At the hearing, Woodmansee testified that he and Draeger employed "a ruse"--Harlowe called it "an outright lie"--in securing Patty's confession during a surprise interrogation on Oct. 2, 1997. Woodmansee told Patty one of the reasons he doubted her account was that the State Crime Lab "hadn't found any traces of latex" from the condom she says her rapist used. In fact, there is no test for condom residue.

"I realize it might be perceived by people as trickery or deceit," said Woodmansee. "But I didn't do it with any malice. I did it to get the truth." Judge Aulik's decision--which mistakenly claims this "rouse," as he misspells it, was "about the lack of prints on the condom"--reaches the same conclusion: "Making up stories to induce suspects to confess is not improper conduct."

Woodmansee also admitted that he got Patty to come to this interrogation under false pretenses, saying he needed additional hair samples when, in fact, "I intended to confront her." He said he lied because she otherwise would not have shown up.

There's more: Woodmansee told Patty the sexual-assault nurse who examined her at Meriter after the alleged assault on Sept. 4 found "no sign of forced trauma" or other evidence of sexual assault. (The nurse, Jill Poarch, earlier told Isthmus that Woodmansee assured her he never told Patty any such thing.) In fact, Patty had a bruised thigh and scratched rectum and the nurse, according to Woodmansee, "couldn't say one way or another" whether an assault occurred. The rest, he said, was just "my interpretation."

Woodmansee similarly told Patty the Crime Lab found "no evidence of sexual assault" while neglecting to mention that some evidence collected at the scene was not yet analyzed. Harlowe, at the hearing, implied that semen was subsequently found in this material. Police officials and the DA's office won't comment on this development, except to say the investigation is "ongoing."

For instance, Woodmansee testified that he brought up Patty's history of childhood sexual abuse and a past suicide attempt at the Oct. 2 interrogation. He told Patty that no Madison police detective believed her and chided her for taking up time he could have spent on other cases--exactly as she remembers.

According to Woodmansee's report, Patty's initial response when thus confronted was to assert, "I'm not changing my story. I can't believe this. I'm scared to sleep in my room." She asked to take a lie-detector test or be placed under hypnosis but was told by Det. Draeger that this wasn't necessary because police knew she was lying.

Patty broke down. "What do you want to hear?" she asked, according to Woodmansee's report. "I'll say whatever you want." She added, "If you're going to drop it, I'll say whatever you want." Despite persistent questioning, Patty was never able to provide any reason she would fabricate a claim of sexual assault, and "went back and forth" about her decision to recant.

No one disputes that Patty was never informed of her right to remain silent or to have an attorney, although the goal of the interrogation was to get her to implicate herself. Woodmansee testified that Patty was never in custody, and that he told her early in the 90-minute interview, "You can leave if you want, I don't care." Karofsky repeatedly established that Patty was never placed in handcuffs, leg shackles or "belly chains."

Early in the interrogation, Woodmansee accused Patty of lying about the extent of her disability: "I [said] her vision does not appear to be bad to me." He said that, based on his observations, he didn't believe she hadn't been able to positively identify her assailant. Harlowe produced a letter from Patty's ophthamologist stating that she is "considerably worse than legally blind in both eyes" and could not possibly identify a face in any light.

Harlowe, at the hearing and in his brief, argued that police deliberately broke Patty's will by presenting her with "a world gone mad." I'm blind. No, you're not. I was raped. Nobody believes you. I want to take a lie-detector test. What for? We know you're lying.

"Judge, under these circumstances, you would confess," asserted Harlowe, visably angry. "I've been doing this for a long time. This is one of the most rotten investigations I have ever seen. It's an embarrassment to the criminal-justice system."

Aulik didn't see it that way: "[T]he common sense conclusion begs the question, how else could a person investigating the commission of a crime approach a suspect, other than in an accusatory setting[?]"

According to Madison Police Department rules, "Members of the Department are required to speak the truth at all times and under all circumstances, whether under oath or otherwise." There is no exception for interrogations, but Lt. Pat Malloy, head of the department's Professional Standards Unit, notes that courts have at times sanctioned police dishonesty. He declines comment on Det. Woodmansee's use of deception.

Karofsky, in her closing remarks, cited several cases in which courts have affirmed the right of police to lie to obtain confessions: "It's pretty clear, judge, that police officers are allowed to use deception and ruses...."

But Madison Rape Crisis Center executive director Becky Westerfelt, who attended last week's hearing, urges caution. "Interrogating somebody who is a survivor of sexual assault is different than interrogating a drug lord," she says. "The tactics that were used against Patty are questionable, in that to some extent they didn't work. If they had, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now." She's referring to the spectacle of the DA's office criminally prosecuting a woman who credibly claims that she was raped, then coerced by police into recanting.

Harlowe, in his own closing, said the techniques used by police to get Patty to confess are appropriate in some circumstances and tolerated by the courts "because we have a war on crime." But the present instance, he said, was not excusable: "This is a war turned on rape victims...."

Karofsky, in response, praised police and expressed concern for the damage done to the name of the man Patty implicated. Ironically, this man's name has never been reported in connection with this case, but only when he was arrested last month by Madison police for allegedly attacking a black man without provokation outside at east-side convenience store at 2 a.m., saying, "You're a fucking nigger and you need to die."

Whereupon, the man whose reputation Karofsky is concerned about allegedly grabbed a 28-inch aluminum baseball bat from his truck and swung at his would-be victim, who disarmed and punched him. Police earlier said the DA's office was considering hate-crime penalties, but no such charges were filed. The man is charged with disorderly conduct and use of a dangerous weapon; if convicted, he faces a lesser maximum sentence than does Patty.