Maples’ letter of apology

[What follows is a letter of apology written to Patty by Capt. Cheri Maples of the Madison Police Department. The unauthorized sending of this letter resulted in Maples being investigated by the department for possible disciplinary action. No such discipline was ever imposed.]

October 30, 2001

Dear Patty,

I have wanted to write this letter to you for some time, but wanted to wait to make sure I did not interfere with any ongoing efforts to investigate your case or prosecute the suspect in the case. I was involved in your case as a part of a supervisory review of the efforts of three different Madison Police Department Detectives who investigated the 1997 sexual assault, in which you were a victim. At that time, I came to the conclusion that the detectives had conducted a proper and thorough investigation.

As you remember, Bill Lueders wrote a series of articles in the Isthmus that drew a lot of attention to your case. At that time, I thought Bill was making an honest mistake with respect to the conclusions that he came to. As it turns out, it appears to me now that I was the one that made the honest mistake. This letter is meant to serve as an apology to you for that mistake.

I was wrong and your case will always serve as an important reminder to me that the police are not infallible and holding us accountable in a democratic society is extremely important. I can only imagine the additional trauma you were put through after being sexually assaulted and then having your story questioned, and then not being believed by the police officers and supervisors charged with investigating your case. Words will never be able to convey how sorry I am for the additional trauma that this must have caused you.

What I can tell you is that your case will serve to have the department re-examine how we provide training to police officers and sensitive crimes detectives. We will attempt to convene a group associated with the initial investigation and charging decisions to discuss what went wrong to try to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. I will also push to have us revisit our organizational structure to see how mistakes of this kind can be prevented in the future.

The department continues to believe that a partnership between the community and the police is not only a critical factor in ending violence in the lives of all of us, but critical to the effective provision of public safety in any form. Our concern at this time is that everything possible be done to ensure that justice is the end result of your case. What is important is that the truth is uncovered and that we do everything possible to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

Again, I want to extend my sincere apologies for any injustice that was done to you personally throughout this ordeal. The fact that it was an honest and sincere mistake does not and is not intended to diminish the pain and trauma that you were subjected to. I wish you only the best. If you have any desire to discuss this further, I can be contacted by phone at 266-6234 or at the below mailing address.

Sincerely,

[signed]

Cheri Maples,
Captain of Police
Madison Police Department
211 S. Carroll St.
Madison, WI 53703

[End of document.]