Brooklyn's Jane Doe: The Mishandling of a Sexual Assault Investigation

“I have had the misfortune of being raped twice—once in the park and again in the media,” wrote “Jane Doe,” the victim of an infamous stranger rape in Brooklyn, New York. Two decades later, detective S. A. Mathers reopened Doe's case to bring her justice.

In April 1994, the horrific details of Jane Doe's assault were widely covered by New York City newspapers following misleading information from NYPD officials to Pulitzer Prize—winning crime reporter Mike McAlary. Convinced that Doe, a quee...