Molly Mendoza for Reveal
Nicole Chase was a young mom with a six-year-old daughter to support when she was sexually assaulted by her boss while working at a Canton, Connecticut restaurant. When she decided to report the attack, she knew she was risking a lot—her livelihood, for one, but also the reputation she’d build in her small, close-knit town.
What happened next went beyond even her worst fears. Her case triggered a legal battle that dragged on for years, eventually reaching the US Supreme Court. Rather than treating her as a victim of sexual assault, the police investigated Chase and charged her with making a false statement to the police. “This man has caused me to lose so much money that I had to move out of my place,” Chase says. “I went to a doctor, I had to get put on more medicine for my PTSD and my anxiety attacks and all that. My whole life has been flipped upside down.”
Chase wasn’t alone. In this week’s episode, which originally aired in March 2023, Reveal reporter Rachel de Leon investigates the disturbing trend of interrogating victims instead of alleged perpetrators. Listen to the whole episode at Reveal, and watch Victim/Suspect, a documentary about the investigation, on Netflix.
