Then, confronted by police with inconsistencies in her story, she had conceded it might have been a dream.
She had reported being raped in her apartment by a man who had bound and gagged her. She doubted herself, wondering if there was something in her that needed to be fixed. A friend from 10th grade called to ask: How could you lie about something like that? Marie - that’s her middle name, Marie - didn’t say anything. Each ring of the phone seemed to announce another friendship, lost. It had cost her the newfound independence she was savoring after a life in foster homes. Her case was one of 4,859 filed in 2008 in Lynnwood Municipal Court, a place where the judge says the goal is “to correct behavior - to make Lynnwood a better, safer, healthier place to live, work, shop and visit.”īut her misdemeanor had made the news, and made her an object of curiosity or, worse, scorn. She was 18 years old, charged with a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail. No one came to court with her that day, except her public defender.
