This is how you do it

Matt Westerhold
Mar 13, 2022 8:00 PM Cry Rape: A two-part series
Saturday: Turning on victims
Today: Methods and practice

PORT CLINTON — A former Ottawa County sheriff's detective who built a felony criminal case against a woman for allegedly lying about being raped resigned in November just weeks before that case went to trial.

The resignation came after revelations that the man accused — the chief witness scheduled to testify that he was falsely accused — was identified as the same man accused of rape by two other women in earlier complaints that were eerily similar.

Despite the new information, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, the prosecutor in State vs. Arica Waters, went ahead with the trial, filing motions suggesting the other alleged victims should be barred from testifying. One the women should be prohibited, according to the court filing, because she might have been a "willing participant." The other woman should be barred, according to the filing, because she might have "dreamed" she was raped.

 
Both descriptions are in dispute, in varying ways.

Critics have said the use of words like that to describe women who report alleged sex crimes are common tactics that men who assault women use to intimidate them and dissuade them from reporting what happened to authorities. They are akin to saying "she wanted it" and that she is "too crazy to be believed," critics argue.

Yost refused to comment on the case against Arica Waters in the lead up to the trial last year, or respond to questions about three women identifying the same man and whether it was appropriate to go to trial with that man as his chief witness, given the circumstances.

Waters was acquitted at trial in mid-December, after a judge determined that the detective — and Yost — got it wrong, ruling that the woman did not lie. She never reported being raped, the judge found, but rather reported that she had a sexual encounter with the man after he served her alcohol and that it confused her. The detective decided that what she described was rape, and Yost convinced a grand jury to indict her for lying about it.

Yost has declined comment since the acquittal, refusing to say why he took it to trial or share what message he intended to send women by seeking to send Waters to prison. Advocates say Yost's decision to pursue a criminal conviction against Waters will make it more likely that more women who are victims of sex crimes won't report those crimes, fearing they too could be arrested and charged if a prosecutor doesn't believe them. Yost has declined to address that concern, also.

Anjum
"Arica Waters never wavered, even when faced with the loss of her job and prosecution," Waters attorney Sarah Anjum said after the trial. "Her commitment to the truth helped ensure that justice would prevail despite this unjust prosecution by the Ohio Attorney General's Office."

Anjum has her own law practice based in Toledo and concentrates on criminal defense and crime victims' representation across Northwest Ohio.

Dunn

Laura Dunn, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., was Anjum's co-counsel representing Waters. Her law firm is focused on advancing and enforcing victim rights and whistleblower protections in campus, criminal and civil proceedings. Dunn is a nationally recognized civil and victim rights attorney, a 2018 TED Fellow with 15 years experience holding perpetrators and enablers of sexual violence accountable.

"There are layers of injustice here," Dunn said. "There are two other victims who have reported that (the same man) sexually assaulted them (who are) still waiting for justice."

In one court motion, the special prosecutor assigned to the case by Yost said the other two women might one day get justice, but Yost has refused to say if his office will help them do that. Yost and his staff did not respond to questions.

Carol O'Brien, Yost's chief prosecutor who runs the prosecutions unit of the Attorney General's office, also has ignored inquiries asking her why this case was pursued and what message was being sent to women by prosecuting Waters.

"Prosecutors like this create a dangerous precedent that causes victims to fear repercussions if they report sexual abuse," Anjum said after Waters was acquitted.

Follows a pattern?
The detective who investigated Waters also considered asking for falsification charges to be filed against other alleged victims twice previously. One case involved a woman who reported being raped by someone when she was in Put-in-Bay; the other involved a 16-year-old girl who told the detective she was raped by a 25-year old man who was a registered sex offender at the time.

In the teenager's case, the man she accused of rape was charged with a simple misdemeanor, served a short prison sentence and then proceeded to rape numerous underage girls after he was released in 2014. Former Ottawa County Prosecutor Mark Mulligan was the prosecutor in that case. He refused to say why he gave the man — McClain Durst — a plea deal, at the time, and won't say whether he regrets not seeking a harsher charge or harsher prison sentence for Durst.

Mulligan declined to be interviewed for this story.

"Unfortunately I no longer have access to the file ... and do not have the time to devote to reviewing a years-old file even if I could," he replied in an email to a series of questions the Register asked him.

Lisa Avalos, a professor with the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University and a nationally recognized expert in the field of sex crimes investigation, said high quality training in rape investigation best practices is widely available but that many police departments are either unaware of these resources or don't use them.

"End Violence Against Women International has led the way, for over 20 years, in equipping law enforcement agencies with the tools to effectively investigate sexual assault and hold more perpetrators accountable," said Avalos, who is the author of numerous law journal articles and police training materials about violence against women.

"This organization has led to enormous positive change in many police departments across the country. The problem is that Ottawa County is behind the curve and has not implemented many of the available best practices."

Avalos said some communities have established Sexual Assault Response Teams, or SARTs.

"Decisions about cases are made by teams of professionals, including police officers, prosecutors, SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Practitioner) nurses, victim advocates and others," she said. "In communities that use this type of approach, I have never seen a sexual assault victim wrongfully charged with false reporting. This is because SARTs increase the quality of sexual assault investigations and victim care, and they eliminate the culture where a law enforcement officer will unilaterally decide to charge a victim with false reporting."

For information about SARTs, best practices or other resources contact End Violence Against Women International at phone 509-684-9800 or the website at https://evawintl.org/

Change in command
Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Levorchick referred questions about the investigations to Deputy Aaron Leist.

"Captain Leist has training and experience as a detective and has taken over as captain of operations of the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office since October 2021," Levorchick told the Register.

The detective who conducted the Durst and the Waters investigations resigned from the force about one month after Leist became captain, he said.

"I believe you will find Captain Leist to have great knowledge of law enforcement as a whole, but particularly that of a detective. I also believe you will find that Captain Leist will be completely honest with you and transparent, as we have always tried to be."

Leist has coursework in sex crimes investigation, including Trauma Informed Sexual Assault Investigation training in 2019. He also attended the "Beyond the Silence" training, which is required training for investigators with the sheriff's office and other jurisdictions and teaches techniques for interviewing child victims and witnesses of crimes.

"The Trauma Informed Sexual Assault training is a different approach than any type of training I had previously with sexual assault investigations," he said. "Sheriff Levorchick has always supported us in getting training and continuing education to make us all well rounded deputies and helps us to better serve our community."

Leist responded to an inquiry from the Register about investigative practices in a March 1 email to the newspaper.

"The main priority of any interview with a victim is not to re-victimize the victim as much as possible," he wrote. "I like to ask what makes them comfortable when I do the interviewing. Do they want any of our therapy dogs present, would they rather meet away from the sheriff's office when possible and practical, do they want to give a written statement first and then do a follow-up interview after I read that statement? I never want a victim to have to tell me the facts of the events from start to finish more than once."

The goal, Leist said, at the end of the interview, is to not only make the victim feel some sense of relief, as small as it might be from talking about what happened, but also to get the victim in contact with any additional resources they are entitled to under law.

"We also should empower them after this first interview," he said. "Assure them that they did the right thing by coming forward."

Looking back
Leist said he did not recognize any training methods he learned from the records and reports written by the detective who investigated the Durst and the Waters complaints, but he added that he was not privy to the conversations there might have been between the prosecutors and the detective.

"Most of the things (she) did in these interviews are not from any training I received," he said. "I do not know if any of the tactics she used in her interviews are from the training that she may have had, that I do not have. I have no idea what she may have been taught by the FBI. Therefore, I cannot comment on that."

The detective at one time served on an FBI sex trafficking task force.

The 16-year-old girl's statements to the detective that suggest Durst was stalking her could have been more thoroughly reviewed, Leist said.

"I would have documented all instances that the victim was some place and the suspect just showed up," Leist said. "The stalking law (Ohio Revised Code 2903.211) may apply but further questions and evidence would have been needed than what is present in this case file. Even with what is present in the current case file I would have spoken to the prosecutor about the charge."

The detective might have spoken with Mulligan about that, but that's not reflected or documented in the report, Leist said.

Leist said he usually interviews the complainant first and the suspect last. The detective in 2013 interviewed Durst first and others that Durst suggested she talk with, but she did not interview the girl until later.

"I would always attempt to interview the victim first," he said. "I also would have looked at the criminal history of the suspect and any existing police reports in our report system if time permitted prior to my interview with the victim. I also would have made a call to the parole officer for Mr. Durst right away."

The report the detective filed does not indicate that those steps were taken.

Notes
• Contact information for police officers and detectives is not subject to disclosure under the state's Public Records Law. A reporter's contact information was provided to the sheriff's office to give the former detective. The sheriff's office was asked to inform the former detective that this story was being developed and to ask her to contact the reporter. The former detective did not contact the reporter.

• The sheriff's office complied promptly with numerous public records request for the records used in developing this news coverage.

• End Violence Against Women International's annual conference is April 19-22 in San Francisco. The event is open to everyone and can be attended virtually or also in person. Avalos, along with other experts, will be speaking at a plenary session at the conference titled "Sexually Assaulted, Disbelieved, Prosecuted and Acquitted: Lessons from Virginia."

"The Ottawa County sheriff and law enforcement officers could benefit greatly from attending this conference and this plenary session," Avalos said.

For information about the conference go here: https://web.cvent.com/event/e49c7e07-0275-4051-986d-aa39127f11c8/summary