up her pussy and her ass. How the hell do you think I’m gonna sell that to the D.A.? Come on, R.C. Does that sound like earnest resistance or forceful compulsion to you? Even if little Miss Rohnert was the governor’s daughter, the D.A. couldn’t get a conviction. Berkeley would be on the map as the laughing stock capital of the nation. It’s all ready bad enough that some people call it ‘Berserkely.”’
I could see his point. He was anticipating how a clever defense lawyer would portray the case to the jury and the press. He’d have his client tell the jury how Mindy voluntarily drank with the guys to excess, then strutted her stuff doing the limbo and her belly dance and how much she liked the guys touching her all over. She’d admitted coming to orgasm twice before they entered her. He’d use her own words in the police reports to destroy her credibility on cross-examination.
“I’d like to review the police reports if it’s okay with you. Maybe I can get a lead on how to locate the guys.”
“Sure, be my guest.” He handed me the report he’d been reading when I arrived. “Just drop it off at the front desk when you’re through with it.”
I took the file down to an empty interrogation room to read while I waited for Officer Sandoval to finish her shift in a patrol car.
The police report contained interview summaries with Mindy, Ernie, the night watchman at her dorm, and the doctors and nurses who administered the rape kit the morning after the attack. Mindy’s statement corroborated most of what she’d told me but in less detail. She said she was surprised to find a wad of twenty dollar bills in her purse the next day when she reported the rape.
The night watchman stated that he’d been dozing when he heard loud rapping on the locked main door. He recognized Mindy who was being assisted by a young man. She stumbled into Ernie’s arms once he opened the door. She smelled of booze and appeared to be sick according to him. He described the guy as about six feet tall, dark featured, Mediterranean looking, maybe Greek or Italian ancestry with dark curly hair and wearing dark glasses.
According to Ernie, the guy sort of pushed her into his arms and said, “She got loaded at a friend’s party and I had to drive her home.” Once Ernie had hold of her, the guy split. Ernie helped her up to her room so she could sleep it off. That’s all he knew. Officer Sandoval asked whether she said anything about being assaulted. He said, “No, she was clearly drunk but she didn’t look messed up.” He added that it wasn’t uncommon for girls in the dorm to come home drunk from parties, so he didn’t think anything about it.
The medical reports confirmed that Mindy had anal intercourse with different men. She complained of soreness and diarrhea. The physician’s exam confirmed that she’d suffered abrasions and bleeding in her anus. There was no sperm in her vagina. She told them they had penetrated her there digitally.
The summary page was written by Detective Sawyer who recommended the case for rape was too weak to forward to the D.A. for prosecution based on the victim’s lack of earnest resistance and seeming consent to the sexual acts. Officer Sandoval had recommended further investigation to locate and interview the individuals who had taken advantage of her.
It was time for Officer Sandoval to come off duty, so I closed the file and dropped it off with the records clerk on the way to Officer Sandoval’s desk, one of four small prison-made oak desks crammed into an office designed to hold one large or possibly two small persons. There were no partitions or any effort to provide for privacy.
My first view of Officer Sandoval was from the back. She was bending over her desk in a way that accentuated the curves of her buttocks and legs poured into tight-fitting police issue tan slacks. She’d plaited her thick mane of coal black hair into a tight, glossy braid which bobbed back and forth as she jabbered excitedly in Spanish into a phone. From the little I understood of her rapid fire account from studying Spanish in high school, she had been involved in catching or chasing a suspect.
I tapped gently on the office door. She started, turned quickly and she threw me a puzzled look.
I could hear staccato gibberish coming out of the receiver in her hand which she now held at arm’s length like a hot potato. She resolved her confusion about which conversation to pursue by spitting more Spanish into the phone, then hanging it up.
Her face was broad, strong-featured and strikingly chiseled. She reminded me of some of the women I’d seen in Central America – high cheek bones, large oval shaped black eyes that peered out intently from behind long, curly lashes. Only her nose betrayed a mixed-race Latina. She was about five-feet six-inches tall and looked to be in her late twenties. She wore no makeup. Her full and pleasing figure stretched her uniform in all the right places.
“Can I help you?” she asked. Her cheeks remained flushed with excitement from whatever she had been recounting on the phone.
“Hi, I’m R.C. Bean, a private investigator hired by the Rohnert family to find the men who assaulted their daughter. I just finished reading the file on Mindy Rohnert. Detective Sawyer said you’d fill me in on the rest of the details.” I hoped Sawyer hadn’t bothered to apprise her of my talk with him and that my lie would hold up.
“Uh-huh. The girl who got raped by three guys we couldn’t find.” She was looking at the phone she’d hung up.
Her mind was somewhere else. Time for a different tack. “I couldn’t help overhearing you on the phone. Sounds like something exciting happened.”
“God, yes! Phil and I – the guy I patrol with – got a call from a Telegraph Avenue merchant that a couple of punks grabbed this coed off the street and forced her into a car. We were just around the corner. Wow, what a charge! We chased them toward Ashby and cornered them on Russell when their car didn’t clear the street barricade. One perp raised a gun and I yelled for him to drop it. I had my safety off and was just starting to squeeze off a round when he dropped it and hollered ‘Don’t shoot.’ I managed to jerk my gun up and just missed blowing a hole in his head. Jesus, Mary, it was so damned close. I’ve never fired at someone before. I nearly killed the bastard. We got the girl out before they could head into the hills to rape and possibly kill her. Whew! I’m still shaking inside.”
She was really pumped up. “Reminds me of some close calls I had in the Navy. Let me buy you a drink. We can trade war stories and then you can tell me why Mindy’s case got relegated to the back burner.”
“I really need to write up a report of the incident for internal affairs and clarify why I fired my gun. But, I’m still pretty wound up. My adrenaline is still at the scene.” She paused to give me a funny look. “You really serious about trying to find those three rapists?”
“Yeah, she just got the word that the guys who boffed her were HIV positive. I’m hired to find them and bring them to justice if I can. I need all the help I can get.”
“Hey, I’m sorry for her. I didn’t know.” She let out a sigh. “Sorry for the offhand reception. When I first saw you, I thought you were a guy from internal affairs who was snooping on my phone call to my mother. Are you serious about that drink? I think I could really use one.”
“You got it.”
“Give me a couple of minutes. I have to clean up my desk. Okay?”
“I’ll wait for you at Rudy’s. Take your time.”
She flashed me a smile that could melt a hard-hearted guy in a black hat. I made my way to Rudy’s Bar near the courthouse; it’s the local hangout for lawyers and cops. I picked up a draft Anchor Steam beer from the bar and slid into a booth in the
