Shortly before her seventeenth birthday, K.P. confided in a family member that she had been repeatedly molested since she was twelve. She confessed that these incidents began in the late summer of 2002. In 2006, Steven W. Everling, then 33 years-old and stepfather to K.P., became a prime suspect in the case when K.P. established that her perpetrator had been Everling and later reported him to the police. Part of the allegation included Everling forcing K.P. into intercourse and other abusive sex acts that included: initiating sexual intercourse with her before her fourteenth birthday that continued until she was sixteen and performing oral sex. K.P. revealed that the delay in her confession was due to fear because Everling had previously threatened to kill her if she spoke out about the abuse. …show more content…
underwent clinical and mental health counseling in which they discovered that she had sustained injuries to her hymen and vagina from the continuous forced intercourse with Everling. Additionally, Charla Hazen and Dr. Timbali, K.P.’s clinician and psychiatrist, also emphasized that the sexual abuse K.P. experienced negatively affected her mental health. The medical examiners explained that K.P. appeared to have chronic and severe internalization of emotions, lack of distrust in others, post-traumatic stress disorder, long-lasting nightmares and sleeping problems.

The police investigation began in February 2008 when Patrick Raigan, one of the leading prosecuting attorneys, conducted K.P. to undergo another set of medical examinations. However, this specific examination was not able to discover injuries that implied molestation. Secretively, Raigan asked the medical expert to not disclose this information in the reports and failed to inform the defense of this imperative information. Mr. Raigan incorrectly stated to the jury at trial that there had been clear and apparent injuries to the victim during his