Woman sues KU, Lawrence police a year after prosecutors drop false rape report case
A woman who was charged with filing a false report of rape before prosecutors dropped the case has sued the University of Kansas, the City of Lawrence and three police officers.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of Kansas, alleges that the city knew the Lawrence Police Department had problems with sexual assault investigations, but “repeatedly failed” to make reforms.
It also claims police officers arrested the woman maliciously without probable cause, violating her rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. Investigations by detectives and KU’s Title IX office treated her like a suspect, the lawsuit said.
In a statement, the woman’s attorneys, Cheryl Pilate and Sarah Brown, said Lawrence police and KU, “separately and together,” deprived the woman of her federal rights. Without facts, she was presumed to not be telling the truth and instead, “was further injured by the institutions charged with protecting her,” they said in a statement.
“Our client seeks redress for her injuries, and she hopes that seeking justice will help lead to greater security for young women at the University of Kansas and in the City of Lawrence,” the statement said.
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, a KU spokesperson, said the university does not comment on pending litigation, but that it looked forward to resolving the matter through the legal process.
“We are confident in our Title IX investigations and our student conduct processes,” Barcomb-Peterson said in an email.
A Lawrence spokesperson said the city did not have a comment.
The Star generally does not name sex crime victims without their permission. The newspaper also generally does not name suspects unless they have been charged.
The woman was accused of making a false report of rape and charged in January 2019 after officers decided in 90 minutes that she lied in September 2018 when she reported she was raped by an acquaintance while too drunk to consent.
Using text messages she sent shortly after the alleged assault and interviews with acquaintances of her alleged assailant, officers determined she engaged in consensual sex but reported rape out of regret and in an effort to get back at an on again, off again boyfriend.
Over several months, officers pretended to investigate her report while instead investigating her for making a false report.
“The subsequent police investigation, conducted largely without [the woman’s] knowledge, was not aimed at investigating the sexual assault of [the woman], but rather at proving she had lied,” according to her lawsuit.
District Attorney Charles Branson initially refused to have the woman’s rape kit tested, saying it was irrelevant to the case. A detective in October 2019 contacted the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and asked that it be tested.
Her case, as well as two other false report cases against women who reported sexual assault or domestic violence, were dropped by the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office after reporting in The Star.
Weeks later, the woman heard that when the case was filed against her, some detectives “had been cheering” because they knew it would discourage similar reports, according to her lawsuit.
Branson, who was the county’s top prosecutor for more than a decade, was voted out of office in August.
The woman’s former professor, Suzanne Valdez, beat Branson in the Democratic primary for district attorney and is running unopposed in next week’s general election.
In December, The Star found that Lawrence police’s investigations have led to more false report cases against women who reported sexual assault and domestic violence than similarly situated departments. Officers are also not as well trained to handle such cases as their counterparts elsewhere in the region.
The law student was one of many women who spoke to The Star about negative interactions with the department and complained of victim-shaming and retraumatization at the hands of officers.
Her lawsuit noted that prosecution rates for sexual assaults in Lawrence “have lagged well behind the national average.”
Since the woman’s case was dropped, the Lawrence Police Department adjusted its policy for investigation of sexual assaults and announced plans to start a Special Victims Unit.
According to a 2009 University of Massachusetts study, about 2% to 8% of rapes reported are false.
Experts warn against filing false report cases because of the chilling effect it could have on future reports.
Researchers at End Violence Against Women International say police should only suggest charging for false report after investigating what the survivor said happened. Even then, they say, charges should only be filed if it is in the public interest.
This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 5:21 PM.
