T. Christian Miller - A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America

A False Report is a gripping and often devastating tale. By bringing their characters alive, Miller and Armstrong do not judge so much as illuminate the deep sexism that continues to pervade our societys treatment of rape. Better still, the women in this book are strong protagonists as much as victims.

A NNE- M ARIE S LAUGHTER, president and CEO of New America, and author of Unfinished Business

This is a grim, important, meticulously reported book that denounces breakdowns in the system of investigating crimes against women. The revelations are tragic, unthinkable, almost Kafkaesque. But the authors dont stop at outrage. They do a public service by explaining practical reforms that can make a profound difference. And they tell their story with unrelenting clarity and compassion. A False Report has all the detail, drama, and humanity that make the finest nonfiction as compelling as a novel.

S EBASTIAN R OTELLA, author of Rip Crew

Far too many women and girls who are sexually assaulted never report itoften out of fear they wont be believed. A False Report reveals the true cost of doubting womens accounts of rape. This fascinating, deeply troubling book has the power to spark a national conversation about how our criminal justice system fails victims, and how it can be reformed.

P EGGY O RENSTEIN, author of Girls and Sex

Monday, August 18, 2008

Lynnwood, Washington

Marie left the interview room and walked down the stairs of the police station, accompanied by a detective and a sergeant. She was no longer crying. At the bottom, the police handed her off to the two people who were waiting for her there. Marie belonged to a support program for teenagers aging out of foster care. These two were program managers.

So, one said.

Were you raped?

It had been one week since Marie, an eighteen-year-old with hazel eyes, wavy hair, and braces, had reported being raped by a stranger with a knife who had broken into her apartment and blindfolded, bound, and gagged her. In that week Marie had told the story to police at least five times. She had told them: thin white man, short as five feet six. Blue jeans. Hoodiegray, maybe white. Eyespossibly blue. But her story wasnt always the same in the telling. And the police had heard from people in Maries life who had doubts. And when the police had confronted Marie about those doubts, she had wavered, then buckled, saying she had made the story upbecause her foster mom wasnt answering her calls, because her boyfriend was now just a friend, because she wasnt used to being alone.

Because she had wanted attention.

Shed sketched her history for the police detectives. Shed described growing up with something like twenty different foster parents. Shed told them she had been raped when she was seven years old. Shed told them that being on her own for the first time had made her scared. Her story of being raped by an intruder had turned into a big thing that was never meant to happen, shed told the police.

Today she had tested whatever patience the police could still summon. She had returned to the station and doubled back, saying she had told the truth the first time, saying she really had been raped. But when pressed in that interview room she had folded once moreadmitting, again, that her story was a lie.

No, Marie told the managers at the bottom of the stairs.

No. I was not raped.

The two managers, Jana and Wayne, worked for Project Ladder, a nonprofit program that helped foster kids make the transition to living on their own. Project Ladder taught teenagerseighteen-year-olds, mostlythe mundane skills of adulthood, from how to shop for groceries to how to manage a credit card. The biggest boost the program provided was financial. Project Ladder subsidized each teens one-bedroom apartment, making it possible for the kids to get a foothold in the expensive rental market ringing Seattle. Wayne was Maries case manager. Jana was a program supervisor.

If thats the case, the managers told Marie, if you werent raped, then theres something you have to do.

Marie dreaded whatever was next. She had seen it on their faces when shed answered the question. They werent thrown. They werent taken aback. Theyd doubted her before, just like the others. It occurred to Marie that from now on, people would think she was mentally ill. She, too, wondered if she was broken, if there was something in her that needed to be fixed. Marie realized just how vulnerable she had become. She worried about losing what little she had left. A week ago, shed had friends, her first job, her first place to call her own, freedom to come and go, a sense of life unfurling. But now that job and that sense of optimism were gone. The place and her freedom were in jeopardy. And friends she could turn to? She was down to one.

Her story had, indeed, turned into a big thing. Last week the television news had been all over it. A western Washington woman has confessed that she cried wolf, one newscast said. In Seattle the local affiliates for ABC, NBC, and CBS had covered the story. The NBC affiliate, KING 5, zoomed in on Maries apartment complexpanning up the stairs, lingering on an open windowwhile Jean Enersen, Seattles most popular anchor, told viewers: Police in Lynnwood now say a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a stranger made up the story.Detectives do not know why she made the story up. She could face a charge of false reporting.