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

32. Star Witness

32 Star Witness Of all of the strange and arguably objectionable things that happened during Patty’s long ordeal, perhaps the strangest and most objectionable happened that Thursday, March 11, when Detective Tom Woodmansee came to testify. Suddenly, about a dozen Madison police officers showed up in court, badges visible, and sat on the benches behind Bong and his family. Captain Maples and two or three other officers conspicuously dissented from this show of police support for a repeat felony offender whose most recent conviction was for terrorizing two people with a sawed-off shotgun, taking their places on the opposite side. Woodmansee was actually the fourth defense witness of the day, but clearly the most important. The first three contributed little to the defense’s case. Christopher Delp, an emergency physician, testified that he would expect to find more “evidence of trauma” in a person who was anally assaulted for up to a minute with no lubricant. But he also said the most common injuries were abrasions, and that even the use of saliva as a lubricant would reduce their likelihood. David Exline, a privately employed forensic scientist whom the defense brought in from Pennsylvania, told the jury there was actually a test for traces of condom lubricant—rubber residue!—when condoms are used in sexual assaults. He said more rapists than ever wore rubbers, to avoid leaving DNA behind. He didn’t claim to have tested for condom lubricant in Patty’s case. John Quamme, Bong’s cousin, was called to say he had been at Misty’s place on five to ten occasions and had noticed that the door to 242 her mother’s bedroom was open. He denied ever suggesting that Bong should be considered a suspect, saying he didn’t even know Patty was raped until “a few years after it allegedly had happened.” As was agreed beforehand, Quamme, then twenty-seven, admitted to having two criminal convictions. The jury didn’t get to hear these were for battery and disorderly conduct, or that he was facing fresh criminal charges for allegedly pointing a firearm at someone while intoxicated. Woodmansee was called to the stand at about 2:45 p.m. and testified for more than two hours; his contingent of police supporters remained in the courtroom behind Bong throughout. He was the defense’s star witness, the person who might single-handedly convince the jury there was no need to convict Patty’s rapist because there was never any rape. Under questioning by Eisenberg, the detective reconstructed his investigation into the alleged assault. Patty, he said, was calm and open during their early discussions and able to provide details. She said “it wasn’t the rape that bothered her so much [as] the fact that she woke up with a knife to her throat.” She laughed when she described her assailant ’s penis. She described the man as almost sympathetic, which Woodmansee said he found “unusual.” (It was one of several instances in which he casually strayed from the judge’s instruction, restated beforehand outside the jury’s presence, that he should refrain from expressing his opinions.) He noticed blood on the kitchen phone but couldn’t find any in the closet where she hid. Eisenberg quizzed his witness about the events of October 2. Woodmansee confirmed getting Patty to come to this meeting under false pretenses by saying he needed to collect some samples. He led her to the interview room, where Detective Draeger joined them. Right off the bat, “I confronted her with my belief that she wasn’t telling the truth.” Patty seemed taken aback and disputed this assessment. Her offer to take a polygraph test or to be hypnotized was rebuffed. Woodmansee denied telling Patty the SANE nurse did not believe her. He testified that he didn’t say she did not act like a rape victim. He didn’t recall saying he might jail her on “suicide watch,” and she never said, “I want to leave.” In time, she admitted making the whole thing up. In this statement and when she elaborated on particulars, Patty appeared sincere. Woodmansee took her to the mental health center because he was worried she might harm herself. Star Witness 243 • After more than an hour, Schwaemle got her chance to crossexamine the detective. One of her first questions, regarding his initial meeting with Patty, was...