Cry Rape: The True Story of One Woman's Harrowing Quest for Justice Read Online Free PDF

assault exam began at 6:30 a.m. Thiesenhusen remained in the room throughout. Two clean sheets were spread on the floor, one on top of the other. Patty stood on these and removed her clothes. Her clothes and the top sheet were bagged and tagged; the bottom sheet, Under Examination
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    which collects mainly dust from the floor, was discarded. Patty provided a urine sample, not wiping afterward so as not to remove evidence.
    Then she was asked to lie naked on a table for a head-to-toe examination. Her knees were up high, her legs spread apart, her feet in stirrups.
    Hair samples were taken as well as saliva and vaginal swabs. Blood was drawn—separate vials for the evidence kit and tests for syphilis and HIV. These were baseline samples only, since any infection from the assault could not yet be detected. Patty’s pubic area was combed, and pubic hair samples collected.
    Poarch examined Patty’s vagina with a Wood’s lamp, which casts ultraviolet light to detect body fluids like semen. None were found. She also did a “wet mount exam,” which involved taking a swab from Patty’s vagina and examining it under a microscope in search of sperm; again, nothing. Poarch inserted a medium speculum into Patty’s vagina to look for evidence of internal injury. Lastly, she used a colposcope—a kind of sophisticated magnifying glass attached to a video camera—to probe Patty’s vagina and rectal areas. With this, she documented a bruise to Patty’s inner left thigh and an abrasion on her anus. Poarch described it as a small scratch. This surprised Patty, because it hurt like an open wound—a searing pain.
    Patty’s various injuries were measured and recorded. There were two lacerations, both superficial, on her left cheek; one was seven centimeters long, the other four centimeters. On the left side of her neck was another laceration that measured five centimeters. It was hooked, like a check mark. The cut on the back of Patty’s left forefinger was only one centimeter long, but it was deep enough that Poarch summoned a doctor, who put in two sutures of 5.09 nylon. The apparently fresh bruise on Patty’s thigh measured one-by-two centimeters. The abrasion on her anus—at a position recorded as “ten o’clock”—was round and measured one centimeter in diameter.
    Poarch gave Patty a tetanus shot and two antibiotics: 500 milligrams of Cipro to prevent gonorrhea and a gram of erythromycin to prevent chlamydia. She did not do a pregnancy test or offer “morning after”
    birth control pills, due to Patty’s hysterectomy. Patty was given a printed list of aftercare instructions, which advised her to be on the lookout for swelling and infection, and to arrange a follow-up visit with her primary physician to remove the sutures from her finger and test for 22
    Perfect Victim
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    hepatitis and HIV. This form, which Patty had to sign, included an admonition to “buckle up” on the way home. Poarch told Patty to call her if there was anything she needed. Patty would indeed call, a few weeks later; it would be a conversation that made this sexual assault different from any other in Poarch’s experience.
    The exam ended at 7:55 a.m. Officer Thiesenhusen gathered the
    “evidence from the victim”—blood, hair, saliva swabs, pubic combings, vaginal swabs, urine, clothing, and the sheet over which she undressed.
    A form documenting the chain of evidence was completed and signed by Poarch at 8:10 a.m. Thiesenhusen would return to the hospital the next day to collect thirteen pages of records produced by Poarch, including an anatomical sketch showing the location of Patty’s injuries.
    Patty’s mother had left, but Patty’s longtime friend Mark was waiting for her outside the examination room. Patty and Mark hugged, and both began crying. Patty had known Mark, then forty-three, for several years; the two of them had dated off and on for the last year and a half.
    It was a tempestuous relationship, oriented largely