I, uh, brought somebody back to my residence with me.
We had consensual sex.
And...
after I went to sleep,
apparently she decided to take my money
and take my car key and leave.
And...
uh... Josh Hastings woke me up, ringing my door this morning at 6:45.
[Jones] Okay. Okay.
- Do you know her name? - [TJ Bunn] I do not.
[Jones] All right, man. I appreciate it, thank you.
She called me the morning after.
Um, and then,
I started driving to Alabama.
[Cindy, voiceover] The police keep calling her, asking her to come in.
I don't want her to go in until I get there.
[Jones] Megan, I'm going to let you sit there and you sit there next to her.
Let me get a notebook, and I'll be right back.
[advocate] Ooh! It's chilly in here.
[Cindy, voiceover] She's like, "Mom, they're pressuring me to come in."
"I can do it. It's fine." I'm like, "No, you need someone with you."
So I requested that an advocate accompany her to the police station.
[telephone ringing]
[Megan] Another thing that worries me, I don't know if my dad told you,
is, like, this guy is kind of, like, an influential...
[advocate] I'm aware. Yeah.
[door opening]
[Jones] Do you remember
getting in the car?
[Megan] No.
[Jones] Do you remember any stops at all?
[Megan] No.
[Jones] So...
If I say that
y'all stopped by your apartment,
before you went to TJ's,
or Sweet T's,
before y'all went there...
Okay, 'cause they're getting... You know, y'all's...
your complex has got video there.
Okay, do you remember?
- [Megan] I do not remember going there. - [Jones] Okay.
Do you remember fixin' him a drink?
No. I don't... I don't remember being there at all. Like I don't remember being there.
[Jones] Okay.
Is any of this bringing back anything?
I feel like I want to, like, throw up.
[Jones] Okay.
[eerie music playing]
[Jones] What we wanna do is just look in your apartment. Okay?
Do you have a problem with us doing that?
Fine. Okay.
- [advocate] I can't go to your apartment. - [Megan] That's fine.
[advocate] I mean, do you want me to hang around here till you come back or...
- No, I think... I think I'm... I'll be okay. - [advocate] Are you sure?
[Mike] The advocate didn't stay with her for the whole questioning,
and that's the point in the interview where they turn the tables.
[Jones] While you were in...
back in the bedroom,
did you remember
going through any other things in there?
I went through all the keys, and then
I tried to see if he had any cash that I could pay for a cab with.
[Jones] Okay.
Did he have any cash?
He had, like, three dollars.
[Jones] Okay.
So, you got... Did you get the cash?
- Yes. - [Jones] Okay.
- [eerie music continues] - [door opening]
[door closing]
[Jones] I'm not doubting
- what you're telling me... - I just feel like
he has some advantage over me and they're saying like I...
I don't really understand why.
[police siren wailing]
[Rachel] Hi, Ms. Gray, um,
this is Rachel de Leon.
I was just in speaking with someone there regarding meeting with Sheriff Abernathy.
Love to know if he might be available on Thursday after 1:00 p.m.
Okay, talk to you soon.
[Rachel, voiceover] The chain of command for this unit in Tuscaloosa
ends with Sheriff Abernathy.
- [intriguing music playing] - He's responsible for his police officers.
The ones who investigated Megan's and Emma's cases.
- [dial tone] - Hi, uh, this is Rachel de Leon.
I'm a reporter calling from Reveal.
I was, uh, following up because you thought
perhaps Sheriff Abernathy may have some time today for a phone call.
[receptionist] He's not going to have any time this week to meet with you.
Oh, that's really unfortunate. What happened?
[receptionist] He... His calendar just got filled up.
He doesn't have any, you know, available time.
[Rachel] Once Sheriff Abernathy's office decides a crime's been committed,
the case moves to the district attorney's office.
It's the DA's office who will decide whether to press charges.
- [woman] Hello. - Hi, is this attorney, uh, Paula Whitley?
[Paula] I am not willing to really get into anything specific
about any particular cases.
- Bye. - Take care. Bye.
[intriguing music continues]
For several months, I tried to reach Sheriff Abernathy,
but he and others in his department refused to talk to me.
[answering machine] ...for Sheriff Ron Abernathy.
Please leave a message, and I will return your call...
[Rachel] The only police officer I could find who had a lot of knowledge
about Megan Rondini and was willing to talk to me was Carl Hershman.
- Okay, you got me now? - Got you now.
[Carl] I was a cop for, uh, 32 years.
The majority of that time I spent in Sex Crimes Unit.
I've been here lately testifying a lot.
- Nice to meet you. I'm Rae. - Nice to meet you. I'm Carl.
[Rachel, voiceover] He was an expert in a lawsuit involving Megan's case.
[vehicle horn blaring in the distance]
In Megan's case, within 13 hours of her reporting,
she's treated as a suspect.
So, what are the things that they're... that they say, you know,
make them question her story?
Well, there were several. So, the... the inconsistency in her statement
that she completely left out that they went back to her apartment.
[Jones] Do you remember...
[Megan] I do not remember going there.
[Jones] Okay.
[Carl, voiceover] Inconsistent statements are not red flags.
There's a reason for them.
[crickets chirping]
Megan Rondini, 20 years old, severely intoxicated.
She became blacked out.
[eerie music playing]
And now she's scared because she doesn't know
what happened at the apartment.
This is something new to her.
Now she's questioning herself because that was just so foreign to her.
You can clearly see her body language.
As a victim, you think to yourself, this will be used against me.
This is evidence. They... They think I'm lying.
Now, she's the suspect.
Those investigators were thinking
that this was consensual.
Even though at the hospital, she makes the statement,
"He held me down."
[Megan] He didn't hit me, he didn't, like, shove me.
But he held me, like, down.
Now TJ Bunn, he's not once treated like a sexual assault, uh, suspect.
[music stops]
As they walk through with a video camera, you hear the lead detective say...
[Jones] ...had consensual sex, so...
I think he was scared when we showed up,
still probably intoxicated and making some bad decisions.
[low, dramatic music playing]
[Carl, voiceover] They... They don't interview him on a sexual assault
that just occurred hours before that.
They let him go on a fishing trip...
[birds chirping]
...with his attorney.
[low, dramatic music continues]
- [Jones] Sorry, guys. - [Jason] No, that's all right.
I'll get y'all outta here.
- [TJ Bunn] Here. - [Jones] There we go.
[Jason] We, uh... We went fishing... What day did we go fishing? Thursday?
Fishing Friday... well, Friday morning.
- [Jones] Anything biting? - [TJ Bunn] Yep.
It's snapper season in state waters right now,
- so we went out. - [Jones] Made a killing, huh?
Yeah, we... we caught about 30 minutes in.
[Jones] Really? Thirty minutes?
It took us 45 minutes to get there and 30 minutes to catch...
[all laughing]
The investigator gave his statement to him.
So y'all are having consensual sex.
She never said no, never said stop.
She was completely into it.
- Right? - That's correct.
If anything, to be honest, she was extremely flirtatious
- from the time we picked her up. - [Jones] Okay.
So, it was a willing...
[TJ Bunn] It was a willing participant on both ends.
Y'all did y'all's job, and I appreciate it.
[Jones] Well, the way I look at it, man,
if it was me on the other side of it, I'd want to do the same thing for me.
- You know? - [TJ Bunn] I do. I appreciate all y'all.
Y'all have done a very thorough job, and I appreciate it.
[Jones] I... I appreciate it. I appreciate you being cooperative.
I know it's not something easy. And you too, man.
You know? He's always... always been easy to deal with,
I'm telling you, always.
I wish they were all that... that, uh, easy to get a hold of when you need to.
- Y'all give me a sec. I'll be right back. - [Jason] Okay.
If they can communicate that to her.
That I won't pursue...
I won't pursue her if she don't pursue me.
But I will play hardball if she does.
- [Jones] You said you never resisted him. - [Megan] I did resist him.
I said that I wanted to leave. When he tried to kiss me, I turned away.
- Like, I didn't... - [Jones] But you didn't.
Never kicked him or hit him,
tried... tried to resist him.
[clears throat]
So Megan, um...
[haltingly] Later on, Megan learns that they did pursue charges against her
for theft, not for false reporting.
And so she moves back home and tries to move on with her life
and go to school, but, uh, sadly Megan ends up taking her own life.
Um...
[tearfully] Sorry.
Um...
I was adamant that she find a therapist.
And so she was gonna go.
She filled out all the forms, and they were there on her dresser, um...
- When they found her body. - ...filled out when they found her body.
[Rachel] When she died, um,
she had a note next to her bed
that said the reason she was seeking mental health treatment
was because she was raped, bullied by police, and changed universities.
Her parents sued the school
and the alleged assailant.
Um, they settled with the school and the alleged assailant.
They could not sue the sheriff's department.
A lawsuit filed
against two investigators and myself
regarding the Megan Rondini suicide
has been dismissed.
The Alabama Attorney General's office reviewed the case
and approved our investigators' actions
and the investigative process.
[knocking]
[Rachel] Hi, Sheriff Abernathy.
My name is Rachel de Leon. I'm a reporter.
- [Abernathy] Hold on a second. - [Rachel] Okay.
- Hi. - I really don't have anything to say.
[Rachel] I... I don't need to get into the specifics. We can talk generally
about the department and how it handles sexual assault investigations.
Okay, I'll see what I can do.
[Rachel] I appreciate that, and sorry for, you know, bombarding you on a weekend,
but I'm in town tomorrow, and I'd be happy to meet with you if you have some time.
- Okay. I appreciate it. - [Rachel] In the morning. Thank you.
[optimistic music playing]
I'm super nervous, in general, knocking on someone's door.
When I do things like that, I just remember that I'm doing it
on behalf of someone else who... who can't do it themselves.
It's really important for me that I see the evidence for myself
to make sure I have everything right
and get to the truth without hearing it secondhand.
[optimistic music continues]
Megan's and Emma's cases were both handled by the same police unit.
But are they indicative of a police culture unique to Tuscaloosa,
or are they part of a bigger pattern?
[colleague] Feels like there's a lot of larger cultural issues at play here.
Like, from believing women, you know, to police biases.
To me, the big question is, do we know how representative this is?
You know, without necessarily going to get cases,
maybe you could collect the media reports of false reporting just to show
that it is at least maybe a national issue.
- [Rachel] Nope, don't even go near. - [intriguing music playing]
I wanted to find out how many people were prosecuted for false reporting,
but there is essentially no research that has been done about this.
I have a Google alert set up to catch certain articles that would come in,
and new alerts would show up every month.
[intriguing music continues]
[female reporter 1] A woman has pled guilty
to three felonies and two misdemeanors...
[female reporter 2] ...charges against a well-known yoga teacher.
[male reporter] ...sexually assaulted by three police officers while she...
[Rachel] I managed to gather more than 160 cases
that were reported on in the media,
mostly from the last ten years from all over the country.
[intriguing music continues]
[Amanda] Rae just kept finding more and more cases,
and at a certain point, we were like, "Shit!"
Like, we got this was gonna be a quick story, and this is... this is huge.
And my role was to kick the tires on it.
Okay, what... what do we really have?
What evidence can you find?
We have been collecting as much audio or video of interviews as possible,
'cause I just think that's a very important thing to look at.
[male investigator 1] I'm gonna tell you right now that basically, I got you here
under, basically, a ruse.
- Okay. - [male investigator 1] Okay. Uh...
- There is no letter. - Okay.
And what we've done is we've allowed the DA's office to review this case.
And they've issued a warrant for your arrest.
Okay.
For falsely reporting a police report, or a rape.
It appears that you were using the threat of rape to get what you want.
No, sir.
[male investigator 2] I just wanna tell you this,
and there's no getting around it, um,
the evidence that we have in this case is not jiving with your side of the story.
[male investigator 3] Our investigation is showing, there is
some things that we believe are untrue coming from your side of the story.
[Amanda] We're never gonna know exactly what happened
in any of these assault cases,
but we can look at the police investigation.
Who did the police talk to?
What methods did they follow?
Was it thorough? Was it fair?
And did they rely on the reporting victim retracting their story or recanting?
[female investigator 1] You'll be charged with filing a false report.
You're gonna go to the Douglas County Jail...
- From here? - You'll be booked in.
[tense music playing]
[male investigator 2] The charges will be...
[female investigator 2] Falsely reporting an incident.
[handcuffs clicking]
I noticed when I got into the Sex Crimes Unit
that every year, more people reported. Right?
But you're getting less detectives to investigate.
Sex crimes are always gonna take longer to work than other crimes.
And if you're already holding 30 cases to 40 cases,
you could end up shortcutting your investigative process.
If I can get her to, you know, decline prosecution or stop the investigation,
my numbers come down.
You don't think I can... an 18-year-old can come up,
and I can talk her out of coming forward.
Oh, I can.
Uh, oh yeah, Cathy.
Yeah, yeah, I read your case. Yeah, sorry this happened to you.
Hey, look, um, I'm gonna tell you right now,
because you were making out with this guy or his friend before,
uh, that's not gonna look good.
So, and the DA, they're gonna frown upon that you were drinking underage.
Okay, thanks.
Click. Bang.
Sign it off. Hand it in.
[low dramatic music playing]
[Jones] Now you're 20?
- [Megan] Yes. - [Jones] And you got a fake ID?
And... And you said that you
had five cups of beer?
[Megan] Yeah.
[Akridge] So they offered you shots of the Skyy vodka?
- [Emma] Yes. - [Akridge] Did y'all drink any of it?
This is what I think.
[Emma] Mm-hmm.
You and Steven started having consensual sex.
You freak out a little bit...
[male investigator] Everything was good? Consensual?
Both you guys are grown adults.
You don't wanna ruin this guy's life, do you?
- You don't wanna see him go to prison. - Deep down he's a good dude.
I mean, you guys just made a mistake.
You go your way. He'll go his way. We're gonna go our way.
[Rachel] In most of the cases I looked at,
the alleged assailant was known somehow to the reporting victim,
or there was a brief encounter before the incident.
[Akridge speaking indistinctly]
[Rachel] That opens up the possibility the police could say there was consent.
[Jones] ...a pretty big deal, okay?
[Rachel] But then I found a case about a total stranger.
[reporter] King University student claimed that a law enforcement officer
or person impersonating an officer assaulted her during a traffic stop.
The sheriff's office says Dyanie Bermeo admitted that she lied
and charged her with giving false report to law enforcement.
[intriguing piano music playing]
[Rachel] I got wind of Dyanie's case as it was unfolding,
and I met Melissa who is fighting Dyanie's false reporting charge at no cost.
Like, I saw the story.
- [Rachel] Yeah. - It didn't sit well with me.
And I just wanted to let her know,
you know, if she wants to talk about it, I'm here. I'm also an attorney...
[Rachel, voiceover] Her case caught my attention
because it's so different from the others I've been investigating.
[intriguing piano music intensifies]
Dyanie says she was assaulted by a total stranger.
And so, if police aren't disputing consent in the case,
what is the basis for their doubt?
[music fades]
My name is Dyanie Bermeo.
I go to school
at King University,
and I'm a double major in psychology and criminal justice.
["Law & Order" by Mike Post playing]
I remember I was in eighth grade.
I would hear the Law & Order theme song coming on,
and I was like, "Dad, why are you watching this? Like, just change it."
And he was just like, "Sit down and actually watch an episode with me."
And I got hooked.
I'm Detective Benson.
Who are you?
I'm Dori.
[Dyanie, voiceover] My favorite detective probably would be Olivia Benson.
You know where she is!
[Dyanie, continuing] I used to just love watching her catch the bad guy
and just how she pieced all the clues together and everything.
The hints, the evidence. And it was awesome.
We've got names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers.
I knew I wanted to be a cop.
But this past year,
that hope of trying to be a... like, trying to make a difference...
[tearfully] ...just wasn't there anymore.
- [pensive music playing] - [crickets chirping]
[Dyanie] I was 21 at the time.
I was driving back to campus,
and I was listening to music.
And then for a flash second, I was looking up at my rearview mirror,
and I saw blue lights, and I was just like, "Are you kidding me?"
So, I pulled over,
and the officer came to my window,
and he said, "Did you know how fast you were going?"
And I was like, "No, sir. It couldn't have been more than 40."
He was, like, "Okay, well, can you step out of the vehicle?"
I asked him why,
and he was just, like,
"Well if you're gonna be this much trouble,
I can call for backup and have five to six officers out here."
And as soon as I got out of the vehicle,
he didn't even let me look at him or anything. He turned me around.
He started searching me like...
Like, he went like this. He didn't go under my shirt or anything,
and then he went in between my legs. I was just standing there.
I didn't want to look. I had my eyes closed and everything.
[door closing]
He got back in his car, and he drove off.
The first person I called was my dad.
[sniffles]
And I remember crying to him, and I told him to not be mad.
I had told him that I was going to talk to the police... [sniffles]
...and to report it, and he was like, "Okay, okay, that's fine. Yeah."
[crickets chirping]
[music fades]
[male investigator 1] What could you tell about his face, if anything?
[Dyanie] Nothing. I mean, he didn't even... As soon as I got out of the vehicle,
he told me to turn around and put my hands on my car.
And while he was touching me,
I... All I could say was,
"P... Please think what you're doing."
"What you're about to do. Just, please, think about it."
And he told me to shut up.
I didn't even get to see him.
[male investigator 1] About how tall, compared to you, do you feel like he was?
[Dyanie] Taller. Um, at least six-four.
[male investigator 1] What car were you in?
[Dyanie] A 2020 black Kia Soul.
[male investigator 1] Kia Soul.
We're taking this serious,
and certainly we don't want anyone out there impersonating a police officer
and stopping females, and...
- Uh... - That's right.
Touching their body inappropriately or whatever.
You don't want them doing that.
I started digging into these cases where rape victims
have been prosecuted for false reporting back in about 2013,
and there's been a number of cases where I've served as an expert witness
when somebody's been prosecuted for a suspected false reporting.
[male investigator 1] If I pull it up on Google Maps, you think you could show me
- about where you were stopped at? - [Dyanie] Yes.
She's... I don't expect she's necessarily gonna remember
where she was assaulted. Where exactly on the road.
- She does though. - Does she?
She gives them so much information because she...
- She's a very detail-oriented person. - Okay.
[male investigator 1] All right, thank you very much.
[Dyanie] Thank you.
Oh, and here they start talking about their suspect.
This is very interesting.
[male investigator 1] Guy's gonna be about 50, 45 to 50 years old.
You know exactly who I'm thinking, don't you?
- [male investigator 2] Six-foot-four. - [male investigator 1] Dewayne Mullins.
We suspected him years ago for stuff like that,
- wanting to be a police officer. - [male investigator 2] Dewayne Mullins...
[male investigator 1] Yes! He's got family...
He's got a Crown Vic! He's got family down this way.
You know, they have a lead here. This is a possible suspect.
You have to alibi that guy. Where were you on this date and time?
And he's six-five.
He's been convicted for impersonating a police officer before.
I'm not saying it's Dewayne Mullins.
I'm just saying that... that's a lead you got to follow up on and really hard.
- [curious music playing] - [voice mail tone]
[Rachel] Hi, this message is for Dewayne Mullins.
Um, I don't know if I have the right number...
[automated voice] ...rerecord your message, press one.
To mark your message urgent, press two.
[phone beeps]
[Rachel] Hi, Dewayne, my name is Rachel de Leon.
There's something that's come up in a story I'm working on,
and I think you're the person I want to speak with about.
They had someone in mind.
She remembers the person being six-four or six-five.
Said he was driving a Crown Victoria.
- I haven't had a Crown Vic in years. - Okay. All right.
We never even heard of the case.
- They never reached out to let you know? - [both] No.
If you do figure out, like, where you were, I'd really appreciate it.
- And I heard... - I wasn't back around there.
From nine to... nine to ten, I would've been at work.
- Titan Wheel. - Yeah. They got cameras.
- In Saltville. They got cameras. - Say it again.
[Carl] They had a guy in mind, a possible suspect in mind.
What they decide to do is go out and try to get video
of where she had driven into and such.
Right. Maybe we'll get his car on there, and then we can confront him with it.
That's great.
First video was from a gas station
that nobody ever mentions they drove past.
[curious music continues]
The second one was from a Jeep dealership.
They call, and they talked to Adam.
No... No last name.
Adam calls him back and says,
"Oh I saw a 2020 Kia drive past our dealership,
no car behind it."
And then the third video was from this private residence
that sets back off about 150 yards.
- A football field and a half. - [music fades]
But at nighttime, you can see the road
if there's little lights blinking, I guess.
[Dyanie] I did not, like, realize that he was "behind me" behind me
until I saw the lights.
But the lights were so far back.
[eerie music playing]
- That's when I saw this. - [Melissa] Okay?
[Dyanie] And I pulled over...
right here.
[insects chirping]
[eerie music continues]
- [Rachel] You okay? - [Dyanie] Mm-hmm.
I just remember putting the car in parked.
And I put the e-brake on,
and I just waited until he came to the car.
And that's whenever he had the flashlight on.
And I couldn't see his face.
[crying]
[car door closing]
Oh.
You can't see anything from here.
Like,
I don't even know if you could see the house from over here.
- Like, not at all. - [Rachel] No.
- You wanna take a walk over there? - Let's do it.
[eerie music continues]
[Rachel, voiceover] I need to see where the police got the surveillance footage
used as evidence in Dyanie's case.
- [Melissa] Yeah, that one. Yep. - [Rachel] Okay.
Totally empty.
The camera should have been right here,
because on the video, there were two vehicles parked here.
So this is the extent of what you see though.
[knocking]
We just, um, had a couple of quick questions, if you don't mind. Um...
So my client was driving
down this road at night, she was sexually assaulted...
- [homeowner] Here? - [Melissa] Yes.
So I guess a cop never came and asked you questions about this.
- [homeowner] Didn't know a thing about it. - [Melissa] Thank you so much.
If I was a detective, I'd be knocking on all of these doors.
When the detectives came to my dorm, I didn't know that they were recording me,
because I didn't know it was an interrogation or something.
[birds chirping]
[male investigator] Scott told you earlier we're trying to get video
from that one house.
We've looked at that video,
and we see you go by.
- [Dyanie] Yeah. - [male investigator] But no one else.
[Dyanie] Okay.
After they said, like, "Oh, we saw this video recording."
"We could specifically see your car just passing by and nothing else,"
is whenever I felt like
they... they just turned, and they didn't believe me anymore.
I didn't even think about asking, like,
"Hey, can I see the video or anything?" I just wanted it to be over with.
I just didn't want to talk about it anymore.
[Melissa] This is the video.
- Okay. - So there goes one car.
All they need is one car going by and claim it is a Kia Soul.
[Melissa] Mm-hmm.
- They made their minds up. - Right, yeah.
They knew that they were going down there to accuse her.
[male investigator] The last thing I want to do is stand here and call you a liar.
[Dyanie] Yeah.
[male investigator] Okay, but what I see you doing is digging your hole deeper.
So we just need you to keep it between us.
- But we need you to tell us the truth. - [Dyanie] Okay.
[male investigator] Okay?
No stop happened, did it?
[Dyanie] Mm-mm.
[birds continue chirping]
[male investigator] Why did you make that up?
[Dyanie] I don't know.
The moment he says,
"Well, why did you do this?" And she says, "I don't know."
Instead of saying,
"I was doing poorly in school,"
which she wasn't, "I was fighting with my boyfriend,"
which she wasn't,
"I was having personal problems at home," which she wasn't.
She doesn't need the attention of this,
but they needed that admission from her, so they tricked her.
[emotional music playing]
[Dyanie] I got a call from Detective Adkins,
and he asked me if it was okay if I could come to the station
and sign some paperwork to close off the case.
He sat me down, and he was, like, "There's no other way to tell you this,
but we have to charge you with filing a false police report."
"You wasted so many people's time and everything."
"So that's why we have to charge you
and that this is the sheriff's decision to do this and everything."
We all talked, and we... we decided we have to press charges.
[emotional music continues]
They took me back to take my mugshot.
They did my fingerprints,
and then Detective Adkins was like, "If you plead guilty, you know,
we'll try and give a good word
to the prosecutor that, you know, to go easy on you."
I drove back to campus,
and... I was just crying...
[tearfully] ...because
not only have I not told anybody that the police didn't believe me,
but now I have to tell everybody
that I'm being charged with filing a false police report.
[sobbing]
And...
[crying]
I'm so sorry.
[sighs]
[director, off screen] What's making you so upset?
Just remembering how scared I was and how...
Just how I handled everything.
[sobbing]
That night, I didn't sleep good either. And when I woke up,
my roommate was like,
"Dyanie, what is this?"
And it was the article that the police had posted on their Facebook page.
I was getting Facebook messages from random people.
Basically saying what you could only imagine,
that I was going to rot in jail.
"People like you are the reason why cops get bad rep."
My face was plastered everywhere,
and I didn't want to stay on campus anymore.
There certainly seems to be a media obsession
with this notion that, uh yeah, women are somehow, uh, falsely accusing
all kinds of men of sexual assault. There's a huge media fascination.
Desi assaulted me that night.
[Carl, voiceover] The Gone Girl syndrome, right?
She intentionally lied to you
about the assault.
I was being held prisoner.
[Carl] A... A lot of officers are told, usually from somebody in their own office,
"Oh, yeah. You know, half of them lie."
Or, "Yeah, like, you know, two-thirds of them lie."
[eerie music playing]
False reports of sexual assault are actually pretty rare.
The most reliable studies say 2% to 10%.
The much, much bigger concern people should have, including men,
is that they could be sexually assaulted.
At least one out of every three women and at least one out of every six men
will be a victim of sexual assault in their lifetime.
Then their perpetrator could be left to re-offend.
[birds squawking]
[intriguing music playing]
[Rachel] I've been collecting news stories on false reporting cases
from mostly the past ten years.
But what is the media not including?
We needed to go beyond the headlines
and access the details in the police records.
To get that kind of information takes time, lawyers,
and lots of Freedom of Information requests, or FOIAs.
It wasn't possible to FOIA every single police department in the United States.
So, it was just choosing a few counties to look at
to try to get full case files so we could really do a deep dive.
What did the police investigation look like?
- Why did they make that flip? - [intriguing music continues]
[Rachel] Once we started requesting and even suing for police records,
I was drowning in documents.
This took three years, but we were able to uncover records
for 52 cases.
I needed a team of journalists to help me make sense of what we were finding.
[colleague] Four to five hundred pages in here.
- [Rachel] And that was one case. - Like a... a needle in a haystack.
There were some cases where they were charged
with false reporting within a day.
You're supposed to finish the sexual assault investigation first
to show that there was no assault or rape that occurred.
And then,
once you've done that, you explore whether it was a false report.
- But it only happened in one of our cases. - Yeah.
It's incredibly important as journalists to never take what police write as the...
as fact and truth.
[intriguing music continues]
[Rachel] It's only in the details that you start seeing
how a reporting victim becomes a suspect.
It was finally enough to start looking for patterns.
[intriguing music intensifies]
In more than half the cases we found, the reporting victim recanted.
So if the investigator's writing that they recanted, what happened before that?
I wonder how many of these investigators
used deceit before the person allegedly confessed or recanted?
[colleagues] Mmm.
[soft music playing]
[male investigator 1] I want you to really tell me the truth
because I have this on video.
[male investigator 2] The evidence that we have
in this case is not jiving with your side of the story.
I've got the video. We've got video too.
[Avalos] Police officers in this country are allowed to lie to you,
and they don't have to indicate in the police report that they lied to you.
They don't have to say that.
[soft music continues]
An officer will sometimes say, "We have video footage
showing the encounter, so I'm going to ask you some questions."
"Now, be honest with me, because remember, I have video."
[victim] I believe evidence,
so if you tell me you have video evidence that that didn't happen,
then, like, I guess I have to believe you.
[Avalos] You're not getting the truth out when you do these kinds of things.
You are confusing a person
who's already traumatized and already has memory difficulties.
[male investigator 3] I know he's taken two polygraphs.
And I know...
He didn't take two polygraphs. He's lying to her.
- Oh wow. - Yeah.
[male investigator 3] You don't think...
[Avalos] Getting the victim to retract their allegations is
such an important strategy for some of these police officers
because they haven't actually investigated the sexual assault thoroughly.
They don't actually have any evidence no crime was committed
or attempted against the victim, and so their best bet
is to pressure this person to retract their allegations
and then use that retraction to charge them.
[police siren wailing in the distance]
I was really curious to talk to you about Emma's case.
You know, she reported this, and then five days later,
you know, it flips on her entirely. They've got her in handcuffs.
So I'm trying to understand how that happens for someone who,
you know, is adamant that this did, you know, happen to her,
that she was assaulted.
[door opening on recording]
[Rachel] So about an hour and a half into Emma's interview,
Investigator Akridge walks out of the room
and locks the door behind him.
[white noise humming]
And then they put on a white noise machine.
So the white noise is
they're talking outside the door, and they just don't want her to hear.
[Rachel] So they leave it on for ten minutes.
[door closing on recording]
[Akridge sighs] Watching the video stuff that we have,
um, and it shows you and, I guess, Steven making out...
He talks about that there is this video, and they've watched this video,
and we... we don't know if it exists. Emma hasn't seen it at this point.
His theory is what? It's consensual.
You know, but she still hasn't submitted yet to his theory.
So if he is making up a video here,
uh, this would be the perfect time to do it.
That video was to get a reaction out of her,
and so when she recants or submits,
that's their entire case.
At this point, I had not gotten the surveillance footage,
which I really, really wanted, and they would not give it to me.
It was just a full denial.
However, I knew that... that some of it should be public record,
and so we were gonna fight for that.
- [dramatic music playing] - Hi, Attorney Bailey.
We took the extra step to hire an Alabama-based attorney
to sue for the records,
and we... we won.
We got some of the records.
[dramatic music continues]
[Rachel] Okay, let's see.
This is hours of footage from four different security cameras.
[dramatic music intensifies]
We're looking for Emma making out
or getting into a Jeep.
[colleague] That's a couple.
[Rachel] Hmm.
What is that? A spider?
This is almost 1:00 a.m.
Yeah, I can't really tell.
[colleague] Yeah, they just start making out.
[dramatic music continues]
[music fades]
[bird chirping]
[Rachel] I want you to tell me what you see,
and if anything's upsetting, we'll stop. Um...
So, this is a perspective from, I guess, an alleyway nearby.
The sheriff's department confirmed it's near Gallettes Bar,
if that sounds familiar at all?
Anyway, that's the first couple we saw, so we noted it.
- Do they look familiar to you at all? - No.
[Rachel] Okay, this is a couple that's making out.
[Emma] That's not... m... me.
- Like, that's just not... - [Rachel] Mm-hmm.
- That's not me. - [Rachel] Mm-hmm.
Does that at all look like who could have attacked you?
- No, not at all. - Okay.
Like, that's the longest and closest I saw
any couple doing anything like that in the footage I was provided.
- [Emma] Gotcha. - [Lisa] On this video
they wouldn't give you that you had to go to court to get.
Yeah.
Wow.
If it was truly an unbiased investigation to get to the truth,
asking you whether or not
that was you on the video should have been part of it.
[Emma] Yeah. They don't get into a car.
They very clearly walked around and away after they were done kissing.
Do you all want to look at, um, the cell phone footage from that night?
- Yeah. I feel that would be smart. - Absolutely.
- [Lisa] Where'd you get that? - [Emma] It's from my friend's phone.
- It's a video from that night. - Oh, that's right.
I forgot about that.
[laughing on video]
The guy who's in the video with me is the one who stood outside of the vehicle.
[Lisa] Okay.
[Emma] She's very clearly got some type of skirt or dress on.
Her hair is fully down.
My hair was in braids that night.
So if that's the video he's going off of, this is a very direct lie to my face.
- Makes me very angry. - [Rachel] Mm-hmm.
I think it could become harmful to the subject
if a journalist starts to play an advocate role.
My parents...
[Rachel, voiceover] My job is to investigate it fully.
I cannot be their friend, and I don't ever want there to be confusion about that.
So I need to maintain, like, a professional boundary there.
[ominous music playing]
[Emma] Ooh. Behind one of these frats is
where that video that you have of us is taken.
[Rachel, voiceover] Emma told me the detectives never accompanied her
to retrace her steps the night of the alleged assault.
- [man] What do you want to dance? - [Emma] You don't know any of that.
[Emma] Wait. Yeah, it's right here.
[Rachel] That's it. Is that it?
- Yes, that's the white... - [Emma] Yeah.
- [Rachel] Yep, that's absolutely it. - [Emma] Yeah.
[laughing hysterically]
[Rachel] Yeah.
[Emma] From, like, right here.
Going back that way...
[Rachel] Mm-hmm.
...is how we went up
toward the strip area.
[Rachel] Okay.
[ominous music continues]
[Rachel] I need to understand where Emma remembers the alleged rape occurring
and whether that location was captured in any of the footage that I have.
This is it.
[Emma] So I don't know where the angle is on the... on your video.
- I feel like that's this alley? - Right.
Yeah, it's got the white painted brick. That's the camera.
So let's see if we can find where the couple is kissing.
There is a camera right there, right?
[Rachel, voiceover] The footage I received from the Tuscaloosa Sheriff's Office
is from four surveillance cameras around Gallettes Bar.
The couple making out was here.
Emma says she didn't walk by the bar at all.
She told the detectives she walked with the alleged assailants
from a completely different direction and on to the gravel lot.
[Emma crying]
[crickets chirping]
[Emma continues crying]
[somber music playing]
[Emma] The car was parked here.
[sniffles]
[Rachel] Absolutely no cameras.
[Emma sniffles]
Fuck.
[breathing heavily]
[Akridge] Watching the video stuff that we have,
um, and it shows you, and, I guess, Steven, making out and everything.
And I... I know you got in the vehicle.
How can you tell me that I'm lying to you when there are no cameras
pointing in that area?
And the only footage that they gave you
is on the other side of the building.
I feel so unbelievably lied to.
Fuck!
[sighs heavily]
[music fades]
[Rachel] Um, I was wondering if Mr. Jared Akridge is available.
I was hoping to talk to you about an investigation
that happened several years ago...
[Akridge] I can't speak to you about any of our cases.
[Rachel] All right. Well, can we sit down, I'll talk?
And if I can show you, I would be very, very grateful.
[Akridge] I'm just not willing to talk about anything at all.
[Rachel] Okay.
[soft music playing]
[soft music continues]
High five. Good boy.
- [Rachel] Do you have a second? - Yeah.
How are you doing? How are you holding up?
[Rachel] Um, I'm doing okay.
I mean, I can't even imagine, like the...
just the... the small amount that you shared from the case files
is enough to really stick with you.
[Rachel] Yeah, it's just hard to know, I guess, if this is really gonna make
a difference, um... doing this because
I guess, I'm not sure that the police will ever own up to anything
because I know that matters in the public's opinion.
- [Amanda] Right. - Like what will the police own up to.
Right.
[Rachel] For Alabama,
Sheriff Abernathy won't talk to me.
Investigator Akridge won't talk to me.
[Amanda] It's very frustrating.
[Rachel] In Virginia, no one will give me an interview.
I don't know what else to do. I really just hit like a big wall.
We have no police right now
talking to me.
[Amanda] Um... What about Cotto?
[somber music playing]
Cotto, maybe.
Cotto, maybe. Perhaps.
[Cotto] Okay.
My name is Detective Cotto of the Bridgeport Police Department.
[Rachel] As I read through these cases,
the one detective who I keep thinking about is Detective Cotto.
[phone ringing]
He's the one who investigated Nikki Yovino's case
and is the reason why I got started on this.
[male reporter 1] Nikki Yovino originally claimed two Sacred Heart football players
had pulled her into a bathroom and then took turns raping her.
[Rachel, voiceover] In both Emma's and Dyanie's cases,
the police won't confirm whether the videos were used as a ruse,
but Detective Cotto
is pretty open that he does use ruses to get confessions.
Uh, as part of your job as a detective,
um, you lie to people that you are interrogating, right?
- [mysterious music playing] - [Cotto] Uh, yes. It's called a ruse.
What you try to do is get to see
if, uh, you know, you suggest things to see what their responses are
and where they're gonna lead to.
[male reporter 2] Yesterday was her sentencing hearing, and she was sentenced
to one year behind bars,
and she got a lashing from the judge.
[Rachel, voiceover] After Nikki's case,
five people submitted citizen complaints
about Detective Cotto's treatment of sexual assault victims.
None resulted in a ruling against him.
Cotto was still the lead detective in the Bridgeport unit
that investigates sexual assault.
[music fades]
After three years of trying to talk to Detective Cotto,
he finally said yes.
- Hi, Detective Cotto. I'm Rae. - How are you?
- Nice to meet you. - A pleasure.
Thanks so much for having us here today and taking the time out of your day.
- I really appreciate it. - It's okay.
Tell me about what this job is like.
My job is a fact-finding mission.
Okay, so I have to be unbiased.
Criminal investigation is quite difficult
because you have to prove
that a sexual assault did, in fact, happen.
And a lot of it is the interrogation.
I was privileged to take interview and interrogation courses.
How are we gonna get a confession? What's a confession?
[Rachel] There are numerous training techniques
that police use to elicit confessions.
One of the most famous is the Reid technique.
[intriguing music playing]
Through extended research and years of experience,
John Reid and Associates has developed a nine-step interrogation process.
[Avalos] There's been a lot of controversy around Reid
and false confessions.
When you have a combination of an officer
who has learned tactics that are designed to elicit confessions from suspects
and that person has skepticism
of, uh, sexual assault victims, thinking that they're lying,
then they will often turn to those interrogation tactics
that they've learned in order to try to elicit an admission
from the victim that they're lying.
In an effort to increase the suspect's feeling of internal anxiety and guilt
at this stage of the interrogation,
we begin to move closer, shortening the distance
between the suspect and ourselves, moving into their personal space.
[Cotto] Listen. I... I'm sorry.
I'm not trying to embarrass you.
[Rachel, voiceover] In her interview, he touches her knees several times.
- [Nikki] So... - [Cotto] You're in the bathroom?
[Nikki] Yeah.
[Rachel, continuing] He's an adult male,
and she's an 18-year-old who was recently,
according to her,
led into a bathroom by two men where an unwanted sexual act took place.
[Cotto] So, they didn't pull you into the bathroom, correct?
[Nikki] No, but they did grab my arm
at first.
[Cotto] Sure? I mean, and... and...
and who wouldn't grab your arm?
Look, you're a pretty young lady.
You... You really are. You're a pretty young lady.
You're a nice young lady.
Can you walk me through as much as you can?
- [Cotto] Mm-hmm. - The, um, technique that you used.
So for an example, I'm... I'm gonna... I'm just gonna use you right now.
Okay, you are, um, engaged in what I'm saying.
How do I know that?
You were sitting back, and I was mirroring you
in how you were sitting.
Right? So my hands were here. You were holding it. You were like this.
So you're studying body language as you're...
I am. I'm breaking down psychological barriers
to the point where... You know, and you can use ruse.
A ruse.
- You know, I give it... - What is that?
A ruse is a tool that allows...
that aids law enforcement to get to the truth.
- Okay. - It's actually not being truthful to them.
[Rachel] Oh. Like what?
Saying a lie. Saying like... like, "What if I tell you
that the intersection...
this intersection at this particular time...
[inhales deeply]
...um, you know, record... was recording."
But you don't have this footage.
- [Cotto] Maybe not. - Maybe not. Okay.
We use ruse every single day. Everybody does.
[ominous music playing]
[Cotto] What if I tell you
I was able to obtain
phone video
that shows you at the wall speaking to them at the party.
Who was the first person that walked out the bathroom?
'Cause this is also videotaped.
[Rachel] He repeatedly tells Nikki that she made up the whole thing,
that she went into the bathroom willingly to have sex.
She actually never says that.
At some point, she just doesn't disagree with him.
[Cotto] You didn't get raped in the bathroom. You knew that.
And you know, afterwards you just wanted to distance yourself from it.
- Right? - [Nikki] Mm-hmm.
[ominous music continues]
This happened to you, and now somebody is accusing you
of lying about it and fabricating the whole thing.
[Cotto] I'll be right back, okay?
[Avalos] In that situation, they need to get out of that encounter.
Countless women, especially young women,
have been talked into and cajoled into recanting
because that's how they can get out of that situation.
[ominous music continues]
[Cotto] I mean, if you read my investigation,
everything I do is fact-based.
I don't have an opinion in here. There's not one opinion
anywhere in my investigations.
Did you ever interview the two men?
I did not. No, they didn't want to be interviewed.
- Oh, but you asked? - [Cotto] Oh, absolutely I did.
Oh yeah, absolutely I did, but they just didn't want to.
One gave a written statement to his school...
Okay.
...but none gave me, uh, a statement personally.
Okay. It did come out recently
that one of the men had previously been accused of a sexual assault
while at Sacred Heart a month before Nikki reported it to you.
And I... I need to know if you knew that
while you were investigating Nikki's case.
- Who are we talk... - [Rachel] About... [bleep]
No, it's on there. His name on there... [bleep]
Was it from... And... And that's from where?
- Sacred Heart University? - [Rachel] Yeah.
Yeah, no. So I... So during it, I was not aware.
[Rachel] Does this change anything, you think?
No, because I'm going to explain something to you. So, um...
So... there was an individual,
um...
[bleep]
I'm positive I didn't see it... [smacks lips]
...and then it... I... I'm positive it was not in the, um...
the, uh... you know, wasn't of any evidence that I obtained.
[Rachel] Okay.
[Cotto] Okay. So let's do this.
Can you... Let's stop this, and then let's look.
[Rachel] Okay.
Why not? Let's look.
Thank you.
[low, ambient music playing]
[Rachel, voiceover] Detective Cotto says he couldn't find
the man's name in the system.
A thorough investigation would have included looking
into the suspect's past.
Cotto interrogated Nikki
but never interviewed either of the two men
who have since insisted the sex was consensual.
Ultimately, Nikki plead guilty.
[Cotto, busily] The physical check. Now, let's see it.
[Rachel, voiceover] In the false reporting cases I went through,
in almost half of them,
it's not clear if the suspect was even interviewed or was identified.
Which is, like, a really big deal. [chuckling]
It's, like, a very key part of an investigation.
I'm just like, wow, there's so much more they could have done.
There's just so much more they could have done.
[Akridge] There have been several investigators involved,
and we have done a very, very thorough investigation.
[low, ambient music continues]
[Carl] In Emma's case, both the suspects weren't even identified.
There were other friends that possibly knew him
or other witnesses that... that knew him. Did they go to that school?
She had a video that one of the suspects were on.
I mean, they... they would have been... It would have been easy to find.
I mean, if you're gonna do anything, you need to identify them two.
[Rachel] In Emma's police report, the surveillance video appears to be
this really critical piece of evidence to justify her arrest.
And if they just completely misidentified her,
I would think that they'd care.
[dramatic music playing]
[birds chirping]
Folks like Emma's family reach out to lawyers like myself,
uh, because we have a certain perspective.
Uh, we understand what it's like to be at the bottom of the boot.
We're essentially claiming that they withheld, uh, this video from us.
We think it clearly exonerates Emma.
[Rachel] There is now an opportunity to overturn the case,
meaning that this could just be completely wiped from her record
as if this false reporting charge never happened.
And if we win that and they determine that there was a constitutional violation,
uh, then yeah, the case will be overturned.
[Rachel] I'm so used to seeing her documents
as the State of Alabama versus Emma Catherine Mannion.
Now it's Emma Catherine Mannion versus the State of Alabama.
[upbeat music playing]
[Maxwell] All right.
- Thank you, guys. - [Maxwell] Thank you, Emma.
- Uh, we'll be talking to you soon. - Thank you.
The last few years have catapulted my healing.
Aw, it's good to see you.
Because Rae's taken my word for my word and not just done it blindly
but gone and done the legwork that the police should have done.
[upbeat music continues]
[police siren wailing]
They have a tough job, you know. I would dot your I's and cross your T's.
Okay.
I'd like to run through the questions
and see if it lines up with what I'm looking from for you.
So my first question would be, what are some of the reasons
that a sexual assault victim might recant a legitimate report?
[Avalos] It can be how she's treated by officers.
Um, if, uh, they used deception on her.
You know, it's not strong, confident, middle-aged women
that experience being charged with false reporting.
- It's young women, vulnerable. - [Melissa] Right.
So she's somebody that is easy to take advantage of.
- A perfect target. - Yeah. Mm-hmm.
If... If she "false reported," then the sexual assault didn't happen, right?
So they just completely forget about the sexual assault portion of it.
I just want to really get her exonerated.
- That's really the biggest thing. [sighs] - [Avalos] Okay.
[soft music playing]
[Dyanie] When we got that guilty verdict,
Melissa was like, "It's okay. We're going to appeal."
I'm hoping that it's a different outcome this time,
but do I have the same faith in the criminal justice system
like I did before?
No, I don't.
[smacks lips]
[Rachel] How are you two feeling?
Nervous.
I just...
This place doesn't bring me good memories.
- Were you here for the last hearing, the... - Yeah.
Yeah, and it was...
[inhales deeply] It wasn't good.
Yeah, I just felt so powerless, you know what I mean?
I felt in a way that I never felt in almost my 30 years being in this country.
I think I feel what other people say it
when they say that sometimes the justice system is not made for everybody.
I was the one who said to her, you know, "Baby, you need to go the cops."
You know, "You need to report this." So I feel like, you know what I mean,
like, I... I sent my daughter to these freaking people here.
You know what I mean?
I could easily say, you know what? Don't worry about it, you know.
It's just hard whenever you do everything that you're supposed to,
and things like that happen, you know?
[dramatic music playing]
[dramatic music intensifies]
I'm Laura Dunn, counsel for defendant.
[Laura continues speaking]
[dramatic music continues]
[Dyanie crying]
[Melissa and Dyanie sigh]
The judge believed me.
That's all I wanted from the first place... uh, the first time around,
and I'm just... I'm still out of words for it,
but it meant a lot more than anything when he said not guilty.
[dramatic music continues]
This was a huge ruling.
False recantations happen when law enforcement
don't approach victims the right way and don't support them
and don't believe them at every step.
And I hope that changes,
just this county and perhaps even broader, and you'll be part of that.
You'll be the reason for that.
Dyanie, you did the hard work, for real like...
[Dyanie laughs]
It feels so good to have... to have won,
but there's so many pieces to still pick up of her.
Like... [scoffs] ...they left a lot of damage in the wake.
It's not so simple.
She wants to be a law enforcement officer. She had wanted to intern at the FBI
right before this happened.
They took that from her. They took all of it from her.
[dramatic music continues]
[birds squawking]
Before the story comes out, we, you know... we want to reach out to them again.
Like, just so you know,
- this is what we're saying in our article. - Yes.
[Amanda] The question with the headline is,
how do you accurately portray the story?
She reported her rape to police, and when they didn't believe her,
or something, you know, just a...
She reported a rape.
She ended up in handcuffs or something like...
- Yeah. - Or we could play with something like
when a victim flips to a suspect.
[Amanda] Mm-hmm. Or police charged her with lying after they lied to her.
[Rachel] Yeah. Mm-hmm.
[Amanda] What does it take to fight one of these charges? To get justice?
So, for Dyanie to get justice,
it took, you know, at least half a dozen people that she had to bring on board,
hundreds of hours of work, and it would have been
tens of thousands of dollars of legal help.
For... And that's one case.
[calm music playing]
[Rachel, voiceover] As I get closer to publishing,
there's one question I keep coming back to.
[Rachel] I just... I just have this question.
So if police aren't believing someone,
why not just dismiss the case?
Why go through the trouble of making arrests?
Those are easy.
All... If I can get her to recant,
I'm done.
I... I... I get an arrest and don't have to do a full investigation,
and that's just another one off my desk.
[calm music continues]
Or they cleared the sexual assault with an arrest,
and that's the arrest of the victim.
And then you... you go out,
and you shame her.
They're gonna teach that person the lesson.
When a false report's made like this,
then the person that makes a report such as that,
you know, they... they need to suffer the consequences.
[Avalos] The main effect is the chilling effect.
They are chilling the reporting of sexual assault
because other victims are going to be afraid to come forward.
So the message they send
to all the sexual assault survivors in their community
is that if the police don't believe you, they might prosecute you.
[emotional music playing]
[Rachel, voiceover] First, you report being sexually assaulted,
and then you have the police calling you a liar.
Then the police will sometimes post about this
on their own social media accounts.
[female reporter] The sheriff's office says Dyanie Bermeo also reported the...
[Rachel, voiceover] Journalists pick this up and republish it
without their own investigation.
'Cause you're no longer a sexual assault victim,
you do not have that right to privacy anymore.
Once your name is in the press, it's everywhere.
You can't put it back.
[male caller] To Mrs. Yovino, I really hope you get the full two years
'cause you fucking deserve it.
[Rachel] These young women have no idea,
when they go to report an assault, what could happen to them.
[Carl] Most of the victims in sexual assault are
between ages of 14 and 26.
So you're dealing with somebody that's really young,
and they just don't understand how it works.
Even adults don't know how it works, but, um...
Yeah.
[director, off screen] Why do you care so much?
Uh...
Good question. Um...
My sister was sexually assaulted.
Twice.
The first time she was 13.
She came home, my mom called the police, they did zero.
They didn't even take a report.
And my sister got heavily into drugs,
and, um... and I... a lot of that was from what happened to her.
And, um... she became addicted, and then when she was 17 years old,
she was raped by two... two males
and, uh, two suspects.
Cops came out.
Did nothing.
And my sister just struggled for the rest of her life.
And I... I know it came from that.
So, I...
[sighs]
I look at my victims, and I see...
[choking up] I see her.
That's why.
[pensive music playing]
[trainee] I want to thank you for coming in today.
I'm here to help you. Okay?
- You went to the party? - [victim actress] Yeah.
- [trainee] Okay. Okay. - [victim actress] I got too drunk.
And I got sick.
I should have just gone home.
[Carl] What I think needs to be done is, obviously, training.
You have detectives who've never been trained in sex crimes,
especially in smaller agencies.
If you asked a question twice,
then the victim feels, you know, you're doubting them.
Just bear in mind, if you do it too much, down the road,
she's gonna be thinking... you know...
- [victim actress] You don't believe me. - Right.
- [trainee] Or even paying attention. - You're not paying attention.
You're not listening.
A lot of detectives will come up to me,
they're like, "Yeah, we really want to work these cases but no training."
[Akridge] But I'm telling you right now,
if you continue to lie to me, this is about to go south.
[Emma] I'm not lying. I'm not.
They were treating the victim in the same interview as a suspect.
Of course there's gonna be inconsistencies.
Which we already established, the inconsistencies.
They automatically started kind of putting the burden of proof on the victim.
[background chatter]
We've been talking all day today about, uh, two survivors
that are gonna come in and do their, uh, impact statement.
And they're here today. Uh, honestly, I've been training a long time,
and to get survivors to come in to talk at... on any level,
uh, is a really tough thing to do.
Do I want to go up in front all these cops and tell them this?
- [Emma laughs] - No, not really.
I don't wanna hear, "I'm sorry."
- [Emma] Yeah, that one. - Like... I like...
Like you didn't do this to me.
- I've had enough... - [Dyanie] Of I'm sorry's.
- ...like, of pity cries for Emma. - [Dyanie] Yes.
I... That's not... [chuckles]
That's not where I'm at.
And... And I know that
case to case is different,
longevity is diff... Like, this is year five for me.
To the right.
[Emma] I was 18 years old.
I was raped
in the back of a vehicle by a stranger
with his friend who stood outside the car watching.
I walked through my statement
and was bluntly told by the detective
that they did not believe me.
That he wanted to help me, but he couldn't help a liar.
I fell victim to a rapist
and was never given the privilege or dignity
to process my assault.
If a survivor is coming to you, and they need your help,
and you don't help them,
there's a monster walking around free.
If you assume immediately that they're lying,
if you feel like your job would be easier
if it was swept under the rug,
or if you're tired of all the paperwork,
find a new career.
[Dyanie] I thought they were coming down to the campus to help me,
but in reality, they came down ready to interrogate me.
There is a law saying, like, you know,
police officers can lie to people, and it's okay.
I'm very sorry, and I'm telling you right now,
I don't think you should lie to sexual assault survivors.
[Emma] I applaud you all for being here,
but I think this should be standard practice across the board.
[audience applauding]
[applause continues]
[Avalos] This is a problem we can solve.
We need to ensure
that police departments are not relying on a victim recantation as their evidence
that no crime was committed or attempted.
If they close a sexual assault case without a thorough investigation,
if they accuse the victim without evidence,
then they should be held accountable and risk losing federal funding.
[pensive music continues]
[Rachel, voiceover] So much of my investigation
was focused on police process.
But it's also the prosecutors,
legislators, the judges, even the mayors.
There is an institution of people
who allow it to happen.
- [music fades] - [police siren wailing in the distance]
[Rachel, voiceover] I've been working on this story for four years
and found about 200 cases so far
where alleged victims of sexual assault were turned into suspects.
It's impossible to say how often law enforcement is doing this,
but here's what we do know.
[curious music playing]
There are more than 460,000 sexual assaults
in the United States every year.
Only 30% of those are reported to the police,
and only 1% of perpetrators are ever prosecuted.
[curious music continues]
There's so little justice for victims,
and when law enforcement turns them into the suspects,
it demands the question,
is reporting worth the risk?
[curious music intensifies]
This was my first big solo investigative piece.
It's nerve-racking.
I mean, I don't know if I'll sleep the night that this comes out,
to be honest with you.
[knocking]
[knocking continues]
There's a lot of power that stories like this can have.
Look, I'm sorry if I'm, you know, pestering you at this point,
but I... it's really important that I speak with you.
[Rachel, voiceover] Anybody in my story, I want them to be aware of it.
That it's coming out.
Gonna be quite a few people that won't like this story,
but that's... you know, that's journalism.
[smacks lips, chuckles lightly]
That's journalism, baby.
[laughing]
[intriguing music playing]
[Rachel, voiceover] The footage shows Emma walking with the alleged assailants
moments before her alleged assault.
It corroborates exactly her description of where she was and with whom.
[Emma, over recording] It was just myself, Steven,
the guy in the blue shirt, and... [bleep].
[intriguing music continues]
[music fades]
[dramatic music playing]
[host] From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX,
this is Reveal.
Today, we're talking with reporter, Rae de Leon
about her yearslong investigation
that raises troubling questions about how police investigate sexual assault.
- [Rae] Hi, Al. - [Al] Hey, Rae.
[dramatic music continues]
[dramatic music intensifies]
[dramatic music continues]
[music fades]