In an earlier post, I discussed several cases in which police officers did not believe claims of sexual assault victims and then turned their interrogation tactics on the victims in an attempt to get them to recant. The two most dramatic such cases involved teen victims from the Minneapolis area. A detective in White Bear Lake, MN, was caught on tape interrogating aggressively a teenage girl who had claimed she was raped. He didn't believe her and tried to get her to recant; she did not and it later turned out she had been telling the truth. A video surveillance camera from a mall parking lot captured her assailant when he dropped her off after the abduction. Here's a snapshot of that case -- http://www.truthinjustice.org/abduction.htm This was followed by a second case from Inver Grove Heights, MN where officers were successful in coercing a teenage victim to recant her claims she had been sexually assaulted. http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_311142618.html
The parents of the teen in the White Bear Lake case insisted that police keep investigating the case. They were so persuasive that a new task force took over the case and did DNA testing on the blindfold used by the perp. A complete profile was developed and prosecutors filed a "John Doe" complaint in the case in order to keep open the option of bringing charges when or if the perp's identity was discovered. http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_116211636.html
Just last week, news broke of the arrest of a man in connection with yet another assault of a teen (a 12 year old) in nearby Coon Rapids. The man, whose DNA was not in the state database, fit the description given by the White Bear Lake teen. The arrestee's DNA is now being compared with the profile of the John Doe perp to see if there is a match. If there is, the parents persistence would have paid off. For more on this developing story, see http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_128194044.html
Compare the picture of the arrestee with the description provided by the White Bear Lake teen.
Chris Mitchell, 46
ARRESTEE IN COON RAPIDS
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| Sketch of abduction suspect in White Bear Lake case. The suspect is described as a white male between 40 and 50 years old with gray hair. He is around 5'9" tall and 200 pounds. He had a mustache and goatee at the time of the abduction |
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