{"id":39205,"date":"2015-09-30T12:46:03","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T10:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/?p=39205"},"modified":"2015-09-30T13:04:26","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T11:04:26","slug":"they-told-me-it-never-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/?p=39205","title":{"rendered":"The Police Told Her To Report Her Rape, Then Arrested Her For Lying"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"post-4035623\" class=\"post2 super_format  post-wide bf_dom c\">\n<div id=\"buzz_header\" class=\"custom_header\">\n<hgroup>\n<h1 dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/longform-original-28945-1443276625-3.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-39215 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/longform-original-28945-1443276625-3-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"longform-original-28945-1443276625-3\" width=\"377\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/longform-original-28945-1443276625-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/longform-original-28945-1443276625-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/longform-original-28945-1443276625-3.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 377px) 100vw, 377px\" \/><\/a><\/h1>\n<h1 dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">\u201cThey Told Me It Never Happened\u201d<\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 id=\"post-title\" dir=\"ltr\">What\u2019s at stake when police arrest women who they believe falsely reported rape? For Lara McLeod, it was her reputation, her mental health, and maybe even her baby nephew\u2019s life.<\/h1>\n<\/hgroup>\n<div class=\"c user-bg\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"share_control\" class=\"bf_dom square_shares custom_header_shares shown\" dir=\"ltr\" data-bfa=\"@l:Top-Share;\"><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div dir=\"ltr\" data-print=\"body\">\n<div id=\"buzz_sub_buzz\" class=\"bf_dom c suplist_long suplist_list_show suplist_long_custom_header ab_test_mp4--hide\" data-bfa=\"@l:Subbuzz;\">\n<div class=\"buzz_superlist_item_text\">\n<p>Lara McLeod never wanted to report her rape. In those first few hours, the 19-year-old was barely able to put what had happened to her into words. Joaquin Rams, Lara\u2019s older sister\u2019s fianc\u00e9, had forced Lara to have sex with him, she said \u2014 just two weeks after Lara\u2019s sister, Hera, had given birth to Joaquin\u2019s baby.<\/p>\n<p>Joaquin warned Lara not to tell anyone, she said, because it would ruin her family\u2019s life. Lara feared that was true, but she broke down and told her parents the next day. They rushed out the door in a panic to pick up Hera and the baby. All Lara wanted to do after that was go back to sleep.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, later that evening, she got a call from a police officer in Prince William County, Virginia, the suburb of Washington, D.C., where Joaquin and Hera lived. He wanted to know whether what Lara had told her parents was true. When Lara said it was, the officer told her that she needed to come to the station immediately for a formal interview.<\/p>\n<p>After a cursory investigation of the claim they compelled her to file, the police abruptly concluded Lara was lying about being raped and arrested her. Hera was charged with obstructing justice for aiding Lara\u2019s alleged deceit, and had to spend her savings on legal fees to get them dismissed. Lara\u2019s charges were eventually expunged, but not before her reputation was destroyed. She says she still has severe panic attacks whenever she sees a police officer.<\/p>\n<p>But the worst was yet to come.<\/p>\n<p>In the ensuing battle for custody over Prince, Hera and Joaquin\u2019s infant son, it emerged that not only had Joaquin lied about his name, employment history, and age \u2014 he was a decade older than he had claimed \u2014 but he had also once been a suspect in his ex-girlfriend\u2019s shooting death and a person of interest in his mother\u2019s death, too, although he was never successfully charged in either case. He had been accused of child abuse by his other son, although never convicted, and ran an amateur porn site.<\/p>\n<p>But thanks to the charges against Hera and Lara, Joaquin was able to portray himself as a comparatively fit parent \u2014 and the victim of a smear job. The judge granted Joaquin unsupervised visits. Three months later, EMTs found Prince unconscious on the floor of Joaquin\u2019s house. The 15-month-old died the next day. Months later, Joaquin was charged with murder.<\/p>\n<p>Joaquin, who has been in jail without bail ever since, adamantly denies any wrongdoing in the deaths of his son, ex-girlfriend, and mother, and denies he raped Lara. His upcoming trial, in which the prosecutors \u00a0the death penalty, has attracted. But the mishandling of Lara\u2019s rape allegations \u2014 the night that started it all \u2014 has never been reported until now, and authorities still refuse to explain why they were so quick to press charges against the sisters.<\/p>\n<p>Internal documents and recordings of private meetings obtained by BuzzFeed News, none of which have previously been made public, show how grievously the police botched their investigation from start to finish, allowing their beliefs about sexual assault to influence the way they pursued the case.<\/p>\n<p>In a private meeting with the McLeods, the chief of police admitted the department bungled aspects of the investigation, calling parts \u201cimproper,\u201d \u201csloppy,\u201d and \u201cshortcutted,\u201d saying he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d that the detectives \u201cdidn\u2019t pursue every possible means to either support the allegations or the conclusions that they were reaching or disprove them.\u201d But he stressed that women do lie about rape, so it was important for officers not to be too credulous \u2014 and that it was only his \u201cpersonal opinion\u201d that police shouldn\u2019t have pressed charges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not uncommon for people to make false, malicious, salacious allegations of sexual assault,\u201d he said. \u201cThat does happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lara is stuck putting the pieces of her life back together. Now 23, she still has no clue why the police told her to report a crime, then arrested her for doing so. She only knows one thing for sure, she says: No one should ever report a rape to the police.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe night I was raped, I said I wanted to be left alone,\u201d Lara told BuzzFeed News in August. \u201cPeople say rape is serious and you should report it, but look what happened to me: I reported my rape, and they told me it never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"superlist_4035623_6964065\" class=\"buzz_superlist_item buzz-superlist-item buzz_superlist_item_image buzz-superlist-item-image  buzz_superlist_item_wide image_lfcw no_caption \"><\/div>\n<p><b>Before Hera met<\/b> Joaquin in February 2010, the McLeods were a tight-knit, fortunate family. Both sisters attended private boarding schools and elite colleges. Lara, who is 11 years younger than Hera, studied opera and journalism in college before moving to the West Coast, where she works at a tech company. After Hera graduated, she worked for Teach for America and competed on the reality TV show <i>The Amazing Race<\/i> with her father before moving to Washington, D.C., where she\u2019s worked the kind of high-powered consulting jobs that earn six figures and require a security clearance. Hera didn\u2019t have much time for romance, so she tried online dating, where she met Joaquin.<\/p>\n<p>The judge who presided over Hera and Joaquin\u2019s custody battle was struck by the differences between the two. \u201cWhat attracted the two of you together on the internet, god knows,\u201d he said. Hera\u2019s family was equally baffled. Joaquin was a goateed musician who didn\u2019t have a steady job or any discernible talent. But he won Hera over by talking about how much he loved his 10-year-old son, whom he had raised as a single dad ever since what he claimed was the child\u2019s mother\u2019s tragic accident. He spoke confidently about his aspiring music career and often said he was on the phone with R&amp;B stars or meeting with business partners. He had a recording studio in his four-bedroom house, drove a Mercedes-Benz SUV, and bought expensive electronics.<\/p>\n<p>Hera is the first to admit she didn\u2019t try too hard to poke through the holes in his story. She was 29, and Joaquin, who told her he was 26, was her first serious boyfriend after years of travel and adventure. He \u201cspoke with such conviction,\u201d she said, \u201cthat it seemed impossible that the things he told me weren\u2019t true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fantasy began to unravel a few months after they started dating, when Hera became pregnant. Hera knew it was risky to have a baby with a man she barely knew, but she had a steady salary and had always wanted kids. That rationale, combined with her Catholic upbringing, convinced her to go for it, she said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"superlist_4035623_6964093\" class=\"buzz_superlist_item buzz-superlist-item buzz_superlist_item_image buzz-superlist-item-image  buzz_superlist_item_right_large image_lfrl  \">\n<div class=\"sub_buzz_content\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bf_dom alignleft\" title=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/ak-hdl.buzzfed.com\/static\/2015-09\/26\/12\/enhanced\/webdr05\/longform-31888-1443285864-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"440\" height=\"589\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"article_caption_w_attr\"><span class=\"sub_buzz_desc\">Lara McLeod and Prince. <\/span><span class=\"sub_buzz_source_via buzz_attribution buzz_attr_w_caption\">Courtesy of Lara McLeod<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Suddenly, Joaquin had no money and expected Hera to pay for everything, she said. He stopped eating and showering and made comments about how he should kill himself so Hera could collect life insurance. In December 2010, Joaquin was charged with domestic abuse on a juvenile after his son told a school counselor that Joaquin had punched and kicked him, according to a visitation evaluation report. Joaquin told Hera that his son was overreacting to a spanking. Hera, determined to keep her newly formed family together, convinced herself that Joaquin, who was never convicted of the charges, was telling the truth and experiencing depression. She started attending counseling sessions with him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt trapped,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I wanted my son to have a father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lara and Hera had always been close, but the two grew apart when Hera started dating Joaquin and Lara went off to college. That\u2019s why Lara agreed to go to a Lil Wayne concert with Joaquin on July 16, 2011, two weeks after the baby was born. Lara didn\u2019t like Lil Wayne any more than she liked Joaquin. But he was family now.<\/p>\n<p>It was the summer after Lara\u2019s freshman year, and she was living at home at her parents\u2019 house in Gaithersburg, Maryland, about 40 miles away from Joaquin\u2019s place in Manassas, Virginia. The night of the concert, Hera and the baby spent the night at the McLeods\u2019 in case Joaquin and Lara stayed out late \u2014 he had told Lara he would take her backstage and to an afterparty. On the way to the show, Joaquin asked Lara if she was willing to do whatever it took to succeed in the music industry. She wasn\u2019t sure what he meant, she told the police.<\/p>\n<p>Later on, Lara said, instead of taking her backstage, Joaquin brought her back home to explain: She could either have sex with him, right then and there, or he would take her to a party where she would be gang-raped by a group of men.<\/p>\n<p>Lara later told the police that she tearfully argued with Joaquin into the early morning. When she protested that her sister had just given birth to Joaquin\u2019s baby, he claimed he and Hera had agreed that Joaquin could sleep with Lara that night, the police report states. Lara even tried saying she had her period \u2014 that always discouraged pushy guys at college \u2014 but Joaquin was relentless. Earlier in the night, he had shown Lara the gun he had on him, she told police. Later, he put her phone in the trunk, and she didn\u2019t know anyone in the area to ask for help, she said. As the night went on, Lara began to realize there was no escape. Joaquin led her into the basement.<\/p>\n<p>The rape itself was an \u201cout-of-body experience,\u201d Lara said. Either her sister had put her in a position to be raped by Joaquin, Lara thought, or she had just destroyed Hera\u2019s new family. Afterwards, Joaquin dropped her off at a subway station, gave her a hug, and told her not to fight him so hard next time, she says.<\/p>\n<p>When Lara told her parents what had happened the next day, Hera knew immediately that her sister was telling the truth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted so badly to believe that he was who he said he was,\u201d Hera said. \u201cBut then it was like someone finally threw a big bucket of water on me and I woke up screaming. I realized I didn\u2019t know this person at all. I just saw a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"superlist_4035623_6964068\" class=\"buzz_superlist_item buzz-superlist-item buzz_superlist_item_image buzz-superlist-item-image  buzz_superlist_item_wide image_lfcw  \">\n<div class=\"sub_buzz_content\">\n<figure style=\"width: 990px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bf_dom\" src=\"http:\/\/ak-hdl.buzzfed.com\/static\/2015-09\/26\/12\/enhanced\/webdr06\/enhanced-buzz-wide-22568-1443285383-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"1485\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hera McLeod (left) and Lara McLeod photographed in Seattle on September 8th, 2015. Jovelle Tamayo for BuzzFeed News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"article_caption_w_attr\"><b>After Hera\u2019s parents<\/b> picked her and the baby up, she called the police \u2014 not to report the incident, but to ask for an escort, so she could go back to the house and get the baby\u2019s things. When the officer entered, Joaquin, who later said in court that he was \u201cconfused\u201d as to why the officers were there, started yelling that he had never touched Lara. Suddenly, the officer later said in court, the routine escort request \u201cbecame an investigation for an alleged rape.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Another police officer, Detective Bradford Cavender, called Lara to confirm the allegations were true, then told her she needed to come down to the station for an interview. Lara didn\u2019t want to go \u2014 it was late, and she was groggy and shell-shocked \u2014 but she still wasn\u2019t worried. It didn\u2019t occur to her that even \u201cif you were innocent, someone might not believe you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The police report notes Lara\u2019s reluctance to report her rape multiple times. Cavender, who interviewed Lara when she got to the station, wrote in the report that Lara said \u201cshe never wanted to call the police.\u201d When he asked what Lara wanted from the investigation, she said she just wanted Joaquin to \u201cleave my family alone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Virginia law defines rape as sexual intercourse that is accomplished against one\u2019s will, not just by force but by \u201cthreat or intimidation.\u201d Even so, Lara didn\u2019t say she was \u201craped\u201d in her account, according to the partially censored police report obtained by BuzzFeed News, but instead made statements such as \u201cHe was having unconsensual sex with me and it was painful.\u201d It was the police that first used the word \u2014 and then used it against Lara later.<\/p>\n<p>Cavender appeared skeptical of Lara\u2019s claims from the start. He repeatedly questioned her as to why she didn\u2019t try to escape, even though Lara told him she was afraid of Joaquin\u2019s gun, and that he warned her she would \u201cfuck my family life up\u201d if she didn\u2019t comply. Cavender asked Lara why she didn\u2019t keep her arms down when he tried to take her shirt off, even though she told him over and over again that she didn\u2019t struggle because she was \u201cterrified.\u201d Lara used the word \u201ccatatonic\u201d to describe her mental state by the time she yielded to Joaquin after hours of arguing. \u201cDespite being in a catatonic state she remembered that he led her by the arm into the house through the garage entrance,\u201d Cavender noted.<\/p>\n<p>Police sent her to get a rape kit and then met with Joaquin and his lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>Joaquin initially told police he \u201cdid not touch\u201d Lara, he later admitted in court. Now, he\u2019d changed his story. They had sex, but it was consensual, he said. (Later, in court, he would also say it wasn\u2019t the first time.) And he had proof, he told the police and later said in court: a video he had secretly recorded using a camcorder Hera had left their house with a few hours before.<\/p>\n<p>The police were seemingly unconcerned that Joaquin had videotaped a 19-year-old having sex without her knowledge, which is<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> <strong><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/vacode.org\/18.2-386.1\/\">a crime<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in Virginia. Instead, they summoned Hera back to the station and demanded to see her camera. After a few minutes of confusion she took it out of her purse and handed it over.<\/p>\n<p>The police scrolled through the camcorder\u2019s contents but didn\u2019t see the video. Joaquin told them he might be able to retrieve it, so they allowed him to take the camcorder \u2014 evidence in an alleged sexual assault \u2014 to his attorney\u2019s office, where, with the help of an \u201cIT guy,\u201d the video appeared. Police would later admit in court that they had no idea what Joaquin did \u2014 whether he used a computer program, or backup software, or inserted a different memory card \u2014 just that he \u201cknew how to use the camera a lot better than any of us would be able to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cavender described the tape in his police report. Both Joaquin and Lara were onscreen, he wrote. He heard Joaquin say, \u201cLook, think about how things are gonna be, once we can get over this,\u201d and, later, \u201cDon\u2019t be shy, we\u2019re gonna get this over with.\u201d But Cavender was more interested in Lara\u2019s movements. She had already told the police that she didn\u2019t try to leave the basement during the sex itself, but she had said she cried, told Joaquin he was hurting her, and said \u201cno\u201d repeatedly, according to the report. Cavender wrote that he could not hear Lara crying out as she had said, and that the video contradicted her chronological account. He concluded that she was an \u201cactive participant in the sexual intercourse\u201d because she did \u201cnot appear to be struggling\u201d in the video Joaquin had provided, and \u201cat no point during the sexual intercourse did Lara ever tell him to \u2018stop.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many neurobiological <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/grade-point\/wp\/2015\/06\/23\/why-many-rape-victims-dont-fight-or-yell\/?postshare=1291435091428544\">studies<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/journals.lww.com\/hrpjournal\/Fulltext\/2015\/07000\/Fear_and_the_Defense_Cascade___Clinical.3.aspx\">show<\/a> that rape and trauma victims have fragmented memories of assaults. Our brains often react to life-threatening situations by shutting down, which is why victims can\u2019t always provide a linear account, experts say. Cavender didn\u2019t appear to consider that a factor. But if he was concerned about the seeming discrepancies between Lara\u2019s account and the video, there were any number of paths he could have pursued.<\/p>\n<p>Cavender could have sought out the security footage from the 7-Eleven where Lara told him that Joaquin had taken her while they were arguing about whether she\u2019d sleep with him. Cavender could have reviewed Lara\u2019s medical records or run Joaquin\u2019s name to see if he had ever come to the attention of local authorities before. The police record does not indicate that the detective did any of those things, however. Because by the time Cavender finished reviewing the videotape, Joaquin was no longer the one under suspicion. Lara was.<\/p>\n<p>He asked Lara to come back to the station two days later. Unaware that she was under investigation, she showed up without a lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>Cavender and another detective, Kimberly Norton, interrogated Lara. Was there a possibility Lara had ever had sex with Joaquin before, or that she slept with him that night in hopes of meeting people in the music industry? If someone had been watching, would there have been any doubt in their mind that she was raped? Lara said no, Cavender wrote.<\/p>\n<p>They asked Lara if there were inconsistencies in her testimony; she said if there were, she didn\u2019t mean them. It was hard for her to remember exactly what had happened, she said, since she had been so distraught. But she couldn\u2019t understand why the police were fixated on the sex instead of the three hours before, especially since she had admitted that her case wasn\u2019t a typical stranger rape case.<\/p>\n<p>Cavender noted that Lara said, \u201cAt the point where he had sex with me, yeah at that point I was a willing participant because I wanted to get it over with.\u201d But Lara wouldn\u2019t \u201cadmit\u201d that she had wanted to sleep with Joaquin, which made the detectives upset. They told her that Joaquin didn\u2019t deserve this, she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gave Lara one last opportunity to tell me the truth and to admit if it was consensual sex and she again denied that it was consensual,\u201d Cavender wrote in his report. He finally told her he had a tape of the two of them having sex and asked if Lara wanted to watch it.<\/p>\n<p>Lara started panicking. No, she didn\u2019t want to watch a secret video of her recent sexual assault. That\u2019s when the police told her it was time to teach her a lesson, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite being contradicted on almost every part of her story from the first interview, Lara refused to admit that she lied about reporting the rape,\u201d Cavender wrote. \u201cShe continued to assert that she was a [<i>sic<\/i>] unwilling participant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lara and Hera still haven\u2019t seen the video. Joaquin\u2019s prosecutors have the camcorder now, and have said they may use other footage on it as evidence in the upcoming trial. Hera believes Joaquin doctored the recording \u2014 as it later came out in court, he had the know-how. Even if he didn\u2019t edit it, \u201cthe tape represents one moment in time in which he had control over her,\u201d she said. \u201cHe knew when to turn it on and turn it off.\u201d (Joaquin\u2019s lawyer, Daniel Morrissette, told BuzzFeed News that the recording \u201cshows that Ms. McLeod\u2019s participation was consensual,\u201d although he would not say if he had actually seen the video himself.)<\/p>\n<p>The police charged Lara with making a false report to law enforcement. Assistant District Attorney Claiborne Richardson signed off on the charges and told the police to also charge Hera with obstruction of justice for deleting the video, according to the police report. Two women with perfectly clean criminal records \u2014 who had never wanted to report the rape in the first place \u2014 ended up charged with crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Lara says she wasn\u2019t even read her rights before she was handcuffed and marched out of the station. She thought her mom would be waiting at the end of the road. Instead, they frisked her, told her to take out her piercings and let down her hair, and carted her off to jail.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what I did!\u201d Lara recalled saying over and over. \u201cThey said, \u2018Don\u2019t play dumb, you know what you did.\u2019\u201d She spent the next few hours sobbing behind bars. As soon as they let her out, she started apologizing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe police told me I had to apologize,\u201d Lara said. \u201cSo I kept saying, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"superlist_4035623_6964071\" class=\"buzz_superlist_item buzz-superlist-item buzz_superlist_item_image buzz-superlist-item-image  buzz_superlist_item_wide image_lfcw no_caption \">\n<div class=\"sub_buzz_content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"bf_dom\" src=\"http:\/\/ak-hdl.buzzfed.com\/static\/2015-09\/26\/12\/enhanced\/webdr05\/longform-original-32535-1443285431-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"602\" height=\"426\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Making a false<\/b> report to a police officer is a misdemeanor offense in 42 states and a felony in eight. These laws exist because filing a false report can have serious consequences for the accused. An innocent person might be arrested, booked, and subjected to a forensic examination and public scrutiny. Sometimes police spend extensive time and resources investigating a false claim \u2014 in those cases, they might seek restitution.<\/p>\n<p>But given that the majority of sexual assaults are\u00a0to the police, there\u2019s reason to tread carefully when it comes to those reports, experts say. Because sexual assault is such a deeply personal violation, victims are less likely to report the crime. They\u2019re also less likely to go to the police because they are so often unbelieved: The possibility of being ridiculed, doubted, shamed, or even thrown in jail dissuades many from coming forward.<\/p>\n<p>Sexual assault allegations may be deemed false just because a victim is uncooperative, police have doubts about her credibility \u2014 often because she\u2019s a sex worker, poor, or a minority \u2014 if drugs and alcohol are involved, if the victim has mental health issues, or simply if there\u2019s not enough evidence. In other words, just because a police officer determines a report is false doesn\u2019t mean it is, which is why there are no <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/news_and_politics\/jurisprudence\/2009\/10\/how_often_do_women_falsely_cry_rape.html\">consistent<\/a> studies on the rate of false rape allegations, although the most widely accepted research puts it in the range of 8\u201310%.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the prospect of false rape claims seems to loom large in police perception, which may be one of the reasons only 7% of sexual assault reports lead to arrest and just 3% lead to prosecution, <a href=\"https:\/\/rainn.org\/get-information\/statistics\/reporting-rates\">according to<\/a> the Rape, Abuse &amp; Incest National Network.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the biggest problems in rape investigations is that police think women lie,\u201d said Lisa Avalos, a University of Arkansas law professor who researches the prosecution of false rape claims. \u201cWhen police think that, they typically fail to thoroughly investigate their rape complaints, thus doing a disservice to those victims as well as to the community as a whole, because a predator remains at large.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) says rape claims must be fully investigated before false reporting charges are considered, and it directs police to be open-minded and sympathetic when interviewing victims and not to judge a victim\u2019s credibility by her reaction to the rape. Some states have developed their own best practices, such as the Oregon Attorney General\u2019s Sexual Assault Task Force, which instructs officers not to arrest women for making false reports if the reporter was compelled to make the report, or if the report did not result in harm to the accused or in the use of significant agency resources.<\/p>\n<p>But both federal and local investigations across the country have found that police often fail to follow these guidelines, instead letting deep-seated stereotypes about sexual assault \u2014 that women often lie \u2014 influence their decisions. A 2012 federal investigation into how Missoula, Montana, handled sexual assault complaints <a href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/crt\/legacy\/2014\/02\/19\/missoula_ltr_2-14-14.pdf\">found<\/a> that the police, prosecutors, and local university all responded inadequately and failed to take sexual violence seriously. In 2013, Human Rights Watch published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2013\/01\/24\/us-dc-police-mishandle-sexual-assault-cases\">a report<\/a> on police mishandling of sexual assault cases in Washington, D.C. Although the district said it had policies in place to prevent mishandling of sexual assault cases, the report found the department often failed to investigate complaints and discouraged victims from reporting their assaults, in some cases even threatening to charge them with false reporting.<\/p>\n<p>There are no comprehensive studies on how often women are mistakenly charged with false reporting of sexual assault, but high-profile cases from <a href=\"http:\/\/uwpress.wisc.edu\/books\/2671.htm\">Wisconsin<\/a> to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/article\/20110413\/NEWS01\/704139783\">Washington state<\/a> have frightening similarities: Victims were pressured to recant reports and prosecuted for lying, then vindicated years later, when their rapists were caught by other authorities after raping more women.<\/p>\n<p>Women wrongly charged with false reporting have won big: Pennsylvanian Sara Reedy<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2012\/dec\/15\/sara-reedy-rape-victim-wins-police-payout\">landed<\/a> a $1.5 million settlement from the police in 2012 after enduring a similar ordeal. But it costs money and energy to fight back against police and prosecutors. Rape victims often just don\u2019t have it in them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy rape was awful,\u201d Lara said. \u201cBut the way the police handled it was even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"superlist_4035623_6964086\" class=\"buzz_superlist_item buzz-superlist-item buzz_superlist_item_image buzz-superlist-item-image  buzz_superlist_item_wide image_lfcw no_caption \">\n<div class=\"sub_buzz_content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"bf_dom\" title=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/ak-hdl.buzzfed.com\/static\/2015-09\/26\/12\/enhanced\/webdr15\/longform-26388-1443285798-3.jpg\" alt=\"undefined\" width=\"990\" height=\"20\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Lara spent the<\/b> rest of the summer of 2011 in bed, reading and hiding from the world. She quit her job working at a summer camp. She flinched every time a family member touched her. A lawyer advised her not to fight the charges in court and helped her work out an agreement where she had her charges expunged in exchange for community service.<\/p>\n<p>Lara never admitted guilt or even entered a plea, legal documents show. But that didn\u2019t stop both strangers and prosecutors from claiming she did.<\/p>\n<p>Just two weeks after her arrest, a burner email account sent emails to Lara\u2019s ex-boyfriend and sorority sisters claiming that she had been charged with filing a false rape report and that the police had determined no rape occurred. The email included a link to an article on a website that posts false rape claims that mentioned her parents\u2019 home address. Other websites reposted the charges alongside Lara\u2019s mugshot. Lara said she lost friends her sophomore year of college over the allegations and had trouble finding a job the following summer.<\/p>\n<p>Even worse, the authorities were spreading false information. Assistant DA Richardson, who had signed off on the charges against both sisters, wrote in a January 2012 email to the mother of Joaquin\u2019s ex-girlfriend, obtained by BuzzFeed News, that Lara had pleaded guilty and had \u201calready received a partial sentence,\u201d both of which were untrue. He said that Hera had \u201cgained access to a crime scene under false pretenses and removed evidence\u201d that \u201cdetermined that the allegations of rape brought by Ms. McLeod\u2019s sister were untrue,\u201d and wrote that the sisters\u2019 efforts \u201cto manipulate this office and to ignore their actions will not occur.\u201d (Richardson did not respond to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n<p>In reality, the charges against Hera were dismissed in May 2012 in about an hour and a half, with the judge calling Joaquin\u2019s testimony \u201cincredible.\u201d But it cost Hera $50,000 in legal fees, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Hera\u2019s lawyer argued during the short trial that Joaquin was deliberately trying to use the situation to his advantage in their ongoing custody dispute. \u201cIf he can show, when he goes back to this review hearing, that Ms. McLeod was convicted of a crime and show that she is a bad person, it will enhance his argument that he should have more custody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Although Hera\u2019s case was dismissed, that\u2019s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n<p>By then, Prince was almost a year old. During the custody proceedings, the<i>Washingtonian<\/i> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonian.com\/articles\/people\/the-wrong-one\/\">reported<\/a>, a police officer testified that Joaquin was a suspect in the 2003 shooting death of an ex-girlfriend named Shawn Mason. A different ex-girlfriend testified that Joaquin had asked her if she knew anyone who could carry the murder out. A social worker said Joaquin had been charged with domestic abuse of his older son. Hera discovered the music career was a lie: Joaquin\u2019s only current means of support appeared to be his older son\u2019s Social Security benefits and his mother\u2019s life insurance, which he collected after her death, ruled a suicide, in 2008. She also learned that Joaquin was mistakenly under the impression that he was the beneficiary of Shawn\u2019s life insurance policy, according to a report by a social worker who interviewed him as part of a 2004 custody proceeding for his older son. Additionally, she found out that Joaquin ran a pornography website on the side.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Michael J. Algeo was concerned about the porn and other aspects of Joaquin\u2019s lifestyle, but dismissed the ex-girlfriend\u2019s testimony \u2014 she had also said Joaquin was abusive \u2014 because Joaquin had taken photos of her before and she \u201clikes to get undressed and go on websites.\u201d Joaquin admitted that it was unwise to have had sex with Lara, but portrayed himself as the guileless victim of a conspiracy by the two sisters \u2014 one who lied about the rape and the other who tried to hide the exculpatory video. \u201cI mean, the fact that I could have served eight to 10, 15 years of my life for something that [Hera] had done, that really concerns me, because the fact is that she had evidence in her possession and she chose to delete it,\u201d Joaquin said in court that March.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Alego gave Hera sole custody, but eventually granted Joaquin the right to unsupervised visits despite Hera\u2019s insistence that he was a danger to their young child. On the fourth unsupervised visit, she got a call that Prince had been taken to the hospital in a coma.<\/p>\n<p>EMTs had found him cold and wet, with a bruise on his forehead and dried blood in his nose, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonian.com\/articles\/people\/the-wrong-one\/\">according to<\/a> the <i>Washingtonian.<\/i> Hospital officials had even notified Child Protective Services, noting \u201cobvious unexplainable injuries,\u201d the <i>Washington Post<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/magazine\/prince-rams-after-a-childs-death-a-father-is-charged-and-a-mother-finds-a-way-to-move-on\/2013\/12\/12\/bc8f6ffc-4c89-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html\">reported<\/a>. An autopsy found \u201cfluid in the sinuses, airways, lungs and intestines\u201d and \u201csmall bruises and abrasions on the face and upper chest and back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He died the next day, at 15 months old.<\/p>\n<p>Police and prosecutors charged Joaquin with murder the following January, alleging he drowned Prince to collect more than $500,000 from three life insurance policies they say he obtained before his death. (Joaquin has said that he was just trying to help his son, who had been suffering from febrile seizures.) He was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/joaquin-rams-accused-of-killing-son-indicted-for-capital-murder-in-pr-william\/2013\/07\/02\/87457e96-e28e-11e2-aef3-339619eab080_story.html\">later<\/a> indicted by a grand jury on a charge of capital murder. They have encountered some setbacks: Last fall, Virginia\u2019s chief medical examiner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/va-medical-examiner-reverses-ruling-to-no-known-cause-of-death-in-prince-rams-case\/2014\/10\/17\/b8a179a2-563e-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html\">reversed<\/a> the initial ruling of drowning to \u201cno known cause of death,\u201d and a judge denied the request to connect it to the deaths of his mother and ex-girlfriend, ruling that \u201ca propensity\u201d to commit crimes is not admissible to prove guilt in one specific case. Prosecutors are still seeking the death penalty, and the trial date is set for January 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Lara was never allowed to see her medical records from the night she went to the hospital for her rape kit, although she remembers a nurse telling her her injuries were consistent with sexual assault. When Lara requested them recently, the hospital told her she would have to ask the police. When she requested them from the police, she was told her records were exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, since they were associated with a criminal case, even though it was now closed.<\/p>\n<p>Two members of the Manassas city police force, which investigated Joaquin\u2019s ex-girlfriend\u2019s and mother\u2019s deaths, would not comment on the upcoming case. One retired detective said he believed Joaquin was \u201cguilty of three murders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Manassas Sgt. Christine Perry said she had \u201cmet and spoken with many people\u201d who Joaquin hurt \u201ceither physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow he continued to come out on top and be able to play the victim himself still astonishes me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"superlist_4035623_6964088\" class=\"buzz_superlist_item buzz-superlist-item buzz_superlist_item_image buzz-superlist-item-image  buzz_superlist_item_wide image_lfcw  \">\n<div class=\"sub_buzz_content\">\n<figure style=\"width: 990px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"bf_dom\" src=\"http:\/\/ak-hdl.buzzfed.com\/static\/2015-09\/26\/12\/enhanced\/webdr08\/enhanced-buzz-wide-23145-1443285767-19.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"1485\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lara McLeod (left) and Hera McLeod photographed in Seattle on September 8th, 2015. Jovelle Tamayo for BuzzFeed News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"article_caption_w_attr\"><b>The McLeods demanded<\/b> that the Prince William County Police Department conduct an investigation into how it handled Lara\u2019s rape allegation. In fall 2013, Police Chief Steve Hudson invited the family in to discuss the results. Lara didn\u2019t want to attend the meeting, but she wrote a letter to the police detailing what their actions had cost her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>She spent her college years having flashbacks, isolating herself, and crying in her room, she wrote. She had lost friends from the nasty articles. She lost her faith in the justice system. And her baby nephew was gone forever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not really sure how your police force can fix anything two years later,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI\u2019m not looking for monetary compensation, and an apology just isn\u2019t enough\u2026you not only ruined my life, but you ruined my family\u2019s life. It took me two years to finally get some of myself back, and I assure you that I will never be the self-confident, bright eyed girl I once was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The family had specific requests: Train officers on how to properly respond to sexual assault. Discipline the detectives that charged the sisters. Make a public statement, so someone who googles Lara \u2014 a potential employer, say \u2014 would not see the outlandish charges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA few of your concerns, I think, have been corroborated,\u201d Chief Hudson told Hera in the meeting, a recording of which was obtained by BuzzFeed News. He admitted that the decision to allow Joaquin to recover the video was \u201cimproper\u201d and \u201cviolates our policies on handling evidence.\u201d Hudson said the police report was \u201csloppy\u201d and he thought some aspects of the investigation had been \u201cshortcutted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think fatigue played a part in this,\u201d he said, \u201cand not a good part.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hudson admitted that the detectives had \u201creached a conclusion and didn\u2019t pursue it further\u201d and that, \u201cin hindsight,\u201d he would \u201cprefer that the charges not have been made.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the shortcomings in this case is the fact that they didn\u2019t do further investigation on the specific charge against you,\u201d he said to Hera. \u201cTo leap to the conclusion that you needed to be charged at the time you did I thought was cut short.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But he said there was nothing \u201ctechnically improper\u201d with the charges brought against Hera and Lara, as it was the detectives\u2019 \u201cjudgment call.\u201d And, he said, even if the police hadn\u2019t charged them, Joaquin still wouldn\u2019t have been arrested for rape. When Hera asked whether it was common for the department to charge women with falsely reporting rape, Chief Hudson said that he didn\u2019t know if he would \u201ccall it an aberration.\u201d The department deals with about 9 or 10 charges of false reporting a year out of 80\u2013100 reports, he said.<\/p>\n<p>As for the idea that his officers needed further instruction on handling sexual assault cases, he said their training was already \u201ccutting edge.\u201d He said they would address some issues internally but could not elaborate on what or how.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs there nothing your department can do to say \u2018we made some mistakes and we\u2019re fixing them?\u2019\u201d Hera asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would certainly think that it would be possible for me to say, in this investigation we uncovered some concerns about the methods used in the investigation that we are addressing administratively and internally,\u201d Chief Hudson said, but he would have to ask their attorneys. \u201cThat\u2019s probably about as far as I\u2019d be able to go.\u201d He couldn\u2019t say Hera and Lara should never have been charged at all, because that was just his \u201cpersonal opinion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Later, Hera says, the department told her they could not make any public statement at all.<\/p>\n<div id=\"superlist_4035623_6967754\" class=\"buzz_superlist_item buzz-superlist-item buzz_superlist_item_image buzz-superlist-item-image  buzz_superlist_item_wide image_lfcw no_caption \">\n<div class=\"sub_buzz_content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"bf_dom\" src=\"http:\/\/ak-hdl.buzzfed.com\/static\/2015-09\/27\/19\/enhanced\/webdr13\/longform-original-9709-1443396477-14.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"596\" height=\"430\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>When Human Rights Watch<\/b> faulted the D.C. police for how they handled sexual assault cases, the report included recommendations for police departments nationwide. Departments should hold officers accountable if they do not document or investigate cases, create an effective complaint procedure for victims or observers of improper treatment, respond seriously and transparently to those complaints, and submit to outside oversight.<\/p>\n<p>The Prince William County police told the McLeods they couldn\u2019t say whether they would make those or any similar changes. But, it appears, they haven\u2019t even tried one simple fix: keeping data on how often they arrest women for falsely reporting rape.<\/p>\n<p>In July, Prince William Detective Samuel Walker said it\u2019s standard protocol to arrest people for falsely reporting rape because the department tries \u201cto deter false allegations,\u201d but \u201conly if they can determine that the person is at fault.\u201d However, he said, the department does not track how often it arrests people for falsely reporting sexual assault to a police officer, making it impossible to know how big \u2014 or how small \u2014 the problem actually is. Walker also said the department would be unable to provide BuzzFeed News with data detailing the number of women who report sexual assault per year to the Prince William police, or with a clear breakdown of how many of those reports are deemed \u201cunfounded\u201d and why.<\/p>\n<p>Cavender, Norton, and Hudson did not respond to BuzzFeed News\u2019 requests for comment. Prince William Police spokesperson Sergeant Kim Chinn said BuzzFeed News\u2019 assertions were \u201cerroneous\u201d and that the case had been \u201cinvestigated internally and criminally, and then reviewed again in response to your inquiry.\u201d She said she could not comment further due to legal constraints.<\/p>\n<p>Paul B. Ebert, commonwealth\u2019s attorney for Prince William County, said his office could not \u201cconfirm or deny\u201d any allegations related to Lara as there were no records involving her.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant DA Richardson has since come under fire for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ledger-enquirer.com\/news\/local\/article29335264.html\">allegedly<\/a> instructing police to take photos of a minor\u2019s erect penis for evidence in a \u201csexting\u201d case.<\/p>\n<p>Hera hasn\u2019t spoken to Joaquin since the day her parents told her he raped her sister. But every year on Prince\u2019s birthday, she sends a letter to the authorities who she holds just as responsible for his death. This year, she included a photo of Prince with his two front teeth in, smiling and sitting on a red truck \u2014 with his birth and death dates printed above.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn July 1st, 2015, I would have turned four,\u201d the card said. \u201cMay you always remember how the decisions you make impact the lives of innocent people. I will never forget you. I pray you will never forget about me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year, Kimberly Norton, one of the two officers who charged the McLeod sisters, put the card in a new envelope and mailed it back to Hera unopened. She rewrote her return address in block letters. Not Detective Norton, as Hera had written, but \u201cSGT K. NORTON.\u201d She had been promoted. So had Detective Cavender.<\/p>\n<div id=\"superlist_4035623_6964074\" class=\"buzz_superlist_item buzz-superlist-item buzz_superlist_item_image buzz-superlist-item-image  buzz_superlist_item_narrow image_lfcn  \">\n<div class=\"sub_buzz_content\">\n<figure style=\"width: 596px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"bf_dom\" title=\"Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.\" src=\"http:\/\/ak-hdl.buzzfed.com\/static\/2015-09\/26\/12\/enhanced\/webdr08\/enhanced-mid-24804-1443285485-2.jpg\" alt=\"undefined\" width=\"596\" height=\"803\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lara McLeod and Prince. Courtesy of Lara McLeod<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"article_caption_w_attr\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThey Told Me It Never Happened\u201d What\u2019s at stake when police arrest women who they believe falsely reported rape? For Lara McLeod, it was her reputation, her mental health, and maybe even her baby nephew\u2019s life. Lara McLeod never wanted to report her rape. In those first few hours, the 19-year-old was barely able to &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-te-public"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Police Told Her To Report Her Rape, Then Arrested Her For Lying - Arab Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/?p=39205\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ar_AR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Police Told Her To Report Her Rape, Then Arrested Her For Lying - Arab Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cThey Told Me It Never Happened\u201d What\u2019s at stake when police arrest women who they believe falsely reported rape? 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