Did you ever ask her?
No did you ever hear a yes no,
because you weren't listening
to her at all? Were you?
It all looks so simple on TV,
an accused ****** gets arrested,
goes to court guilty,
and ends up in prison. If
only real life were that simple, you
know, I thought it was going to be quick,
especially with video evidence and seeing
his face, and said knowing it's my
body despite this graphic video.
This woman whose identity were
protecting says she couldn't get
Cherokee sheriff's detectives.
To even question her alleged
****** in the six years since
she reported the alleged crime,
the Sheriff's Office telling 11 alive it
doesn't have enough evidence to make an
arrest. I would say either you
know 50 to 75% are not taking
a survivor seriously.
Jennifer Bivins is president
and CEO of Ganesa, the Georgia
network to end sexual assault.
She says well, as many as 98%
of rape reports are legitimate.
A small fraction.
Ever result in an arrest
and is that common? Is
this happening? Yes, yes,
she's not alone. Yes, no. No, she's
not alone. We took a closer look
at rape reports in Cherokee County.
And here's what we found from 2015 to 2020.
The Sheriff's Office investigated 220 rapes.
It cleared 171 of them.
That's a 78% clearance rates.
It sounds good, but it's misleading
because we uncovered it only arrested.
36 suspects, 16%.
So what happened to the other 62%?
A majority of the cases?
39% of them were ruled
unfounded and 20% were closed,
citing something called
exceptional clearance.
It kind of gives a false illusion
that we're doing a better job
of solving these cases than
we really are. Georgia State
criminology professor and former
Memphis police officer Thaddeus
Johnson says exceptional clearance
is meant to close a case.
When circumstances beyond an
officers control prevent the
arrest of a known suspect.
For example, if the suspect has died,
left the country or is already
in custody for another crime in
another jurisdiction in policing
and police leadership, what we
care about our numbers so
we care about public safety.
Don't get me wrong,
but at that level it's about numbers
because funding goes along with it.
Credibility goes along with it.
The session of clearance allows
prosecutors and departments.
To be able to satisfy those
statistical or those numbers
without being held accountable to
follow all the way through with the
investigation. How often should exceptional
clearance be used?
Is this something that would
be considered a rare tool
for police? It should
be, but it's not in Cherokee County's case.
It's clearing more rape cases with
exceptional clearances than arrests.
That means more often than not,
people who are suspects in a rape case.
Are walking free and our
investigation uncovered.
Cherokee County isn't alone.
We send open records requests to half
a dozen police departments.
Cobb County police exceptionally cleared.
28% of all rape cases,
their arrest rate 16%.
Atlanta police clears more rapes with
arrests than with exceptional clearance,
but it's still cleared 20% of all
of its rape cases exceptionally
over the last six years.
That means more than 200 known suspects were
never arrested or charged with the crime.
Forsyth had the lowest number
of exceptional clearances,
only two over a four year
period, but out of 70 rape cases,
it says 48 are unsolved and inactive.
I guess if you're a ****** you come on
to Georgia because you know
we're not prosecuting folks.
Here is what that says to me,
and that is scary for our community.
We asked these departments for
the reasons these known suspects
were never arrested or charged.
Cherokee County was the only
one that provided that data,
saying in most cases it's because
the victim wouldn't cooperate.
Atlanta PD says it usually
exceptionally clears rape
cases for the same reason,
but it doesn't keep an official record.
We shouldn't
make that the scapegoat for reasons
why we use exceptional clearance. The
other departments couldn't tell us why
they're exceptionally clearing rapes.
Because there not keeping track that should
be tracked. There should be clear
statements as to why they're
making these recommendations,
and especially if their decision is not
to move forward with the case, State
representative Scott Holcomb sponsored
the sexual Assault Reform Act of 2021,
a law that he says is supposed to do
more for survivors by tracking rape kits
and making sure police departments are
following through with investigations.
But he says full justice for rape.
Survivors is still a ways
away. We have to start prosecuting more
cases and getting more convictions.
From my perspective,
the rates of prosecution are too low.
That's true across the country,
and that's true here in Georgia.
What's six years
later? Still doesn't matter for this woman.
She's not sure the man seen on
camera allegedly assaulting her will
ever see the inside of a courtroom,
but she hopes her case avoids
becoming yet another exception.