Can rape victims trust the system?

Becky Westerfelt, executive director of Madison's Rape Crisis Center, says she never would tell a sexual assault victim not to go to the police. But since Isthmus' cover story last week about a woman named Patty (last name withheld) who claims she was raped, then coerced by Madison detectives into saying that she made it up, the center has been hearing from women who say the case makes them afraid to do so.

"I don't feel I could trust the MPD, or law enforcement in general," Westerfelt says the callers are saying. "What should I do if I'm assaulted?"

Westerfelt says callers expressing this concern are being advised that they can have a Rape Crisis Center advocate present during questioning and, if they wish, report the assault to the state Justice Department, rather than the Madison police.

While the Rape Crisis Center works to contain the damage, the DA's office is sticking to its decision to criminally prosecute Patty, without investigating her charges of police misconduct or reviewing new evidence and testimony supporting her claim that she was indeed raped.

Patty, a 38-year-old legally blind woman with a history of childhood sexual abuse, says police Dets. Tom Woodmansee and Linda Draeger on Oct. 2 deceived and threatened her into saying that the rape she reported on Sept. 4 never happened. Immediately after leaving police custody Oct. 2, Patty called the Rape Crisis Center to report her experience with police. She also sent letters of complaint to the Madison Police Department in hopes of prompting an official probe.

According to the MPD's official rules, "Every employee of the department has the responsibility to insure that a citizen complaint, on being expressed, is received and referred to the appropriate unit or supervisor." But Lt. Dennis Riley, who received Patty's letters, kept them from being investigated by giving them only to Woodmansee, the accused, to put in his file. Riley also apparently lied to Isthmus in saying that he knew of no such letters.

Patty alleges that Woodmansee and Draeger made specific false representations. For instance, that if her rapist had used a condom, as she related, there would have been "rubber residue"; Patty later learned, from the nurse at Meriter who examined her, that there is no such thing. She says the detectives threatened her with criminal charges, negative media attention and overnight detention unless she confessed.

Mayor Sue Bauman did not make time to discuss the case, despite repeated inquiries. Police Chief Richard Williams did not respond to inquiries last Thursday and Friday. On Monday, a day Williams had been expected in, police said he was taking the entire week off. Police spokesperson Tom Synder has also stopped returning phone calls.

On Thursday, the day the article appeared, Snyder said he still thinks Patty fabricated the rape but remains open to the possibility that the department made a mistake. He says Det. Woodmansee came to doubt Patty's story because she "didn't act like a rape victim"--a representation Patty recalls him making.

Even after Patty recanted, Woodmansee apparently still wasn't certain her initial report was false. He called Patty's therapist, Linda Moston, seeking additional information. Moston refused to talk to Woodmansee, but told Isthmus she has no doubt that Patty was indeed raped. She has notes and even a tape recording of sessions in which Patty recounts detailed information about this rape, which the police and DA insist never happened.

But the cops and DA's office are not interested in these materials. Deputy District Attorney Jill Karofsky, who is charging Patty with a Class A misdemeanor for obstructing an officer, says she knows of no new information that would compel her to reconsider: "I read the article. I also read the police reports. I can see there are a lot of differences."

Diane Nicks, Dane County's new DA, flatly refuses to discuss the case, other than to say that she's reviewed the file. She cites her ethical obligation not to say anything that might interfere with Patty's pending criminal prosecution--a prosecution advocates like Westerfelt say will make area women even more reluctant to report sexual assaults.

What about Nicks' ethical obligation, as an officer of a court, to concern herself with evidence that suggests Patty is telling the truth? Nicks, before hanging up on a reporter, says this area of the law is "extremely complicated."