Isthmus Editor Hits East Coast on Book Tour

Lueders to appear in Boston, New York, Washington and Philadelphia

Bill Lueders, the news editor of Isthmus, will be visiting four east-coast cities in mid-March to discuss his new book, Cry Rape: The True Story of One Woman’s Harrowing Question for Justice.

The book is about a Madison woman named Patty who was raped at knifepoint by an intruder in her home in September 1997. Afterward, she called 911. That’s when her troubles really began. The lead detective assigned to her case came to doubt Patty’s story and focus suspicion on her. Using lies and pressure, he got her to recant, and then had her charged with a crime when she returned to her original account.

Patty had to fight the charges, and then fight for justice — against the police, the district attorney’s office, the courts and the city of Madison. Ultimately, she was vindicated with the conviction of her assailant, and, following the publication of a recent book about her ordeal, Cry Rape, she received belated apologies from the city of Madison and its chief of police.

The book has met with a tremendous reception among advocates for victims of sexual assault. Patty and Lueders have been invited to appear at the state convention of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault and state conventions of sexual assault nurse examiners in Wisconsin and Ohio. And the book will be the subject of a power-point demonstration about sexual assault responses at a convention in Houston in April.

For more on the book, see www.cryrapebook.com.

Lueders can be reached at (608)251-5627.

Here are the dates and places for the east-coast tour.

Boston
Monday, March 12, 7 pm
Harvard University Campus, Cambridge, Mass.
Sever Hall, Room 202
Co-sponsors: Harvard Sexual Assault Prevention Office, Boston Area Rape Crisis Center

New York
Tuesday, March 13, 7 pm
Bluestocking’s Women’s Bookstore
172 Allen St., Manhattan

Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, March 14, 7:30 pm
Georgetown Campus, Southwest Quad
McShain Lounge, McCarthy Hall
Sponsor: D.C-Area Rape Crisis Center

Philadelphia
Friday, March 16, 7 pm
Robin’s Bookstore
1837 Chestnut St.