Finding Amy (32 page)

  2.
The most common characteristics of sexual predators are: refusal to accept responsibility, a desire for power and control, a sense of entitlement, the inability to empathize with others, being unable to form intimate relationships, an abusive and/or troubled childhood, poor self-esteem, abuse of drugs and/or alcohol, and deviant sexual attitudes or behaviors. See Leigh Baker,
Protecting Your Children from Sexual Predators
(St. Martin's, 2002).

  3.
“When you talk about rapists, you need to understand, a large proportion of the male population will engage in coercive sex. As a male, there is a belief that getting to have sex is a birthright.” From a talk by Robert Prentky, Ph.D. to Sisters in Crime, December 2003.

  4.
According to Robert Prentky, Ph.D., director of assessment and training at the Justice Resource Institute in Massachusetts, and a specialist in evaluating sex offenders, those who come into a rape essentially misogynistic are going to react with rage and violence when a woman resists. Many of the witnesses interviewed described Gorman's toxic relationship with his mother and his negative attitudes toward women.

  5.
On October 21, 2001, the moon was only a waning crescent and the temperature around 36 degrees.

  6.
It is a common misunderstanding that men who rape must lack access to consensual sex. Another is that coercive acquaintance sex is not rape. However, researcher David Lisak, a professor at UMass Boston, has identified an entire population of so-called unindicted rapists who are off the radar screen. These men stake out their victims, stalk their prey, create opportunities through drugs and alcohol, and regularly engage in coercive sex, using whatever level of force is necessary to secure the cooperation of their victims and accomplish their acts, without considering themselves rapists or their behaviors criminal acts. Lisak identifies the characteristics of rapists as being: angry at women, need to dominate women, seeing women as objects to be conquered, seeing violence as normal in relationships, believing in rape myths (i.e., don't see what they are doing as rape), adopting hypermasculine attitudes, and having deficits in empathy. David Lisak, Ph.D., at a conference, “Stalking: Innovative Approaches to Investigation and Response,” January 2004, sponsored by the Massachusetts Office of Public Safety and the National Center for Victims of Crime/Stalking Resource Center.

  7.
Increasingly, prosecutors coming before juries without forensic evidence fear what is sometimes called the “
CSI
effect,” named for the television show, worrying that the TV crime shows “taint the jury pools with impossibly high expectations of how easily and conclusively criminal cases can be solved using DNA analysis and other forensic science.”
Entertainment News
, December 19, 2002. There is a growing public expectation that police labs can do what TV labs can. “How Science Solves Crimes,”
Time
, October 21, 2002. The public doesn't necessarily understand that this is fiction. A Florida medical examiner who teaches crime scene technique used to assign his students to watch
CSI
programs and record the errors. One episode alone had sixty-four errors. And most state and city crime labs are so understaffed and saturated with evidence that only the most serious crimes can be accepted. Even then, it may be many months before results are available. Nor do they necessarily have the latest and best equipment.

Chapter 17 (pp. 235–254)

  1.
On March 18, 2002, in recognition of his work on the Amy St. Laurent case, as well as his other outstanding work on the force, Danny Young was honored by the Portland City Council as the Portland Police Department's Officer of the Year. Diane Jenkins threw a party for him at her real estate offices.

  2.
This was one good reason for the police policy of getting to witnesses early on and locking up their stories, so that their fuzzy recollections could be refreshed at trial.

  3.
Despite her unwillingness to cooperate with the prosecuting attorneys, during the eleven months between the grand jury hearings and the trial, Tammy Westbrook called Bill Stokes a few times, trying to get him to help her with legal issues involved in trying to get her daughter, Britney, back from Florida where she had gone to stay with Mary Young. Stokes had to explain that he was on the opposing side in a criminal matter, that hers was a civil matter, and that he wasn't able to help her.

  4.
“Quashed” is a legal term meaning suppressed or overruled. As a potential witness, Tammy Westbrook was subject to a sequestration order just like all the other witnesses. This meant she could not be present in the courtroom except during the time that she was testifying.

  5.
A more detailed account of the use of forensic entomology can be found in M. Lee Goff's book
A Fly for the Prosecution
(Harvard University Press, 2000).

Chapter 18 (pp. 255–265)

  1.
In law, a voir dire is a preliminary examination, outside the presence of the jury, of prospective jurors or witnesses under oath to determine their competence or suitability.

  2.
Portland Press Herald
, January 15, 2003: “Judge Orders Suspect's Mom to Take Stand against Her Son.”
Portland Press Herald
, January 16: “Gorman Jury to Hear about Telephone Call.”

Epilogue (pp. 298–309)

  1.
Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber described the appeals and postappeals process in a criminal case. First there is the appeal to the state supreme court, which may take up to a year for argument and months more for a decision. Then, where warranted, a motion for reconsideration, followed by a petition claiming ineffective representation of counsel, which could take another year or two, followed by further appeals to federal court.

  2.
The RAD system was developed in 1989 by Larry Nadeau, a Virginia police officer, who was looking for an accessible course that would meet the specific needs of women. Since then, over 250,000 women have taken the course, which is offered on many college campuses, as well as in communities, through their local police departments.

  3.
Richard Sparrow, Amy's longtime boyfriend, who, like her mother, had spent countless hours searching for Amy, took the training to become a RAD instructor. An exception to the training rules, which normally allow only men who are police officers to be trained as RAD instructors, was necessary to allow Sparrow to participate. Along with Sparrow, the police officers who trained included Mary Sauschuck, Lucas Porter, and Coreena Behnke.

  4.
David Hench, “From Anguish, Comes Urgency,”
Portland Press Herald
, March 21, 2002.