Trial of JW Aimee Satterfield begins today

Nathan Natas

http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=195073&c=87

False-report trial set to begin today

Authorities say woman fabricated rape story

John Hacker
Globe Staff Writer
7/5/05

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — Trial is set to begin today for a woman accused of lying to police when she told them she was raped at knife-point after being stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire two years ago.
Aimee Satterfield, 24, of Elkland, faces a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report.

The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement June 30, 2003, saying a woman had reported that she had been stranded on the shoulder of Missouri Highway 39, and that she had been raped at knife-point by a man she believed had stopped to help her change a flat tire.

The woman called 911 and reported the alleged assault just after 7 p.m. on June 29, 2003, the statement said.

Investigators looked into her story for weeks, and the account unraveled under close examination, said Rick Abney, an investigator with the Sheriff’s Department.

A misdemeanor charge of filing a false report was filed against Satterfield on Sept. 24, 2003, and she surrendered six days later. She was released on $1,000 bond.

Abney said at the time that officials confirmed through a rape kit that Satterfield had sexual intercourse, but they could not say when it took place.

Abney said Satterfield’s clothes appeared to have been cut with a blade of some kind, and she had abrasions on parts of her body.

He said investigators were unable to determine how the tire went flat.

At the time the charge was filed, Abney said the woman’s version of what happened was not supported by videotape from a closed-circuit camera near the place where the alleged rape was reported to have taken place or by Satterfield’s cellular-phone records.

Abney said Satterfield called her mother to report the alleged rape before she could possibly have made it to the location where her tire went flat and where she said she was raped.

Nathan Natas

By way of a reminder:

http://www.news-leader.com/today/1005-Woman,22,d-184209.html
Published October 5, 2003
Woman, 22, denies she filed false rape report
Missionary insists she was violated; Sheriff Seneker says she's lying.

By Eric Eckert
News-Leader Staff
Mount Vernon — Lawrence County law enforcement says Aimee Satterfield is a fraud, a desperate woman who filed a bogus rape report in June that panicked women throughout southwest Missouri.
Prosecutor Robert George filed a misdemeanor against Satterfield of making a false police report, adding that the 22-year-old woman should spend time behind bars.
Satterfield insists a man beat, raped and cut her with a knife alongside Missouri 39 while motorists streamed past on that last Sunday evening in June. And she is sticking by her story — even if it means going to jail. The full-time volunteer missionary for Jehovah's Witnesses says she is dumbfounded that Sheriff Doug Seneker, who once cried as she spilled her story of mutilation and rape, now considers her a criminal.
Satterfield's mother, Connie, says the past three months have forever altered her daughter's life. Aimee, an avowed virgin prior to her alleged attack, now hates men. She's afraid to go outside. And since the charge was filed Tuesday, her daughter is certain the man who stole her innocence now knows her name and where she lives, Connie Satterfield says.
"She was just starting to get better and really started trying to take control of her life again — and this happens," Connie Satterfield says, referring to the charge. "She feels they're going to keep on and keep on until they destroy her."
The charge represents a second assault on their daughter, the Satterfields say. They say Lawrence County lawmen turned from advocates to adversaries in the middle of the investigation while still telling the family they were pursuing the rapist.
Seneker and George maintain they're not out to ruin Satterfield's life. But after attempting to re-enact the rape precisely the way Satterfield described it, officers found troubling inconsistencies in her statements. Now they simply want justice for a suspect they say dreamed up a frightening lie, stressing that they have a strong case.
'He doesn't exist'
For two full months, the sheriff explains, his entire department worked approximately 2,000 staff hours on the case. Officers toiled through two holiday weekends, racked up days of comp time and lost momentum on other pressing cases.
"But more importantly," the sheriff adds, "it scared women all over southwest Missouri — including my own family."
Seneker contends that he always thought Satterfield's story was a stretch. An attack on a busy road in broad daylight never seemed probable. But it was for that same reason he took the case so seriously and called for an immediate investigation.
"When you put those things together, you're dealing with an extremely dangerous person," Seneker says. "If there was any chance that it was true, we had to get him as soon as possible."
But the decisive moment never came. And as evidence began to point toward a charade, the quest to find the unknown man in a teal green truck ended.
"He doesn't exist," Seneker says. "I tried my best to believe her (Satterfield) all the way. ... I pretty well held out until the end, until all the evidence came through and showed it couldn't have happened."
Based on her beliefs as a Jehovah's Witness, Satterfield says lying is considered a willful act against God. She says truth is one of the foundations of her ministry, her life.
"There's more than just jail time, more than just money involved," she says. "If that's all there was, that would be easy. I am a baptized Jehovah's Witness. ... If I back down, Jehovah's name is involved. I'll sit in jail the rest of my life if necessary. But I refuse to put any kind of reproach or dishonor on Jehovah's name."
Attack
Satterfield says she couldn't fend off her attacker.
In those horrifying minutes, she says, the man lay atop her, cut off her clothes, raped her and used a knife to carve reminders of the encounter into her chest and breasts.
"The scars I have left show that in one area it looks like he didn't get the cut he wanted," Satterfield says. "So he cut again and again."
Satterfield says the attack occurred on a Sunday evening, June 29, while she was changing the flat right-rear tire of her car.
She was returning from a trip to Neosho, where she says she spent the weekend — Thursday night through Sunday afternoon — at her great-aunt's home. Satterfield says she helped the elderly woman prepare for a yard sale all day Friday and helped run the event on Saturday.
On Sunday, she says she attended the morning and afternoon meetings at the local Kingdom Hall, returned to her aunt's house to say goodbye, then left to drive to her home in Webster County.
As she passed through Mount Vernon, she stopped at two convenience stores — the first to check her transmission fluid, the second to buy a drink. Surveillance tapes confirm the stops.
During this time, she called her mother to say she was running late.
When she left the second store, she proceeded south on Missouri 39. Suddenly, she says, her car began to fishtail. She realized she had a flat and pulled onto the shoulder a half-mile south of Interstate 44.
As she checked the tire, she says a man driving a teal green extended-cab pickup with Missouri plates pulled in behind her. He hopped out of the truck and approached her.
"The only thing he said to me was he asked if I was having car trouble," Satterfield recalls.
She says she told him she didn't need any help.
"I went ahead and started getting the tire out of the back of the car and he turned to leave," she says.
Realizing she had failed to turn on her flashers, Satterfield says, she opened the passenger-side door and reached in to turn them on. That's when she noticed the man standing behind her.
"He hit me twice," she says, making one punching motion toward her stomach and another to her left side.
She says she crumpled under her attacker's sharp blows and heard the rat-tat-tat report of firecrackers at the fireworks tent northeast of her car.
She says she was on her left side and her right arm was pinned under her body as he assaulted her.
"He had his right hand on the right side of my face holding it sideways."
There was little struggle, she says.
Satterfield suffers from many ailments, including low lung capacity and fibromyalgia.
Satterfield says when the attack ended, the man fled in his truck and she called 911. An officer responded to the scene and Satterfield was taken to the hospital in Aurora, where she was treated for minor injuries and received a rape exam.
Investigation
Once Seneker heard of the alleged attack and was informed the rape kit proved positive for intercourse, he began searching for an assailant.
The sheriff ordered his deputies to work through the Fourth of July holiday. The next Sunday, he established roadblocks on Missouri 39 and deputies conducted interviews.
The roadblocks were conducted around 7 p.m., approximately the same time the alleged attack occurred, the sheriff says. Officers talked with drivers and passengers in more than 200 vehicles.
Officers asked each person if they'd seen the suspect pickup parked behind a gray station wagon on the shoulder of road.
Based on Satterfield's description of the attacker, deputies sought information about a white male, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, 170-180 pounds with a mustache and strawberry-blond hair. He was a smoker who wore jeans, a red and white shirt, a dirty red and white cap and had a silver earing in his left ear. The department circulated a black-and-white composite drawing of the suspect.
No one reported seeing the man on the highway June 29, but "two people said they saw a green pickup there briefly," Seneker says, adding that detectives soon began to doubt Satterfield.
"These things don't necessarily follow given patterns," he says of sexual assaults. "We know that there are daylight attacks and we know there are attacks on the side of the road. But it's rare to find them happening at the same time."
Inconsistencies
Determined to find the assailant, the Satterfields scoured Springfield and Marshfield car lots to look for a truck similar to the suspect pickup. They narrowed the vehicle down to a 1997 Ford F-250 based on the description and the color she identified.
While their help was noted, Seneker now says he doubts the truck Satterfield says she saw ever existed. "The truck the witnesses described was not the same as she described to us."
Her description of the truck changed several times throughout the investigation, Seneker says.
At one point, deputies examined the supposed crime scene and counted the number of vehicles that passed through the area. There's a possibility, he says, passers-by would not have seen anything happening inside two cars on the side of the road.
The northbound traffic would be driving into the sun at that time, and it would be somewhat difficult for southbound traffic to see in the windows as the cars flew by.
Chuck Lester, a lifelong Mount Vernon resident, moved to this stretch three months ago. He says there's no way someone could have been attacked at that time on a Sunday without being noticed.
"Look at all the cars that go by here," he says, pointing to the busy road. "There's probably 300 cars that go by here in a day. Sunday traffic is real bad."
Re-creating crime
After detectives compiled phone records, 911 calls and surveillance tapes, they performed a re-enactment of the crime according to Satterfield's statements and using the exact same model station wagon, the sheriff says.
The times didn't add up.
"She told us the rape took about five minutes," Seneker says. "The way she said it happened, it would have taken longer."
Court documents stated "the events required 14 minutes and 28 seconds to complete" and therefore could not have taken place as Satterfield reported.
Inconsistent statements and uncorroborated physical evidence led investigators to set their sights on proving the lie, Seneker says.
The sheriff says he doubts Satterfield will ever recant her allegation.
"I'm sure it will never change," Seneker says, shaking his head. "We pointed out to her irrefutable facts and she still chose not to change her story."
Kim LeBaron, vice president of the Missouri Coalition Against Sexual Assault, warns against relying heavily on a rape victim's sense of time.
"Inconsistencies in a victim's memory is common," LeBaron says. "What happens is that a lot of times it's one sense that comes to the forefront. The other parts shut down. Your brain doesn't allow you to remember everything."
He said/She Said
Satterfield says she could tell during her interviews with investigators that they started to doubt her. She says they pummeled her with questions and called her a liar.
She says they told her they were trying to trip her up — like a defense attorney would during a trial.
"They'd try to get me to change my mind — that it didn't happen that way, that part of it was wrong," Satterfield says. At one point one of the detectives "got up close in my face and told me I was lying. I got up and walked out."
Seneker says his deputies don't use any such "defense attorney" tactics like Satterfield described.
The young woman says she's convinced investigators believe she had premarital sex and — due to the principles of her religion — tried to cover it up with a make-believe rape.
Seneker doesn't deny it.
"We do believe sex had happened recently," he says. The rape kit confirms that, he adds. But there's no way to determine exactly when intercourse occurred.
The sheriff says he didn't confirm Satterfield's whereabouts the day she was allegedly attacked.
"We did not attempt to confirm (she was at the church meetings)," he says. "We specifically decided not to bring the church into this."
Seneker described the cuts on Satterfield's chest as "extremely shallow" and "carefully done." He says the wounds were "not inconsistent with self-infliction."
Satterfield denies cutting herself and takes offense at anyone thinking she'd have premarital sex and go to such lengths to hide it.
"The nurse said, from my injuries, it was pretty obvious not only was I a virgin before this happened, but that the man knew what he was doing.
"... I do not believe in sex before marriage," she says. "Yes, that's in the Bible, but besides that, I've seen what it does to people. I've been tempted, but I've never done it and I won't."
Satterfield says she once entertained a relationship with a man she knew before all of this happened. "We tried to have a relationship afterward, but that's over," she says. " ... I hate all men."
Ramifications
Warren Satterfield no longer has the murderous rage that compelled him to drive around during the night to hunt down his daughter's attacker.
"I wanted to kill him for what he did," he says. "But my hatred for that man was being detrimental to my health and to my family."
Now the concerned father finds himself in another battle. He's looking for a lawyer to defend his oldest daughter.
"According to my religion, I'm supposed to be forgiving and patiently wait on Jehovah," Warren Satterfield says. "I realize the justice system isn't perfect and it's run by men, but I didn't expect this type of betrayal."
Seneker says he feels for the family and has sympathized with them from Day One. He admits he became emotional during their frequent conversations.
"Any caring person would have empathized with them," he says, sitting behind his desk in the county courthouse. "But we're in the business of facts — not feelings. After the facts rolled in, I had to change my focus.
"This is not a fun thing to do. We all agonized over this. We realized charging a supposed rape victim with lying is unpopular ... but facts are facts."
Brad Runcie, who runs the Tru Value hardware store on the square in Mount Vernon, says he breathed a sigh of relief when the sheriff announced it was all a hoax.
"If she's found guilty, I think she ought to pay for putting up a story like that," Runcie says as he takes a break from the stock room.
Seneker says he fully expects the case to go to trial. He finds solace in his decision when he thinks of the dozens of people he heard from who were fearful of being randomly attacked.
"They have no need to be concerned about the 'phantom rapist' on 39 Highway in a green pickup," Seneker says. "I do want people to feel safer."
The Satterfields say there's only one person who can truly feel safe through all of this — the man who attacked Aimee.
"If I'm convicted, that gives him a chance to do it again," Aimee Satterfield says. "There's a big chance he's been watching this on TV and reading it in the papers and got a big kick out of it. I'm afraid he'll do it again and this time someone's gonna end up dead."

Scully

I wondered what happened to her. Does anyone know if she was ever DFd?

luna2

Boy, that's some elaborate story. Why would a person make something like that up? True or not, I feel very sorry for this girl.

sweet tee

We often discuss mental illness among the witnesses on this board. I doubt the prosecuting attorney would follow up on this if they did not have credible proof that this is in fact a hoax. How easily people accept the guilt of some over others . If this DID NOT happen to this young lady from where whould her help come?

Emma

I've wondered what happened to her; thanks for posting.

mkr32208

Well if she's an unmarried pioneer and was having sex maybe she did panic because she new she'd get df'ed and not be able to speak to friends and family anymore so she made this up to try to save her butt! I agree with the sherriff that thats pretty plausable!

I feel bad for her!

"I'm sure it will never change," Seneker says, shaking his head. "We pointed out to her irrefutable facts and she still chose not to change her story."

Must be his first time dealing with witnesses! HA! (1914, child abuse, UN etc...)

toladest

I can see why she would make up the story. (not that I believe it's right) JW's have gone to extremes in the past to cover up premarital sex. I remember one story of a women in her early 20's that killed her baby to cover it up. She hid her pregnancy the whole time.

This women was a pioneer. That means that all her friends would be JW's and her parents are JW's. Her mind must have been racing! If she waited to discover whether or not she was pregnant it would be too late to cry rape.

Once she started the lie she could not recant. After all her dad was inraged! he drove around looking for this "rapist". Now she risks not only being DFed, but also having her parents never trust her again.

Premarital sex was the sin most talked about amoung witnesses when I was growing up. It was talked about SO much that it seemed like it must be the WORSE sin you could commit. And I always believed that MOST people were DFed for that sin. In fact, I was worried when I was DFed that people would think I had cheated on my husband, and that is exactly what they thought.

I hope my kids make good decisions when it comes to sex, but they KNOW they can come to me about anything. They KNOW that I make mistakes and that it is ok to be human. They also know that if they do choose to have sex I won't shun them. I love them NO MATTER WHAT! Why is it that the imperfect elders who have done so many wrong things themselves get to sit in judgement of these young folks? It's very sad.......

Trial of JW Aimee Satterfield begins today

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