From victim to suspect

PUT-IN-BAY — Too often, the victim becomes the accused. That's the conclusion of an investigative journalist's documentary recently released on Netflix, which briefly mentions a Put-in-Bay case. Rachel de Leon, a reporter with the Center for Investigative Reporting, produced "Victim/Suspect" which garnered nearly 6.6 million hours of view time the first week it was available on Netflix. On May 23, the documentary was featured in the top 10 film list on Netflix in 11 countries. "Victim/Suspect" follows de Leon as she uncovers and examines a seemingly common pattern of young women being accused of wrongdoing by authorities after they reported their assaults, a pattern de Leon said she is seeing more and more. In the documentary, de Leon pieces together what happened to several victims, some of whom were charged with falsifying their reports even though their claims were never properly investigated. Throughout the documentary, she uncovers information gaps and mistakes made by investigators. De Leon began working on the documentary in 2018 around the time the #MeToo movement gained traction on social media. When the documentary finally got picked up by Netflix, it started to get a lot more momentum, which de Leon was very excited about. "I will say that I am grateful for every single person we talked to because, whether or not they know it, they informed my thinking about the topic greatly," de Leon said. "They left an imprint in my heart." She experienced many ups and downs while making the documentary — a process that took more than four years — but is grateful that it got finished and is drawing attention to the issue. De Leon said she gathered many other stories and interviews from women who were similarly victimized that could not be included in the documentary. In case after case, investigators refused to respond to questions or freely provide information about their investigations. The Center for Investigative Reporting had to file lawsuits to obtain public records, including videotaped interviews with victims and suspects. The public record she was able to get was very disturbing. In one interview with a man who was accused, the detective actually tells him how to explain that he had a consensual relationship with the woman who filed the report, apparently acting as an advocate for him. The documentary shows police and law enforcement agencies discounting women in an effort to clear their caseloads. De Leon attended a 2020 trial in Ottawa County for a woman falsely accused of making a false report about being raped in Put-in-Bay. The woman was acquitted after a three-day trial when the judge determined she told the truth about what happened and that the investigation was mishandled. Cases examined in "Victim/Suspect" were similarly mishandled by investigators. De Leon wanted to create the documentary because, in her view, it was an underreported topic that was happening all over the country. She said the response to her documentary has been overwhelming. "Most of all, I hope it impacts survivors, I hope it impacts people who have been through this," de Leon said. "I have received many messages from people on Twitter, Linkedin, my email, that let me know that it has reached people that have gone through this same thing." She found that reaching out to the people affected was a struggle as well. These women might not trust a journalist seeing as they just got dragged down by as many people as they did. De Leon said the criminal legal system is 100% responsible for what happened to these women. It is not just the police, it is the prosecutors, mayors and other public figures, she said.