Cry Rape: The True Story of One Woman's Harrowing Quest for Justice - Hardcover

Lueders, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0299219607 ISBN 13: 9780299219604

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006

Synopsis

Cry Rape dramatically exposes the criminal justice system’s capacity for error as it recounts one woman’s courageous battle in the face of adversity. In September 1997, a visually impaired woman named Patty was raped by an intruder in her home in Madison, Wisconsin. The rookie detective assigned to her case came to doubt Patty’s account and focused the investigation on her. Under pressure, he got her to recant, then had her charged with falsely reporting a crime. The charges were eventually dropped, but Patty continued to demand justice, filing complaints and a federal lawsuit against the police. All were rebuffed. But later, as the result of her perseverance, a startling discovery was made. Even then, Patty’s ordeal was far from over.
     Other books have dealt with how police and prosecutors bend and break the law in their zeal to prevail. This one focuses instead on how the gravest injustice can be committed with the best of intentions, and how one woman’s bravery and persistence finally triumphed.

 

Courage Award Winner, Wisconsin Coalition against Sexual Assault

About this title

About the Author

Bill Lueders is news editor for Isthmus, a weekly newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. He is the author of An Enemy of the State: The Life of Erwin Knoll and president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.

Reviews

Lueders, news editor of a weekly Madison, Wis., paper, opens this real-life drama in the wee hours of Sept. 4, 1997, when Patty, a 38-year-old legally blind single mother sharing an apartment with her pregnant daughter, was raped in her bedroom by an intruder who held a knife to her neck. The rape was the beginning of a seven-year nightmare in which police, saying they couldn't find evidence of the rape, bullied Patty into saying she had lied, and she was charged with obstruction of justice. Patty almost went bankrupt trying to salvage what little was left of her reputation and sanity. Lueders spells out how Patty suffered from incompetence and bias at every level of law enforcement. The DA eventually dropped the charges against her, and DNA evidence helped convict the rapist, but some law enforcement officials continue to insist they did nothing wrong. This account by Lueders (An Enemy of the State: The Life of Erwin Knoll), one of the first people who went to bat for Patty, is a shocking revelation of the abuse rape victims are sometimes subjected to by the very people who should be seeking justice for them. (Nov.)
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*Starred Review* This is a powerful example of how an investigative reporter can right injustices and expose the need for further reform. Lueders, news editor for Isthmus, an alternative newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin, and president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, has expanded his original investigative series for his paper into a compelling book, as suspenseful and harrowing as the best mystery novels. In September 1997, a visually impaired woman named Patty, living in Madison, was raped in her home, her teen daughter asleep in her own room just down the hallway. Patty has suffered a double nightmare: the sexual assault itself and her revictimization at the hands of police, particularly through the bias of one police detective, who suspected (and later charged) Patty with falsely reporting a crime. Lueders lays bare the many missteps of the case, starting with the detective's bias and continuing through the unwillingness of the justice system to support one woman's word against the police, even after DNA evidence was found. Patty herself emerges as a remarkable heroine: legally blind, scraping by on a paltry income, she keeps fighting to be heard. This works as investigative journalism, heroic tale, and exquisitely paced mystery. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0299219607
• ISBN 13: 9780299219604
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 286