The Nancy Hollebeke Case, the Truth and the Whole Truth Part II

This is the second installment in a series on the Nancy Hollebeke case. My involvement in this case has ultimately led to my running for District Attorney. When I refer to attorney Stuart Leeds and our client Ms. Nancy Hollebeke, I will refer to them as Stuart and Nancy.

So Stuart was appointed to represent Nancy on charges of lying to the police. Here are the facts that he gathered:

-Nancy (Nancy was 18) had gone to a party in the desert with some friends.
-The party was at night and there were a bunch of kids there.
-Nancy helped serve beer from a keg;
-Nancy along with other kids from the party took off when they saw that the police had come;
-Due to the dark, Nancy was separated from her friends.
-She hid under a tree/shrub.
-Two cops found her.
-They started to pull her out and she told them that she would come, that she was not resisting.
-It was very dark.
-She felt herself on her back and hands groping her;
-She felt her pants (which were low hip huggers) come down;
-She struggled;
-She felt something go inside of her vagina;
-She then felt some liquid being poured over her on her crotch area.
-She heard laughter;
-The cops yanked her up;
-The cops walked her up to where there was another cop with her friends;
-She could see the two cops now and they were hispanic;
-She was crying and yelling at them that they were not going to get away with what they had done;
-The cops escorted her and some other kids to the street;
-Nancy was separated from her friends and cuffed and put in a patrol unit by herself; No one else was.
-Nancy reacted to this with fear; she was crying uncontrollably trying to kick the car door open. She was afraid they were going to take her somewhere else and do something else to her.
-This went on;
-Another cop told Nancy's friend that she could approach Nancy in the patrol car only if she could calm Nancy down;
-Nancy's friend went to the car and told Nancy to calm down. Nancy told her friend right then and there that the cops had raped her (in the law, this is called an "immediate outcry." Rape cases that have immediate outcrys tend to be stronger than those with delayed outcrys because when someone immediately reports somethng vs. waiting the allegation is usually more credible.)
-Eventually the cops release Nancy. Her friends take her home;
-Before leaving Nancy and her friend ask for the cops' names and they give them two names that do not correspond with their actual names;
-Nancy can hardly talk in the car and when she arrives at home and her father answers the door and sees her condition he immediately gets his wife up. Nancy is so hysterical that she can hardly relay what happened to her. Also important to note, her hysteria led her facial muscles to involuntarily contort and twitch. ( A person's demeanor is very important when evaluating a case. It is near nigh impossible to cause your face to twitch).
-Nancy told her parents that she had been raped by two cops (This is another immediate outcry).
-Her parents took her to Sierra hospital (Nancy sought immediate medical attention, another factor when weighing the credibility of an accusation);
-There she was examined by the staff;
-Her face continued to contort and twist;
-The nurse reported that Nancy was polite, articulate and cooperative;
-The doctor found a two millimeter tear in her vagina and marked it on her chart;


-The police were now swarming all over the hosipital; Detective Brigette Ballou was assigned to the case. Remember her name.
-The police sent in a MALE in uniform to photograph Nancy's vagina;
-Nancy was horrified by the sight of the male cop trying to photograph her in stirrups and she resisted the photograph being taken. Ms. Hollebeke, Nancy's mother, who was in the room, calmed Nancy down and explained to her that the police were there to help her and to not be afraid.
-Nancy was officially discharged from the hospital around 7 a.m. She had been there since early in the morning.

-At some point, Mrs. Hollebeke sees Jaime Esparza at the hospital;
-Esparza denies he ever went to the hospital;
-It is arranged that Nancy will be taken to the Children's Advocacy Center where she will give a statement;
-This is a deviation from normal procedure. Under normal procedure, an adult victim is taken to the station and there she gives her statement and it is typed up. Only children are taken to the child advocacy center.

Now enters Jaime Esparza, Karen Larose and Penny Hamilton, Esparza's top dogs at the DA's office.
See what happens next.

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