William Hetherington
Genesee
County, Michigan
Date of Alleged Crime: September 24, 1985
William J. “Wil” Hetherington was convicted of raping his
wife, Linda. Previous to the passage of a new Michigan law, a husband
could be convicted of assaulting his wife, but not raping her, as consent to
sex was viewed a part of the marriage contract. The new rape law only
applied to married couples who lived separately. A divorce court had
frozen all Hetherington's assets so he had no money to hire a lawyer or make
bond. Nevertheless, the criminal court ruled that he was not indigent and
refused to provide him with a lawyer. There was no physical evidence. A pelvic examination of Linda at a hospital three hours after the alleged
offense showed no evidence of injury or forced penetration. The
examining doctor described the lack of evidence as “very unusual.”
Prior to trial Hetherington was offered a plea deal that would have allowed
him to be released immediately with the 11 months he served in jail
constituting his sentence. He refused the deal because he insisted he
was innocent. At trial, Hetherington said the sex he had with Linda
was consensual, but Linda said it was rape. The judge used Michigan's
Rape Shield Law to prohibit cross-examination of Linda. It could not
be brought up that Linda was practiced in the filing of rape charges, as she
had filed them twice before against him, conveniently at times when she
faced losing custody of her children. Linda's story mentioned physical
evidence such as packaging tape, a rubber ball, a lighter, and the utility
gloves, but none of this evidence was ever found. At a preliminary
hearing, Linda said Hetherington had stripped her prior to forcing her to
perform oral sex, while at trial she insisted she was fully clothed. A
neighbor, Adolph Reinhardt, corroborated key parts of Hetherington's story.
Two police officers testified that they saw tape marks on Linda's face that
appeared to support her story that Hetherington bound her. However,
photographs taken of Linda after the alleged attack were not disclosed to
his defense until a decade his conviction. They were subsequently analyzed
by John Valor, a forensic photographer who testified against serial killer
Ted Bundy. According to Valor's sworn statement, the photos of Linda showed
no scratches, tape marks or abnormalities of any kind, and that marks would
have been clearly visible if there had been any.
The sentencing guidelines for the new offense was 12 months to 10 years, but
without showing cause, Judge Thomas Yeotis sentenced Hetherington to 15 to
30 years in prison. He had offered Hetherington a plea deal prior to trial
and may have been irritated that Hetherington had refused to accept it. Linda walked away with custody of their three daughters, the marital home,
and all marital assets.
For years Hetherington could not appeal his conviction as he was unable to
buy a transcript of his trial proceedings. In 1993 a volunteer group
raised the necessary $3,000 to buy one. Hetherington's parole board
received an unsolicited letter from Melissa Anne Suchy, who had been
employed by Linda as a babysitter. Suchy wrote that Linda told her she
made up the rape story because she was then pregnant with her boyfriend's
baby, and he pushed her to press rape charges, saying that she would have to
“get rid of Hetherington or he wouldn't take care of the baby.” As of
2006, Hetherington has been incarcerated for more than twenty years.
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References: Insight,
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Victims of the State,
Michigan Cases, Fabricated
Rapes
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