Shownotes Transcript
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I'm doing pretty good, Justin. How are you feeling this morning? I'm doing good because we have so many Patreon supporters and they love us and we love them and we are putting out more and more content for them and we started doing video, right, Aaron? Yeah, I think we're putting out several videos a month of us talking about things that are kind of in the news or giving updates. I'm really enjoying it and I know you're enjoying it because you're the one who came up with the idea.
And, um, there's been a great response so far. People like seeing our faces, I guess. And, you know,
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So, Aaron, tonight's case is something that definitely strikes a chord with me. Some people know I have another podcast called The Peripheral, and I've covered a lot of different topics on there. And the last topic I covered was about women who have been sexually assaulted and raped and have reported the crime, have reported what happened to them, and have been dismissed by society, have been shamed by society.
have not had their allegations taken seriously. And it is very frustrating and infuriating to me to hear that, but it is a reality that I think needs to be addressed. With that, what are we talking about tonight? Tonight we're talking about Donna Palumba, who on September 11th, 1993, was sexually assaulted by a man who broke into her home.
So let's set this up. Donna Palumba had come home with her kids on September 10th, 1993. She and her kids had gone to a concert at a local school. Her husband, John, who had never been away from her ever, it seems like, was actually in Colorado for a friend's wedding. And when Donna and her kids got home, there was actually a message on the answering machine from John, and he was letting them know that he loved them and he missed them.
So really, if you want dates on this, this was over those last 12 years. This was the first time he was away.
Both of them had been invited to the wedding, but Donna had work obligations, and she was at a marketing firm, and she needed to take care of the kids, so they agreed that John would go on his own. And according to Donna, he was a little concerned, and Donna said, but I assured him we would be just fine. Donna remembered shutting the door, locking it, putting her kids to bed before going to sleep. And this is pretty normal. I mean...
I'm sure that you do some traveling and you leave the family at home. Wives go out all the time, leave the family at home. This is a normal occurrence. But for them, this is the first time he's ever left her at home with the kids. And the other thing that happens is if you're not used to sleeping alone and you hear a creak, it usually wakes you up, right? I mean, you're a little on alert. And this is what happens early on September 11th.
Donna's in bed, she's sleeping, and she wakes up because she hears footsteps and they're entering the bedroom where she's at. And of course, her first thought is those footsteps are not from a kid. So she looks up and she can tell that the silhouette of the person in the doorway is of a man and he's got something over his face, some type of face covering.
Of course, this is going to freak anyone out. And she screams. And this man, he jumps on top of her and he puts his hand over her mouth. And she says that he cranked my arm up behind my back. And he said, if you don't cooperate, I'm going to hurt you. And sounded like he was trying to disguise his real voice. He was grumbling while he was speaking or growling. So she wouldn't recognize his voice. The man pushed her face down into the bed.
bound her wrist and covered her eyes with nylon stockings and covered her head with a pillowcase. And she was unable to fight him off. She said, I couldn't resist at that point because I was bound. So I just remember him cutting my clothing while I was still on my stomach. And then he flipped me over and he raped me.
Donna told the man that she couldn't identify him and she wouldn't tell anyone what happened. She told him he was a good person and he hadn't hurt her. She's essentially just begging and pleading like, hey, I didn't see you. You're probably a good person. You can go now. And that's when she felt the barrel of a gun against her mouth through the pillowcase.
The man moved the gun up to her temple, and obviously Donna thought he was going to kill her. But instead, he put the gun against her back and said, if you call the pigs, I'll come back and kill you. And of course, Donna again is pleading like she's trying to assure him, I'm not going to tell anyone. I don't know you. I can't see your face. I'm not telling anybody. And she heard the man walk down the stairs and then close the front door behind him.
Now, she's still bound, so she has to work these bindings, and it takes her a little bit of time. She gets them off, and she immediately goes and checks on her children. Luckily, both of them were still asleep and unharmed. So she runs to her phone. She tries to call 911, but the lines are dead.
So she doesn't know what to do because she needs to call for help, but she doesn't want to leave her children, but she has to make a decision. So she put on her robe and slippers and she locked her door and she ran over to a neighbor's house and pounded on his door until he opened up and he immediately saw that there was something wrong. And she told him what happened and he called 911. Yeah.
Yeah, and this guy was apparently a distant relative of her husband's. He called 911, and he begins talking, and Donna actually asks for the phone and begins speaking to the operator and says, I begged him to keep me alive. I felt something in my head. I felt it was a gun for sure. And after she says, he told me he was going to kill me if I called the police, this 911 operator says, well, you're not at home, so he can't do that. And...
The tone of this 911 call is a little cringy when you hear the dispatcher. I think he was trying to calm her down. I think he was trying to say, you know, you're safe now. But it came off real bad when she's on this 911 call. Well, that's bad because her kids are still at home. So it doesn't matter where she's at. She cares more about her kids than herself. So this guy picks up an axe and he goes back to...
Don his house with her and he stands guard. He makes sure that no one's coming back in to cause any harm because when someone's assaulted you like that, we don't know what they're up to in the meantime. They may have just fled. We could say that. Oh, yeah, they just took off. They're not coming back. But you have no idea.
Especially since he had made a threat that said, if you tell anyone, especially if you tell the police, then he's going to come back and kill her. So Donna's on the phone, an officer arrives and asked if she had a key. She handed over her key and tried following the officer, but he said, stay back. But Donna's going crazy because she wants to be there with her kids.
And so she goes and gets a knife from her neighbor's kitchen and heads back to her house. She's feeling very vulnerable, obviously.
And Donna was taking note of what was going on. And according to her, she said, the crime scene was already being trampled on. All kinds of people, arriving officers, relatives, neighbors, were going up and down the stairs, walking in and out of rooms. Windows and doors were opened and closed repeatedly, trying to determine how the assailant gained entry. Forensics had not been called in. No fingerprints or photographs were taken. You would think that...
they would take this a little bit more seriously. There has been a violent attack, and it's not up to Donna to tell friends and relatives to stay out of the home. It's up to the police to take control of the situation. Yeah, this all went wrong for some reason, and it causes you to look at the date again. This is 1993, not 1953. If it was 1953, I could understand. But this is 1993.
So, Donna called family while the police were there, and her brother-in-law Bill came to take the kids to their grandmother's house. Donna insisted that no one call John, her husband. She told Dateline, I did not want to call John. I did not want to talk to him at this moment to frighten him when he couldn't be there. It would just be torture for him.
She doesn't even want to bother her husband because she knows that he would feel helpless in this situation and he would feel guilty because it was the one time he left the home and something happened. And she doesn't want to burden him with that.
Yeah, and it probably was the right call because as we'll get into this, you'll find out what John's reaction is. And she knows her husband. We'll put it that way. But Donna has suffered an assault and she needs medical attention. She had been told by the officer on the 911 call not to remove the stockings on her wrists and neck.
Her right eye was throbbing and an officer encouraged her to go to the hospital. So she went and they performed a sexual assault kit examination at the hospital and a DNA sample was collected. She suffered a scratched cornea on her right eye and lacerations on her wrist. The officer who had followed her to the hospital told her to go to the station in a day or so to give a written statement. And the next day is when...
John comes home from his trip to Colorado. John, he interviews with Dateline and he said he felt like he let his family down by leaving them. He feels unbelievable guilt for doing this. And obviously, he's the husband, he's the father, he's the protector, and he wasn't there to protect. And he takes on that burden.
But when Donna went to the police station to make her statement, she's trying her best to recall every detail she could think of. And afterwards, she was determined to heal and just put her life back together. She was trying to just make sense of what had just happened.
And she was doing her best to give the police everything she knew about this intruder. But of course, he was wearing like a mask or something to cover his face. So there's only so much she can say. About a month after the incident, Donna's sister encountered a friend they both knew as teenagers. He began acting strangely and aggressively towards her. So Donna notified the lieutenant in charge of her case who said, you should come into the station.
This was October 15th, 1993. Donna goes to the station with her sister and was told, hey, you need to go first. So she goes into a room and she sits down and in front of her is a tape recorder. The lieutenant reads her her Miranda rights and he goes on to accuse her of lying and he claimed that he had interviews and photographs to prove it. He told Donna, you could lose your husband, children, career, and your reputation.
This is unbelievable, Justin. She's trying to help the investigation. She wants justice. And now this lieutenant is saying, you made this up. And he has some sort of motive, some suggestive motive why she would do this. The suggested motive is he said, you called 911. He goes, I have 27 cases on my desk. And he goes, I'm going to close yours because you're lying. And
And he said, you're probably going to go to jail. Now, Donna is completely caught off guard. And she said, I'll take a lie detector test. And he's just interrogating her. He's treating her very poorly. And she ends up leaving the station, but she can't eat. She can't sleep. She can't focus. And her husband, John, is like, no, we're going to go back and we're going to sort this out. So he
He goes with her back to the station the following Monday, and they meet with the head of vice and intelligence, who's also the lieutenant's brother, that very lieutenant that interrogated her and accused her of lying. And they said, please listen to her first taped interview. And this guy's saying, yeah, no, we're not going to do that. So now they feel completely railroaded by the police.
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They want her to re-listen to her interview, which is kind of re-victimizing her and re-traumatizing her. She's already given the statement. She can add to that statement if she remembers more details. She was there to say, hey, there's somebody else that might make for a suspect here. I'm trying to help you. And they're reading her her Miranda rights? Yeah.
They're telling her she's lying? On what grounds? With what evidence? She had injuries. She had a scratched cornea and bindings. She went to the hospital to do a sexual assault kit. She did all the things that she's supposed to do. She ran next door and involved a neighbor who is a relative. What is the point of all this if she's lying? I can't grasp how the
investigator used the logic to get to this point. But okay, we'll continue on. And the subsequent meetings that she had were also taped, even the one that her husband was in with her on. And so days later, she calls for an update and the police admit that they didn't even listen to the tape at all. They said it's a moot point. They said, all that's left to do in this case is to interview the children. But Donna says, no, you're not going to do that.
So her and John, they seek legal counsel and they met with the state's attorney. During that meeting, Donna learned that the lieutenants on her case were given information from a citizen who claimed they heard she was having an affair. One of her kids had woken up and noticed the two of them in the bedroom. And so because Donna knew her child had gotten up, she knew the sound of her kid's footsteps, she made up this false rape claim to cover it up. So if John was told, oh, there
there was a man in the bedroom with your wife, then he would say, oh, well, she had been assaulted. And so the police have it in their heads that this was just all made up so that Donna could get away with this affair.
And this claim of some citizen is never substantiated. It's just, oh yeah, we heard that you're having an affair and you got caught. Okay. Well, who said that? Who am I having the affair with? What's going on there? But no, it's just, we're not investigating your rape allegation. We're not investigating this case at all.
Now, the state's attorney asked the police for a tape of Donna's original interview. He was told the tape had faltered and there was actually no recording. So Donna's attorney filed a complaint against the police department requesting an internal affairs investigation, and her case was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division, and officers were then assigned to it. And lo and behold, a new investigation occurred.
Interviews were conducted and voluntary DNA samples were collected from multiple men. I have a problem here, Aaron, because they were trying to force her to re-listen to her original interview. And now they're saying that that original recording didn't exist or didn't record properly.
So are they lying? There's a huge contradiction here. And is it, it didn't record or they're not willing to hand it over because they know that they're in the wrong now? I don't know. It just seems really fishy to me.
It might be worse because it's so dismissive that whether they have it or not, you know, they actually said, you made all this up. And it sounded like they wanted to prosecute her. They wanted to charge her. So now that it's just been transferred, it's sort of like, oh, well, it's not our problem anymore. It doesn't sound like they actually care in the first place. So Donna, she reaches out to Dr. Henry Lee. I don't think we have to announce who he is.
He ordered a resample of the DNA evidence, and Donna consulted with him on a list of policy and procedure recommendations she wanted implemented in the Waterbury Police Department. But unfortunately, they couldn't find any matches with the DNA sample. And the internal affairs report was released 13 months later. 13 months, Aaron. I would assume that it would be a little faster, but hey, the gears of justice grind slowly.
The report stated that the physical evidence gathered at the scene contradicted Donna's statements and gave the lieutenant sufficient reason to suspect that she was lying. The lieutenant would have been derelict in his duties if he had not confronted her the way he had, meaning he had to question her, otherwise he would have been doing something wrong. He had to accuse her, otherwise he would be doing something wrong. Like,
That is so counterintuitive to the way an investigation should go and what physical evidence gathered at the scene, which was trampled over by multiple people. I don't know how that contradicted her statement. I can tell you.
So if you recall, we talked about how when Donna was on this 911 call, she was told to leave the bindings on her. It's evidence, right? But the investigation says that because Donna wore the bindings wrapped around her wrist and neck for half an hour after the police arrived.
that that was suspicious, even though she was told on the call not to remove them. This is not an investigation. You should be able to support what you're saying. This would contradict that. So when law enforcement contradicts themselves, it's her fault. Got it. So the chief of police wrote to Donna's attorney and said that he was satisfied with the thoroughness and professionalism of the internal affairs report and concluded that no police officer acted improperly.
So Donna filed suit against the police officers and the city of Waterbury, citing 26 violations.
Now, she had developed this list of department policy and procedure changes she wanted implemented because she didn't want anyone else to go through what she did. She wanted improved sexual assault training so victims would be treated with dignity and compassion. She also wanted an apology and acknowledgement that she was telling the truth. Donna said she was willing to settle if all her requests were honored.
Her legal team tried non-binding arbitration, but an agreement could not be reached.
I don't understand why she would be going through all of this trouble, putting herself out there, re-traumatizing herself, going through an attorney and all of this. It just does not make sense. She was victimized and she feels like nobody's taking her seriously while a rapist is still walking the streets. That's the easiest explanation to me. That's the simplest one to me is,
She wants something done here because a great wrong was done against her. So after seven years and numerous depositions, Donna's case was finally scheduled to go to trial in January of 2001. The mayor of Waterbury asked to meet with Donna Palumba. Donna shared her expectations during the meeting, but was not confident that they would be met. Can you blame her? I mean, how she's been treated so far?
Sadly, Donna was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in mid-December of 2000, and her family worried that the trial would affect her mental and physical health. When you're going through something like that, it's really hard and stressful for you.
And then a trial is even more hard and stressful for you. So they consulted doctors and made the decision to hold off on surgery and radiation until after the trial. She is literally putting her own life at risk to make sure that she has her wits about her during this trial to fight for what is right.
So the afternoon just before the trial, the city offered a settlement and a half-hearted plan to work with Donna Palumba on her demands. She was told, you should take this. This is the best you can expect. But she didn't want to. She wrote, this was my life and my reputation that they had severely damaged. They had pushed me around for seven years, and I needed the trial to set the record straight.
So the trial commenced, and it lasts almost a month. Donna recalled that the defense attorneys questioned her motherhood, the words she used on her 911 call, as well as her injuries. The defense even had a female administrator cut a phone line to prove a woman could do it. Waterbury officers testified against Donna, but a detective stated that he told initial investigating officers they were headed down the wrong path.
Now, Sergeant Neil O'Leary testified and said that he didn't find any evidence that Donna was having an affair. He said, anyone I talked to said that she was one of the finest people they had ever known, including clergy friends and family.
And they could have pulled phone records to see if there was anyone she was calling or taking calls from. I mean, they could have substantiated an affair if they really wanted to, but they were just wanting to be done with this case and this investigation. So it's not like they were going to actually back up any of the allegations they had against her.
Now, as we'd stated, Dr. Henry Lee had gotten involved and he testified about the proper procedure for securing a crime scene. And Dr. David Johnson from the PTSD Center at Yale testified about the emotional damage inflicted on Donna by the police. At least Dr. David Johnson also talked about how her phone call would come off and how somebody who has just been attacked and traumatized
would sound on a 911 call, and he defended her statements after the attack. On January 31st, 2001, the jury returned a verdict. They found the defendants guilty. And Donna was awarded $190,000 in damages, but she never received an apology from the lieutenant or his brother. The city paid the damages, but the lieutenant kept his job and was later promoted to captain.
Sergeant Neil O'Leary was later promoted to captain and eventually became the chief of police. He wanted to revamp the policy and procedure manual for the Waterbury PD. And Donna, still being involved, offered assistance on the sexual assault portion of the manual. And O'Leary later became the police chief. And Donna's saying, hey, I'll help you. She is still involved.
trying to work with the police department here.
The key here, though, I think, Justin, is despite the horrible ways in which Donna Palumbo was treated by the police at this department, Sergeant Neil O'Leary, who later became captain and later became police chief, he's the one who said, I believe you. And he did his best to make her feel okay. And he defended her. So I think that's why she's able to keep working with this department because of this officer.
This is true. And thanks for the clarification. A lieutenant that had worked with Donna said he wanted to apologize to her on behalf of the entire department. So we have, you know, years later and after a lawsuit, some members of the department saying, hey, we think we were wrong. We want to apologize. We want to change things. So I guess if you were looking for a silver lining, this is the beginning of it. And there's a lot more to come.
In the summer of 2004, Neil O'Leary asked to meet with Donna and her husband. He informed them that a man assaulted a 21-year-old co-worker in the Overlook section of Waterbury, where Donna had lived in 1993. The woman was able to break free and escape. She called the police and reported the attacker, whom she identified as John Regan. Now, Regan sold and installed roofing and was a pretty well-known person in the city.
According to the Associated Press, the woman accused Regan of pulling her onto his lap, forcing her onto her back, and trying to have sex with her. Those are her words.
Now, John and Donna had always suspected that the rapist was someone they knew because he seemed to know John was out of town. I want to talk about this for a minute because that was early on. There was this idea with Donna that this was a stranger. But after John had come back and they slowly began to kind of talk about this, they came to the realization that because John had not been away in 12 years,
Well, someone had to know, and that reduced the number of people who would be a suspect. It would be really unlikely for some random serial rapist to be waiting out in front of her house that same day and seeing her husband leave and knowing that he could do this. I mean, people do that, and perpetrators and predators do stake out people's houses, but
but it's the one time her husband leaves. So just the mathematics there don't work out. So that's why they're coming and saying, yeah, it might be someone who knew us. It might be a neighbor. And just think about living that way. You think one of your neighbors might have attacked you because they know you and they know your schedule and they know this is the one time your husband left. The fear she lived in this entire time not knowing, it's unbelievable.
So this is where the real investigation begins, because O'Leary notes that there was no forced entry at the home, so someone likely had a key.
They know that on that same night that John's friends held a bachelor party at a restaurant in Waterbury. There were about 50 attendees, and many of them had to have known that John was leaving town or was out of town. So O'Leary obtained a partial guest list, and he collected 40 DNA samples from those in attendance, but none of those matched the DNA in Donna's case.
So after he hears about this 2004 attempted sexual assault, he realizes that John Regan is related to someone who was at the party. And so he thought it was possible that Regan was there. He just wasn't on the partial guest list. And so they start investigating. They ask around and they find out that John Regan was in fact at the party that night.
And John Palomba told Dateline, if I were to name like 10 friends that were closest to me, he probably would have made the list. That's how well we knew each other. They'd been friends for years. They'd grown up together. So Donna's husband had known John Regan since kindergarten, considered him a friend. Regan helped them re-shingle their garage a couple years before the attack.
And they'd even invited Regan over for dinner with their family. A few years after Donna's attack, they spent a day with Regan and others out on a beach together. They were around this man their entire lives and even after the attack. And Donna's husband said that there was no way Regan could have attacked Donna. He just could not wrap his head around it. But O'Leary said it's something he had to look into.
O'Leary asked Regan if he would submit a DNA sample, and Regan agreed.
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On October 22, 2004, Donna Palumba was informed that John Regan's DNA matched the DNA in her case. Now, Regan was free and awaiting trial in the other assault case, but he was then rearrested and charged with kidnapping since the statute of limitations for sexual assault had run out. Regan pleaded not guilty and was set free on bond.
This is, I imagine, very difficult for Donna because as we've laid out, she was sexually assaulted, her life was threatened, and now they actually know who the person was that attacked her, but he can go free on bond in the meantime.
The Freon Bond part, you would think that somebody who is accused of attacking women wouldn't be given Bond. They would be considered a danger to society. But here we are. Yeah, that's what we get told that all the time, don't we? Well, they're a danger to society. This isn't even just one case. This is multiple cases. But he's let out. And while he's out, he's attacking more people.
On October 31st, 2005, John Regan was lurking in the parking lot of a high school in Saratoga Springs, New York. 17-year-old Lindsay Ferguson was getting into her vehicle after track practice when Regan attempted to pull her into his vehicle.
Now, Lindsay fought back. She managed to get away. And while she's doing this, her track coaches witness what's going on. One called 911 and another chased after Regan when he drove off. Now, Regan, because of this, was quickly apprehended. And they see when he's caught that he had removed the backseat of his van.
Inside was a tarp, a noose, a syringe, an antihistamine known to cause drowsiness, a shovel, and photography equipment. Danger to society indeed.
Now, we have to look back again. Police told Donna Palumba that she had made all this up. Thankfully, we have better police along the way, years later, who do their jobs. And then you find out what kind of a horrible criminal is loose on the streets and what kind of crimes is he committing and how much are they elevating? I mean, he's going from sexual assault to this starts to look like he might be ready to murder somebody.
But a 13-month internal affairs investigation found no wrongdoing. They investigated themselves and they found nothing wrong. November 1st, 2005, John Regan was arraigned on charges of attempted first and second degree kidnapping and attempted unlawful imprisonment. The Saratoga Springs Police soon found out about his pending cases in Connecticut, and this time, Regan was not granted bond.
Slow clap. Finally, I don't finally getting it right.
On November 3rd of 2005, Regan attempted to hang himself in his jail cell. For obvious reasons, he knows he's been caught and he's going to be facing charges in multiple cases. Later that month, it was reported that Regan was being investigated in at least three states for unsolved sex crimes and murder cases. Investigators were looking as far back as 1988 to see if Regan was connected to any cases. And in
any of these assaults that had actually collected evidence that might have had DNA attached to them, they're going through it all now because they know they have a serial offender.
Waterbury Police Superintendent Neil O'Leary said he led a life as a father, a devoted father devoted to his kids, frequently seen at their sporting events, a nice house in a nice neighborhood, a very well-respected and well-liked wife. And, you know, obviously there was a total dark side to John Regan. So detectives, they begin reviewing his business trips to Sturbridge, Massachusetts to see if he was in Warren when 16-year-old Molly Bish disappeared on
on June 27, 2000. Now, Molly's remains were found in 2003, but her murder remains unsolved. A lot of people know that name, and there's this possible connection to this case.
O'Leary, he's not stopping because he now has his big fish and he's thinking we might be able to solve a lot of cases. He wanted to revisit the unsolved murders of Mildred Alvarado and Karen Everett. They were strangled to death in Harlington, Connecticut in 1988 and 89. Both of them worked less than a mile from Regan's home.
I mean, there's so many victims now that we're trying to attach here because once you find somebody like this, it's like, well, are there that many people running around committing crimes or is it just one? And O'Leary thinks it's this one guy. Yeah, he probably has attacked more than just a few people. On July 14th, 2006, Regan pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping in New York and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
And on October 26th of 2006, Regan pleaded guilty under the Alford Doctrine in his Connecticut cases. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for kidnapping, unlawful restraint, and stalking of a co-worker. His sentences were to be served concurrently in New York State with the final three years in a Connecticut prison.
But as we said, the statute of limitation on rape had expired for Donna. So they were only able to charge him with kidnapping and other things, but not with rape. Even though she had DNA that proved he was the perpetrator, that proved he was the one that raped her. And so that doesn't sit well with a lot of people, and it sure doesn't sit well with Donna.
Well, in August of 2017, Donna Palumba received a call from the state's attorney and was told John Regan may be released from prison. His 12-year sentence was supposed to end in October of 2017, but Donna thought he would have to serve the remaining three years of his sentence in Connecticut. But Regan qualified for statutory good time, which took over four years off his Connecticut sentence.
With this good time, Regan fulfilled his Connecticut sentence as of August 21, 2017. Neil O'Leary explained that statutory good time was not removed from Connecticut law until 1984, meaning Regan qualified.
Can you imagine how Donna must feel right now? Her attacker, who has attacked many other women, can be let out for good time. He was behaving himself behind bars, so he can be paroled. He'll be out on the streets again.
Now, John Regan did finish his sentence, but he is currently held under New York's Sex Offender Civil Management Law. The Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act went into effect in 2007 to enhance public safety by providing for the civil management of recidivistic sex offenders upon the expiration of their criminal sentence. On October 26, 2017, the state's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
confirmed John Regan would remain in custody. And of course, this agency does not let anyone know how long his confinement will last.
The DOCCS received an order from the state Supreme Court to keep Regan in custody. When inmates required to register as sex offenders are 120 days out from their release, the state office of mental health and the state attorney general's office are notified and given an opportunity to arrange a psychiatric exam. So this is another, I guess, kind of roadblock for them to get released.
The agencies then give a recommendation on whether the inmate requires civil management or confinement to a psychiatric facility. So they're just not letting them out anymore. They're saying, do they need to be tracked or do they need to go to a psychiatric facility?
Now, there was a trial in November of 2021, and a jury found that Regan has a mental abnormality relating to his sexual crimes and is very likely to reoffend if he were to be released.
On November 28, 2022, a judge issued a decision requiring John Regan to be confined in a secure treatment facility in New York State. There are currently 20 states and the District of Columbia that have enacted laws permitting the civil commitment of sex offenders.
And it was Donna's case that helped change the laws by eliminating the statute of limitation on sexual assaults that are later solved with DNA evidence. They have to have the DNA, though. It's not just any sexual assault or rape. It is ones where they have the evidence. And Donna runs a non-for-profit called Jane Doe No More, which aims to empower survivors of sexual crimes.
But it's her fight, it's her efforts and her motivation and her family that have gotten us here, have changed the laws, have changed the statute of limitations. And I sound like a broken record, but whenever we say, oh, the worst crimes out there are rape and murder, yet we don't treat rape as the worst crime out there, especially when we put a statute of limitation on it.
And here Donna is changing that. I highly suggest everyone go out to janedownomore.org and check out her website. I think it's fantastic. It is very active, even to this day. And you'll read about others' stories and see the difference they're making. And of course, they accept donations. ♪♪♪
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At 24, I lost my narrative, or rather it was stolen from me. And the Monica Lewinsky that my friends and family knew was usurped by false narratives, callous jokes, and politics.
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