The following is a personally experienced true story. (Abbreviated, but otherwise factual.)
The Allegation ~
I man with a prior police record, is accused of attempted rape and aggravated battery.
The Victim's report of the crime ~
The female Victim had known the suspect for only a few weeks, dating him exclusively during that time. He wanted to cut off the relationship, and she went to his hang-out bar to talk to him. She asked him to go outside and talk, and he went outside with her. In the alley parking lot by the rear entrance, they got into any argument. The suspect tried to force her into oral sex. She resisted. He showed her a gun that he had in his car, and said he'd already killed one person, and he would kill her if she didn't submit. She still wouldn't. He threw the gun into the back seat of his car, then got mad and picked up a large chunk of nearby concrete and smashed a large hole into his own windshield. He then grabbed her, tried to tear her top off, then grabbed her and rammed her head into the hole in the windshield. He left her there, and went back into the bar. She escaped and ran around to the street, and across to a McDonald's, and the police was called. She has a small cut on her head, and her sweater was missing, revealing just her bra.
The Police ~
The Police arrived, spoke to and observed the very shaken Victim, and called for an ambulance. She was treated at the scene by the EMT's for a minor cut to her head, but required no other treatment. Other Officers then went to the bar to locate and contact the Suspect inside. The Suspect was subsequently arrested, the car searched, and a gun found. The Victim's sweater was not found. The chunk of concrete was not identified as the one reported to have been used by the Suspect, and none was collected as evidence, nor was any glass from the windshield for comparison trace evidence. A handgun was found in plain view on the backseat of the Defendant's car.
The Suspect was well dressed in ironed jeans, cowboy boots, and a starched western shirt. When contacted in the bar, he did not run, nor display any concern when the Officers came in. He had been drinking a couple beers and watching a baseball game on the TVs with the other patrons. The Officers took him back outside, by his car, and arrested him after the Victim identified him to police.
He was arrested and booked on felony charges, with a $50,000 bond.
The Evidence ~
Observations by the police of a smashed car windshield.
Slight cut to the head of the "victim".
A Handgun (Unknown origin of the handgun, and not found to be tied to any other crime).
(No women's sweater, torn or otherwise)
(No piece of concrete said to have been used to smash window - not collected)
(No glass or blood evidence on the person of the defendant)
The Defense Attorney ~
The Defendant's Attorney called me, as I was a Private Investigator at the time, for a consultation. I was provided a copy of the police report to review. The Defendant has a history with the Police. The Attorney also added this - The Defendant was a witness, a "star witness", to a year old murder case resulting from a shooting at another bar. In that case, and as far as the Defense Attorney knows, is not related to this case. But curiously, the Murder Suspect is trying to get an appeal of his conviction. The Attorney thought it was too much of a coincidence, and that such a felony conviction could come up as discrediting his Defendant in the other case. The Victim had stated that this defendant had a gun and had killed someone before. The Defendant says the gun was planted in the his car. The defendant did not own a gun, let along that gun. But the fact that the Victim made the claim about of gun, added to the suspicion the Defense Attorney had about the case. Any relationship between the Victim and the convicted murder defendant, was unknown.
The Defendant ~
He had only met the woman several weeks prior to the incident, when she first came into the bar and they hooked up. They dated for 2-3 weeks. He thought she was too clingy and demanding of his time, and he wanted to break it off and told her so. A few days later, she showed up at the bar and asked him to go out back to talk, which he did. They argued and her told her to get lost, and he returned to the bar. He said he was outside for less a 2-3 minutes.
He had no idea his car window had been broken, he doesn't own a gun, and has no idea why she would say he confessed to shooting anybody. And when the Police came in the bar, he had no idea they were looking for him for anything. (His past run-ins with that Police Dept., were related to his drinking and DUI's.)
The Defense Investigation ~
I reviewed the Police report and Victims statement, as well as reviewed the evidence documentation.
1. The Victim's sweater was never found. It had not been in the Defendant's car, nor in the alley, nor in the bar, and not along the street and path toward McDonalds.
2. The concrete block was not collected.
3. No glass was collected from the car windshield for any comparison to any trace evidence.
4. No glass was collected from the Victims head.
5. No evidence that the gun was the Defendants, nor matched to any crime.
6. No witnesses or other supporting facts to support Victim's allegations.
7. The small cut on the Victim's head, hardly bled, and required no hospital treatment.
I began at the bar, and during interviews of those who know the Defendant, and those who were just there, resulted in no one having any idea that anything had happened prior to the police arriving. The two bartenders I spoke to, recalled that night and the woman coming in, but both put the Defendant back in the bar in under 2 minutes, and no indication that anything was wrong. No one knew the woman, other than she showed up with the Defendant a couple times. She was not a regular, and had not been seen there before, or since.
I then started looking at the Victim. She was from the area, but had been in and out of her family's home, and had been seen with an unknown man, not the Defendant.
I also looked at the Murder case, and that suspect, who had been convicted and was serving time. That convicted suspect had a brother. I found the brother, living at his parent's house, and I started watching who came and went. With that, I observed and ID'd the female Victim, sitting on the porch with the brother, then again later walking hand-in-hand down the street. This connection, had every appearance of being a possible set-up, to get our Defendant convicted of a felony.
Additional background on the victim, revealed that she had been seeing that brother, prior to the bar incident.
Later, during the trial and cross examination, the Victim first denied knowing the convicted murder suspect, or his family. When shown a surveillance photo, she had no comment. During the Defense presentation, when I was on the stand, and the Prosecution started to ask questions, but after a couple basic ones, stopped when the answers were not what he wanted the jury to hear.
The Jury ~
The Jury deliberated, after going over the instructions, for less than 30 minutes.
They returned with a verdict of NOT GUILTY.
Summary ~
1. The "crime" never happened.
2. The "victim" sought out the Defendant at the bar, and attempted to get a relationship going.
3. The actual murder gun was never found, but the gun from the Defendant's car was not matched to any murder. Unknown owner.
4. The Victim's boyfriend, the Murder Suspect' brother, was believed to have staged a "crime" and attempted to frame the Defendant in hopes that a felony conviction, and new evidence of this defendant having a gun, would help get a new trial.
5. The Jury did not find the Victim credible at all.
6. The Defendant was in fact, framed from the start.
Conclusion ~
Not all "VICTIMS", are Victims.
Not all "CRIMES" are crimes.
And thorough Police Work/Investigations are always critical to making good cases.
An arrest, is NOT proof of guilt. That is why we have a system of "innocent until proven guilty". That is also WHY the media should never take sides in their reporting of criminal events.
