Opinion/Bill Lueders

Patty's unending horror story

If some benevolent spirit were to grant me one wish this holiday season, it would be for Patty's horrifying ordeal to be over at last. What's more likely, however, is that it will be drag on for some time to come, and may even get worse.

Patty, you may recall, is the visually impaired Madison woman who in September 1997 reported being raped at knifepoint by an intruder in her home. The rookie Madison police detective assigned to her case came to doubt her account, and decided to accuse her of making the whole thing up. He repeatedly lied to Patty in the course of breaking down her resistance, even claiming evidence that did not exist. Her "confession," according to his report, was couched in the language of fear: "If you’re going to drop this, I’ll say whatever you want."

On this basis, the Dane County District Attorney's Office filed criminal charges against Patty for having reported the rape. Those charges were dropped after the belated discovery of semen on Patty's bed sheet. But the prosecutors and police, who jointly launched a major secondary investigation trying to salvage their case, continued to claim that they were right all along.

Patty fought back, filing misconduct charges against the officers and a federal lawsuit, both of which were dismissed -- but not before Patty was subjected to nearly 20 hours of objectively sadistic questioning by lawyers representing the city of Madison. She lost her business as a result of her legal costs, and still owes her attorney for the $5,000 the city's lawyers demanded to settle the case.

At Patty's insistence, the state Justice Department reopened an investigation into her rape. She also asked it to look into the conduct of Madison police, but this request was refused. To add insult to injury, both Madison Police Chief Richard Williams and Mayor Sue Bauman have proclaimed that the state did investigate this aspect and found no evidence of police wrongdoing -- an outright lie.

And then, in June 2001, it was revealed that DNA from semen at the scene matched that of a convicted felon and sex offender, Joseph J. Bong, who is now imprisoned for crimes committed a week after the rape. Bong was a friend of Patty's daughter, and his identification brought Patty hope that justice was within reach. That was 18 months ago.

First of all, the Dane County DA's Office took nearly a year to file charges against Bong, which it did last May. Nearly a year. District Attorney Brian Blanchard chalked the delay up to the case's complexity and large volume of paperwork. But I think the office was just not sure it wanted to take the case, and had little concern for the anguish its indecision caused Patty.

Indeed, the DA's office has never admitted error or apologized for having prosecuted Patty for reporting being raped. This even though the case meets the ridiculously high standard Blanchard (who was not DA at the time) has set for issuing apologies -- that given the available evidence the charges should not have been filed. (See Isthmus, 4/12/02).

Meanwhile, the top priority of the Madison Police Department has always been to justify its own conduct, as Williams' willingness to lie attests. Indeed, when Capt. Cheri Maples sent Patty a letter of apology, the department investigated her for possible disciplinary action.

Will police now admit that they made a mistake? Don't bet on it. Even as authorities in New York agree they got four hard-bitten young street toughs to falsely confess to a 1989 rape in Central Park, police in Madison may continue to claim that Patty's momentary recantation under duress was the only time she told the truth while everything else -- her detailed statements to police, media, friends, family, therapists, lawyers and under oath -- has been a fabrication.

Following the lead of the city and its police department, Bong's lawyer, Mark Eisenberg, has signaled his intent to make attacking Patty a main prong of his defense. At Bong's arraignment in August, he announced to me that one possible outcome might be that the DA's office would "re-file charges" against Patty.

Eisenberg is seeking dismissal of the charges in court filings loaded with misstatements and omissions, to which the DA's office has not responded. At a pretrial conference last week, he finagled another in a series of delays -- for at least 45 days -- to seek additional information to use against Patty, from the filings in federal court. The prosecutor, Judy Schwaemle, agreed to assist Eisenberg in his effort to obtain this information.

Schwaemle is a committed, competent prosecutor and the judge, Gerald Nichol, is considered one of Dane County's best. But both are players in a justice system that, as we all know, sometimes fails to serve the interests of justice. Bong (who despite an 18-year sentence is already eligible for parole) deserves a fair trial. But Patty does not deserve to be put through the crucible one more time.

This is a woman who has been abused by the system each time she has turned to it for help. That she is nonetheless willing to do her duty in testifying truthfully about what happened to her more than five years ago shows she has far more concern for the safety of other women in this community than they have for her, and far more courage.