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

10. A Story to Tell

10 A Story to Tell At first, Connie Kilmark wouldn’t even tell me the woman’s name, only that she was a client. “She’s had a hard life,” Kilmark related in a phone call on January 8, 1998. “Lots of family trauma, very low self-esteem. She’s legally blind. Works for a state blind industries program.” The day before, this client had told Kilmark that she had been raped by a knifewielding intruder, and then badgered by police into recanting. The detective had said no one believed she was telling the truth, including the nurse who examined her. But this nurse later told the woman she had no reason to disbelieve her. Neither did Kilmark: “After twenty-two years in practice, I have a pretty good crap detector. The idea that she could be making this up flies completely in the face of my instincts about her. She has enough trouble in her life.” From what Kilmark knew of this client—and she knew a good deal, including her history of childhood sexual abuse—it made perfect sense that, when confronted by the police, she would back down. I was acquainted with Kilmark from her appearances on Wisconsin Public Radio and because she’d been a source on stories about personal finance and consumer debt for Isthmus, the weekly newspaper at which I had worked for more than a decade. Kilmark decided to contact me because this woman, she understood, had tried to complain about the detective in a letter to his supervisor. This was, for Isthmus, a familiar subject. It began in 1994, when I learned about a complaint filed the previous year by Madison Police Sergeant Mark Bradley against another officer, 83 Detective Linda Draeger. A federal prosecutor had reported that Draeger had expressed her disgust with the methods used by Bradley and a federal drug agent during the 1991 arrest of a small-time marijuana dealer. She said the pair had questioned the dealer, John Steele, with guns drawn and even held to his head, warning that he would never see his wife and children again unless he cooperated, which he did. Steele, a bit player in a large marijuana supply ring, had accused the police of this conduct at trial and ended up getting at least an extra year in prison for “lying.” Indeed, Steele’s eighty-seven-month sentence was far harsher than that given the ring’s major players, despite undisputed testimony that he didn’t use drugs himself and actually lost money in his bungled efforts to sell pot. This he did to pay medical bills for his infant son, who was born with spina bifida, hydrocephalus, and bilateral clubfeet. When the prosecutor revealed Draeger’s remarks, Steele’s attorney filed a motion seeking a new trial, and Bradley lodged his complaint against Draeger. As a result, she was under investigation by the Madison Police Department and facing possible disciplinary action when an evidentiary hearing on the matter was held in December 1993. Draeger testified that Bradley had in fact held a gun to Steele’s head but denied saying other things the prosecutor reported. Bradley’s complaint against Draeger was “not sustained.” Madison Police Chief Richard Williams, who had overseen the department’s internal investigation, told me that Draeger had merely accused Bradley of pointing his weapon. This was not true. Draeger, at the hearing, testified that what upset her was Bradley “putting a gun to somebody’s head,” not merely pointing it, adding, “there is a difference .” I was struck by two things: first, that Williams apparently fudged facts to cover for an underling who allegedly held a loaded gun to a suspect’s head, and second, that the department’s complaint apparatus may have been used to make Draeger repudiate the statements the prosecutor reported. Isthmus sought, under the state’s open records law, copies of all complaints against Madison police officers during an eighteen-month period, as well as records showing what action was taken. Concurrently, the Wisconsin State Journal requested complaints against police made by members of the public—that is, not including internal complaints like the one Bradley filed against Draeger. Williams denied both requests, 84 The Need to Be Believed • expressing his concern that “highly trained police officers and qualified applicants for such positions would choose other employment or make fewer arrests in order...