Amber Wyatt is married and is completing an undergraduate course in psychology at Texas State University.Amber Wyatt is married and is completing an undergraduate course in psychology at Texas State University.Aug.2006, is a hot Friday night in a long and deadly summer.A 16-year-According to the old girl, that night she was raped in a storage room on a dirt road in my hometown of Arlington, Texas.No one has been prosecuted for this, no one has been punished except her: by the end of the fall semester she has gone missing from our high school, leave only dirty rumors and a new city legend.I have never seen her, the first child.The cheerleader said she was attacked by two senior boys after a party.I only heard of her.As soon as school started that year, people talked about her in the classroom and in the hallway.The tension in the school was so strong that gossip about what happened even spread to scholars and debate nerds like me, those kids who can only guess what's going on at the sports seniors party.I was a 15-year-The older two, even I formed a concept of what happened or what was said to have happened.One fall in 2006, I left school and stood at the top of the concrete staircase at the back exit, the superior parking lot unfolded in front of me, and the car sparkled in the quiet afternoon sun.A few of them were scribbling information with chalk.paint: FAITH.In my opinion, they are like headstones. they are simple and mysterious in rows.The next day, people whispered the word in the hall.As far as I know, this is an acronym, acronym, which means "f---"Amber on the head" or "f---"Amber in three holes," one night when my parents asked me why so many cars were marked in town, I explained this to them awkwardly.This idea gives me the impression that it is cruel and ugly, every time I see some of the back windshield dripping on the local Jack in the box or Sonic drive with words written with striped chalk, I think of this ugliness --In.Finally, I heard that the girl dropped her charge and left.The text on the car also disappeared, what happened that night.Then quiet, life is ordinary, and things are restored: like an old society restored its rights after fighting games or sacrifice ceremonies.However, even though I have the wealth of a happy life, over the next few years I find it difficult not to think about what happened in August.I still remember the smell of the summer there, and the pregnancy threat of the storm cloud, where lightning beats like silver lines, and being young means collecting traces of things I can't fully understand.One of them was the impression I got that year, and even in seemingly ordinary people, that vulnerability can sometimes cause blood and disgust.Another feeling is that the ensuing destruction destroys the bottom of society, under the appearance of peace.In April 2015, as a young writer, I was given a rare opportunity to explore the concept.At that time I worked in the New Republic magazine and enjoyed the enthusiastic hosting of the editors, mainly to make me pursue what I thought was most interesting.With his blessing, that spring I reached out to the girl whose name appeared in the initials acronyms and spray --Drew some slander and asked if she was interested to talk to me about 2006.Her name is Amber Wyatt.Over the next three years, I checked the police papers on and off, interviewed witnesses and experts, and made several pilgrimage in Texas to try to find out exactly what happened to Wyatt.Not just that night, but in the next few days, months and years.Understanding her torment means tracking down a series of failures, lies, retreats, and prophecies that are at the heart of power, even though these are anonymous and scattered, though, I am still firmly opposed to a young and vulnerable girl.Journalists, activists and advocates began to discover in the last year of the report that, from Hollywood to Capitol Hill, the same power imbalance, in the explosion of reports and analysis, we call it the # MeToo movement.But the rotten things are always there.Even in smaller and less dramatic locations, electricity is in the shape of a normal suburb.There are also personal reasons for my investigation.I wonder why it has to be as bad as beforeWhy is she not just suspected, but hated, not just laughed at, but exiledWhy does it always linger on my conscience like an unfinished thing, something I was meant to do but didn't.I want to look directly at the dark things that are revealed when barbaric events unfold and all the excuses of civilization disappear for the time being, and I want to fully understand them.Otherwise, I think, they can pull me down at any time.When something like that happens again, I can watch it silently.East Texas is Pine Grove: subtropical growth, with the shadow of the forest entering the estuary, the smell of floating water, slender trees rising from the green stream.Dry West Texas, miles of grassland and stretches of red desert, pale sand dunes are rising before you reach New Mexico.Arlington, a population of about 367,000 in 2006, lies between Dallas in the east and Fort Worth in the West, between the wilderness in the south and the West.Its current slogan is "the American Dream City", which is true: Dreams anywhere in the United States, suburban sprawl, yellow meadows along interstate and large highwaysbox stores.That year, the TV series Friday Night Lights premiered the romantic story of Texas high school football in a soft focus.There are towns and towns in Texas where Friday night football matches will take place throughout the city, but Arlington is not one of them and James Martin High School is not a football school either.Still on the afternoon of August.Martin Football team celebrates the war party"A kind of encouragement that caters to people is designed to start the football season before the start of school.However, the main attraction for children isparty.That night, Wyatt was celebrating her first year as a college cheerleader.She performed regular shows at war parties and around 9 in the evening.m.At 4,756-get to her carsquare-The foot home owned by another cheerleader's parents.This is one of many beautiful houses within its upscale market segment gate with a spacious driveway and a lagoon in front --Like the pool at the back.In sharp contrast to Wyatt's much smaller home in an aging community in town.Even if no one talks openly about the class difference between cheerleaders, they are well understood.That night, Wyatt was in the crowd at night, mainly among the juniors and seniors, happy and excited, standing on the young side.She has a natural beauty, goldenThe skin is long dark hair.She has always been a sport and the happiest person in the team, playing football and participating in competitive cheerleading competitions.She is very sociable, has A and B in school and is very eager to be liked.She is simple and not delicate, and she is not shy at all.It was easy for friends to come, and she relied on their approval.According to a lot of people, it's hard for Arlington cheerleadersParty crowd, Wyatt gets together with the hardest of them, drinks with her friends, and occasionally gets addicted to drugs like Xanax and marijuana."I had a lot of parties."I won't lie," Wyatt recalled in an interview with 2015."I'm 16 and I want to be that popular girl and I want everyone to like me and I want to be a social person and I want to meet everyone.I want to be a cool kid....I found it at the party.Music came from the pool that night.Later, Wyatt told the police that her friend Cui gave her a water bottle full of lemonade and whiskey;Her friend Hannah had a few lipsticks.Her friend Irene shared her smirk and her friend Kyle shared his beer.She feels good, light and free.Her mom allowed her to spend the night at the party house, meaning she didn't have to worry about driving home in her state.The party went on, and since Wyatt didn't bring a bathing suit, friends all had a good time in the pool in one suit.Sometime after 11, when she was sitting in the front cab of her classmate's truck, her clothes were still wet.The two boys who drove her didn't seem to mind.They're all 17 years old.a well-to-He is an outgoing football player with big black eyes and curly hair.Wyatt had seen them before only when he passed;She recalled that they told her that they would get food and come back.The three of them heard singing while chatting while driving, when Wyatt was already drunk.They chose fast-food joints;The two sides of the House are actually a pair of Jack in the box, with a Wendy and a Whataburger not far away.They passed a Pizza Hut and a McDonald's, and on their way to their actual destination, the storage room behind a friend's property.Later, the football player told his friends that Wyatt said she needed to urinate, so they pulled her into the dark woods and let her relax on the ground. At this moment, her elbow fell and she was bruised.Wyatt's account is much darker.When she told the police at the time and told me about it, the boys told her that they wanted to grab more beer when they stopped outside their friend's hut, hidden in tangled trees and bushes.Crime-The scene photo will later show that a pair of doors fixed with sliding bolts open to a dark space filled with pieces of family life --sacked-There are Christmas decorations, piles of old photos, spare furniture and a series of buck heads mounted on the opposite wall.A wooden ladder leads to an attic with dirty pillows and blankets stacked on it.Wyatt slipped while climbing the attic.She will always remember that part.The beer was not there.As soon as Wyatt arrived in the attic, the football player instructed her to take her clothes off, she recalled.She didn't believe it was a joke at first."What did you say?A detective asked her in an hour.Long interview five days later"No," the 16-year-The old answer is to scoff.She took a step back when the boy persisted, but fell and her elbow was bleeding.Wyatt remembers saying "stop" and then the same boy dragged her "skort" (a sportswear --and-The pair of shorts used in cheerleaders and underpants move and penetrate her on her body."I just thought, 'Stop, please."Stop," Wyatt told the detective.The boy above her head rolled onto his back and, despite her struggle, pulled Wyatt;At that time, the other boy approached.Wyatt told the detective that he forced his penis into her anus while another boy still raped her in the vagina.The moment passed, and Wyatt stared at the darkness in shock."My body is there, but my mind is there," Wyatt told me on 2015 ."...A completely different place.I only remember that I prayed a lot but did not take into account the circumstances around me.More like, I want to leave my environment and myself.She said that when she gathered her ability to fight back again, she was able to push the boy behind her, roll down from another boy and climb up the wall.In her conversation with the police, Wyatt was unable to recall immediately if both boys had ejaculated;All she knew was that the football players told her to perform oral sex on them later, saying they were not over yet.But she refused, took a few pieces of clothing from the floor, and then climbed down hard from the attic.Since she couldn't find her sports bra or underpants, she put on skort and top in a hurry.She fell again when she returned to the truck wobbly, but she succeeded and the boys followed.There was darkness and silence on the way back, and blue light on the truck dashboard.Back in the House, Wyatt stumbled upon her in the same pickup truck that left less than an hour ago.There were also several people in the driveway who attended the party.Wyatt approached them immediately.According to her account with one of the students present, Wyatt told an adult and two classmates what happened at that time and there.The next day, when she was examined for sexual assault at the hospital, she reported her rape to the police.The police committed a crime in the shed.Live Photos in less than 24 hoursAs a matter of fact, Wyatt's sports bra and underwear are still wet on the floor so quickly.---In a sense, the story of the Amber Wyatt attack began ten years ago, another attack --And another failure of irresponsible adults and their children to face the consequences.In 1996, another 16-year-The old Arlington girl is said to have been sexually assaulted at another high school party and another opportunity to sue the responsible person is ignored.With this in mind, another clear moment of reform could have been turned, but it was degraded into a guilty assembly.On Sept.13, 1996, a 16-year-Arlington High School's old junior high school is said to have been sexually assaulted at a party while she was drunk.According to news reports at the time, she claimed that when someone else attacked her with a condom, dozens of her peers stood --On The Broom, reveal the genitals and pee on her.The girl was hospitalized but did not file a sexual assault charge against the attacker.The town helped solve the problem.After the incident, the police interviewed about 35 students;No one supported the girl's allegations.Coupled with the broken memory of the victims, this means that the police will never be able to bring the perpetrators of sexual assault to justice.Instead, the police issued a simple summons to attack and disrupt the behavior of a group of teenagers attending the party, and made a slight condemnation according to the situation.Nevertheless, some parents are even dissatisfied with the insignificant retaliation.If not because of Lynn Hale, then Arlington Independent School District Director, parents' objections may still remain to the extent of complaints from privileged suburban residents about traffic tickets, in order to prevent such incidents from happening again, she took responsibility for herself.Less than two weeks after the girl was reported, Hale told a reporter for The Dallas Morning Post that she did not believe that the area was "implementing the appropriate consequences "...For the students who drinkShe went on to say that a region was builtUnder this broad policy, any student caught in places where alcohol or drugs are used will be banned from extra-curricular activities throughout the academic year, regardless of whether or not the police cite them for use.Parents are disgusted.Seven student families affected by the policy filed a lawsuit, and on January 1997 a local judge invited them to debate the policy with members of the school's board of directors.After meeting with the students and their parents and taking into account the arguments of the school board of directors and their lawyers, the judge said he was saying "As a parent" and thanked Hale for trying to do somethinganything -About this questionThe judge then effectively overturned Hale's policy and resumed extra-curricular activities for about 20 students.Hale didn't stay in her post for too long to see what the phenomenon she observed and tried to stop would look like.By the summer of 1998, she had been replaced by Mike beende, who eased her anti-corruption mood.Drinking policy will include a six-week penalty for first drinkingtime offenders."I have some bias in how much control we have over teenagers," Bernd, who retired a few years ago, told me in a restaurant in Arlington in 2015, the restaurant has framed drawings of the University of Texas and the high school mascot.He wants to keep a chance of redemption, says Bynd."It is impossible to know if Hale's tougher policy will stop anyone at Wyatt's 2006 party.The consequences must be true for deterrence to be effective.It's easy to see how a conquered memory and the case that triggered it became a City legend Under Hale's rule, A pair of Arlington teenagers with ample opportunities and bad intentions may have reasonably concluded that they will not be harmed if they are willfully violating the rules, policies or people.They will be exactly right.On the evening of August, Martin Arthur Ayvin stood in the driveway of the suburbs and faced a decision that was too big for him: believe the girl who pulled him aside and told him that she had just been sexually assaultedOr believe one of her alleged attackers, one of his closest friends.According to Alvin, Cindy mark, the homeowner, asked him to take Wyatt home about 45 minutes ago.(Mark later explained to the police that the unnamed child asked her to let Wyatt leave because, in her words, Wyatt was "annoying ".But Alvin doesn't have his car.He was going to spend the night with the football player and is now counting on him for a ride.As a result, the football player and the football player volunteered to take Wyatt home and then went around to pick up Alvin.Maybe Alvin's relieved.He told police that Wyatt hovered on him all night, flirted with him in the pool, and loudly announced to no one that she would "refuse"--This guy tonight.But he's not interested.He just wanted to enjoy the party.Two boys and Wyatt are on their way home and it seems the night is over.But the football player returned to Mark's Place with Wyatt.She immediately pulled Aven aside and sobbed hysterically, waving the bleeding wound on her arm and telling him that she had just been raped."It was hard for me to really believe anything at the time," Anvin told me on April, sitting in a Starbucks in Fort Worth.His short-Short-cut blonde hair is rolled up from his forehead by stubborn Cowboys, just like a photo of him in the 2006 College Basketball Yearbook.At school, he was loved by people, quiet and bright.At that time, he had a close relationship with the football player, who had been friendly for many years, and the football player attended Alvin's wedding.But when talking to me on 2006, it still seems that Alvin is deeply upset about what happened that night.In a statement he provided to the police, Alvin wrote that as soon as Wyatt told him that she had been raped, he asked her.Marks and a girl named Carlye Bowers came to the place where Amber and I were standing.Amber repeated what she said to me exactly.Mark and Finn."Mark, 49, did not call the police.Instead, she advised Wyatt to go to a room upstairs in her house where she lay down.Bowles declined to comment on the article.Aven recalled in the statement that Wyatt lost his way and confused.She even mistook one of the two boys she said attacked her.Football playersInstead, the third boy who attended the party was named one of the perpetrators.But according to Mark, the footballer came back with Wyatt and left in his own truck.Wyatt will tell the police the two boys who raped her: the two who were sitting in the truck with her.In his statement, Alvin recalled standing in a nearby hallway with Bowles, Mark and his friends to discuss what was going on.The friend appeared to be surprised by Wyatt's allegations and brought up a competitive version of the incident: On her way to Wyatt's house, Alvin said she needed to urinate.Instead of stopping at a local fast food restaurantThe boys thought it would be better to stop behind a friend's storage room and have Wyatt pee on the ground.When she got off the bus, she fell down, and Alvin recalled his friend saying that this was caused by the bloody wear and tear on her arm.At the end of the narrative, Wyatt appeared at the door of the room, "too afraid to be alone," wrote Aven ".She asked if Alvin would stay with her until she fell asleep and he agreed.Alvin and Wyatt walked into Mark's room together to help her go to bed and try their best to comfort her.He pulled out a small bed next to her and lay down for her.Wyatt recalled in an interview with the police that Mark showed up at some point and gave her boxers and T-She changed her shirt.Wyatt stood by her side and finally fell asleep.The next day, Alvin woke up alone.Wyatt is gone, the party is over long ago, and the nightmarish night has made an ordinary summer morning in the suburbs.The trusted boy, apparently an adult, comforted a frightened injured girl and now called his father to pick him up from Mark's house.A day and a half later, when Wyatt filed a complaint, the police arrived there and when they collected the bedding that Wyatt had slept on, they found Cindy Mark polite and respectful, and look for any extra clothes she may have left behind.But a few weeks later, when Mark was sworn inAfter canceling the initial appointment with the policeThe story she provided was very different from the events related to Alvin and Wyatt."I will close the party at about 11: 30 p.m.," she wrote ."."The children told me Amber hated her and told her to leave.I asked the footballer [to] take her home.He agreed and left.At approx 20-The football player returned home after 60 minutes."On the same October that mark wrote the statement, a detective interviewed her in front of the camera for an hour and 45 minutes.In the video, Mark chews chewing gum while answering questions."No one seems to have lost control to me except Amber," she said. "She seems to be a bit, I don't know what it is, is it under anesthesia or something."Mark's answer seems to be to highlight her lack of responsibility in the underage drinking she's had in her backyard.She claims she does not believe Wyatt will be affected by alcohol."I don't think she's drunk because I don't know they're drinking," she said ."."I think she's taking drugs because I 've also heard that her stomach has been injected with drugs.(Wyatt said she never gave her stomach a needle after taking drugs in her teens.) However, both Aven and Wyatt admitted drinking at the Mark party, and the school survey later concluded that there must have been drinking in Mark's backyard that night.More notably, Mark also denied hearing anything about rape from Wyatt, Alvin or anyone else that night."You know, I just feel like she needs to sleep," she gave a final analysis of Wyatt's condition in an interview with the police.In the summer of 2015, Mark was contacted by phone and he declined to comment on the article.Nor did she respond to many of the other attempts I 've made recently to get her point of view, including this summer's.In her video interview, Mark laughed at Wyatt's heavy and slow speech that night.Wyatt says the main fact that Wyatt has circulated among cheerleading moms is that "She made four bars", the street name of prescription drug Xanax.She claims Amber stole her daughter's sunglasses a year ago or more, although another student has returned them.She told detectives that the alleged rapists were "good kids," highlighting the "terrible reputation" of Wyatt for drug and alcohol abuse, she said, she found that Wyatt's mother had never called to ask what was "strange" and as if it was the biggest responsibility to give up on that long night.---Early that morning, Wyatt's mother, Lisa Wyatt, knew she had a problem parking her car in front of their house.First of all, her daughter didn't sleep very late as Lisa Wyatt imagined.She's acting weird."In the end, I think, what happened to you?"Lisa Wyatt recalled our conversation this year.She blurted out.I mean, she just said, I was raped last night.After a while at noon, Amber Wyatt and her mother are at Arlington Memorial Hospital, where Wyatt is waiting for a sexual assault check-up.She began reporting her attack to the police, who met the couple in hospital.Once arriving at the scene, police officer Pamela halferti observed significant physical damage to Wyatt and found that she was "occasionally tearful" in her account of the events of the night before ".In the waiting room before her exam, Wyatt also received a disturbing call: The football player, angrily demanding to know why she said he had raped her.Wyatt told the police that she replied, "because you did .".) For more than 10 years, nurse Dela chawo has offered a sexual assault check at Arlington Memorial Hospital, and on the day Wyatt arrives, she is on standby.Savo took the Wyatt exam and made detailed notes depicting her injuries on the annotated chart, with Wyatt putting his feet on the horse stir on the Test table.Xia noted that Wyatt had bruises on his elbows, ankles and hips, as well as on the inside of his thigh.She also recorded tears of the vagina and anus, as well as redness and bruises."The checks I did were consistent with what [Wyatt] said," shayvo told me when I contacted her to discuss her findings.The girl was raped."When I read her test pen aloud over the phone, Xia wo began to fill in the details himself.After these years, she remembered the case of Wyatt because she had never been summoned to testify in court.Xia wo took a total of 12 swabs and smear from Wyatt's genitals and wiped her saliva twice.She also collected urine for toxicology analysis.Although Savo collected urine samples from Wyatt after her estimated time of attack exceeded 12 hours, there was still a small amount of alcohol in her system, along with evidence of marijuana and prescription drugs.Wyatt told police that she did not take any of these drugs that day, but she took them earlier this week.Bruce Goldberger is the forensic director of the University of Florida Medical School, where he has worked in forensic toxicology for nearly 25 years and has provided expert testimony in hundreds of court cases.I read the toxicology report Wyatt gave him and asked him what he could get from it.Goldberger said: "Unless there is a [urinary tract infection] or other mixed factor, the alcohol concentration in the urine supports bloodThe alcohol concentration earlier in the day was enough to damage the body."In other words, according to the laws of Texas, Wyatt may be drunk and unable to legally consent to sexual behavior.At the trial, the prosecutor must prove that Wyatt was drunk and could not properly assess the situation and agreed that the boys knew that Wyatt was in this state.Given that many people in Avin and Mark's accounts commented on how intoxicated Wyatt looked at the party, Mark himself thought Wyatt was too affected to drive, there seems to be good reason for them to think that she is drunk.Goldberger also noted that injuries to Wyatt's genitals indicate that what happened was not mutually agreed.Goldberger explained: "genital trauma can be used as a sign of sexual assault, especially in the case of damage to the victim;When the victim is seriously drunk, "it is impossible to promote the physiological response of sexual intercourse."Jami Kaufman, medical director of the children's advocacy resources and assessment team at Fort Worth Cook Children's Hospital, agreed that Wyatt's injury was consistent with her story, although not necessarily diagnostic, it is common in sexual assault cases."I told all of our victims," Kaufman told me on August. "Don't expect the legal system to shut you down.When Wyatt was inspected, Arlington police began collecting evidence.Some went to the cottage, where they found her black sports bra on the floor of the crusher board in the upper attic and her panties on the concrete below.Others went to Mark's house where they searched T-The shirt and skort she wore the night before;She only wears boxers and T-shirts at home.She said Mark let her sleep in her shirt.Police recovered the sheets and two T-shirts that Wyatt had slept in Mark's room.Shirt that meets Wyatt's description-From the standard washing machine.("I find it strange," Amber's mother, Lisa Wyatt, told me in an interview."If a friend of my daughter had the same situation here, would I wash the children's clothes?Nope.According to police evidence records, Wyatt's skort was never found.As her body was searched, scrubbed and recorded, her urine sample was sent for analysis, wyatt's next mission is to thoroughly tell her story about a detective at Ricardo "Ricko" Lucerne Arlington police station against the children's crime groupLucero, a serious and serious investigator, asked Wyatt as seriously as possible about the incident that night.But the interview they had for more than an hour was still tough.For Wyatt, some memories are clearer than others.She remembers the ladder to the attic in the storage shed, and the room she slept in after it was all over.She knew that she had never found her sports bra or underpants;The police later asked her to identify them after finding them from the shed.Throughout the interview, Wyatt still seemed overwhelmed."I'm just lying there," she said at one point, trying to explain why she didn't struggle harder than before."I just don't think I can do anything."By Aug.On the 18 th, Lucero received a memorandum from the talante County forensic office confirming that both the vaginal and anal swabs of Wyatt were positive for "ALP and sperm", confirming semen"(Kaufman speculated that semen may have been transferred within hours between the alleged attack and the test at Wyatt.) On Sept.28. the judge signed a body fluid search warrant for the saliva of both boys;Lucero personally took the cotton swab that afternoon.It was not until November that the lab returned a report comparing the boy's swab to the sample in the Wyatt rape kit.This shows that semen is a match for football players.This is the paradox of this episode.The rumor -At least initially, of course in the initial account of the football player against Aven --Not that Wyatt agreed to have sex with two boys, but that they didn't have sex at all.The beeps around the school, however, suggest that the students think the opposite is true: Wyatt may have been drunk, agreed to sex, and then regretted, accusing the boys of rape, not only for herself, it also brought trouble to her classmates in Martin.In a statement to the police, Aven said that although the football player denied this, he believed that some mutually agreed sexual contact had occurred in the shed that night.At the same time, in schools, an internal survey on students' drinking quickly began, which resulted in athletes from four different sports being removed from extra-curricular activities for six weeks.Wyatt has become a bull's eye for an angry rebound.As Liz geberhart, close friend of Wyatt, recalls: "Everyone starts to blame [Wyatt] for what she says, and if she closes her mouth, then nothing will happen."With 3,350 students, it is difficult to contain the spread of malicious accusations and to maintain a sense of proportion.The children insulted Wyatt in the lobby and talked about the news at will in class.Many of her former friends stopped dating her.Wyatt said she received threats and slander from text messages and people told her to commit suicide and said she got what was coming.The friendship between Wyatt and her former cheerleaders has become fragile and tense."Maybe it's me," she speculated in 2015."I mean, I totally changed.One night in September, text messages and MySpace messages began to spread among Martin teenagers who wanted to express their support for the accused by writing "faith" on the car.The sensational abbreviation --"f---Amber on the head "-The next morning began to appear on the back window, transferring as fast as rumors.Even Arthur Alvin wrote "faith" in his car ".On Sept.29. a Friday morningGraffiti appeared on Martin's exterior wall.It says "Amber is a prostitute ";The exact wording has disappeared over time.News reports at the time did not record vulgar wording, and Wyatt's father, Mark Wyatt, spoke to the school authorities on the matter that morning, but he did not put the matter on the record.That day, when I saw the wall coming in from a health class in a temporary building behind the school, the Guardian had covered the wall with butcher paper.District officials awarded $1,000 for information about who should be responsible, but the money was never claimed and criminals were never punished.Graffiti angered Laura Jones, then Martin's principal.She accepted the morning announcement, broadcast it throughout the school with speakers, and begged students to consider how their actions affected them and others."But they all laughed," Martin's 20-year teacher, Julianne Warner, recalled to me in a May interview."Even at the end of the year, they always make fun of that."For the mother of the two Martin cheerleaders, Pam millikon, the Wyatt case turned into a terrible and disturbing cautionary tale."What really annoys me is everyone's herd mentality," millikon said in an interview on April, "among the cheerleaders and footballers and all those queen bees and fans who are basically on the side of the football players, she said, oh, she wants it, and that's what both sides agreed."Elsewhere in Arlington, the mother of Wyatt friend Liz Gebhart, Sharon Calais, had a dispute with one of her employees who suspected Wyatt of lying."I just said, 'but I know Amber, why did she say that and go through the whole exam and all that?Kale recalled in an interview with 2015.By that time, the adults had joined the rumor.Communication and exclusion.Wyatt's mother, Lisa Wyatt, found herself kicked out of a small group of cheerleaders she had eaten and spent with her since Amber Wyatt junior high school.Meanwhile, after the graffiti incident, Wyatt was transferred to another educational campus where she will stay for the rest of her school year, the exile of her own city.Since the beginning of the school, Martin has been swallowed up by the hot climate.But criminal investigations are still under way.Decided by criminals-The judicial system does its job, or does not do it.---Former Fort Worth police officer Cheryl Johnson began counting about 2007 people, and Wyatt's father said her case had been in front of a grand jury in Tarrant County for a year.As the head of the adult sex crimes department in Fort Worth, she will send dozens of rape cases to the Tarrant County district attorney's office for submission to the county grand jury.But again and again, the grand jury "no --"Her case, decided not to sue.Even if they seem to open up to Johnson."We have some cases where there are no photos and statements of the suspects.On 2015, Johnson told me in the neat living room of Fort Worth.One case that particularly bothers her is that a man who admits to giving a woman drugs can make her unconscious --Then raped her and photographed the scene after she fainted.The victim received a photo of her own rape and handed it over to the police.Nevertheless, the grand jury decided not to sue.As a result, once Johnson sent the case to the district attorney's office, she began tracking the progress of the case.Reporter Tim Madigan's star in Fort WorthIn Johnson's own investigation into Tarrant, the telegram caught up with him.Bill scored her findings.Madgan's report, published on 2012, found that there were noThe face rate of suspected acquaintances rape was 51%.By contrast, the City of AustinThe coupon rate for the same offence is 13%.For whatever reason, Tarante County simply did not decide to sue at the same rate as other regions in this case.So far, different stakeholders have different theories about the cause of the differenceThere are even some disputes.Noting that the prosecutor's failure to call the detective to testify before the grand jury was a matter of routine procedure, Johnson noted that sometimes it took only a few minutes for the assistant district attorney to present these complex cases to the grand jury.Former Tarante prosecutor noted that the grand jury himself, who was appointed before 2015, was"Pick-up" marked by spot checka-The pal system of critics.The large number of cases in tarantra require that the grand jury sometimes meet several times a week, meaning that those selected to serve generally meet specific traits: older, retired, male, perhaps, as Fort Worth's defense lawyer and former prosecutor Leticia Martinez told me, he would prefer to believe "Oh these young people today..They do everything."Then there is the question of district lawyers and whether they take the allegations of rape by acquaintances seriously.The district attorney at the time of Wyatt's case, Tim Curry, died in 2009.But when the Madigan investigation was publishedJoe Shannon, District AttorneyDuring his tenure, Shannon wrote a columnStar in Fort WorthThe telegram objected to the report of madigen on this issue.When I spoke to him this year, Shannon still insisted that with "this mutually agreed rape", victims often chose not to participate in the prosecution after the initial report, and the reason for the large number of tarantrabills."I'm not going to try to sue someone who knows completely that I can't prove it," he said .".After the expulsion of Madigan, the new district attorney, Sharon Wilson, won the office in Tarrant County.Despite Wilson's repeated requests for interviews, he never agreed to speak to me about the article.But she issued a statement through a spokeswoman, which seems to indicate what went wrong in the past era under her government, and has now determined: the statement reads: "Since the reform was implemented after DA Wilson took office, the number of indictments for sexual assault in Tarante County has increased dramatically, from 6092% from 2015 to 81.25% in 2017."In Wyatt's case, it's not clear what's going on.But Johnson's discovery of the chaotic system and signs of mahdigen's exposure showed up.Detective Lucero confirmed to me that he was not summoned to testify to the grand jury in the Wyatt case.Wyatt himself was willing to testify before the grand jury, but was never summoned.Although the footballer's semen was found on Wyatt's body and she was injured, neither of the boys was questioned by the police.When I asked Lucero, he read Wyatt's file in 2015 and thought aboutIn the indictment, he immediately thought of the fact that he had never been able to speak to any of the boys."This is huge for the perpetrators, the suspects, and it can facilitate or break a case," he said.Lucero said: "But in addition to presenting DNA swabs to the boy at the time of the summons, the boy's lawyer did not ask their clients for inquiries.When Lucero communicated with the boy's lawyer, they even refused to answer whether their client believed that any sexual contact was mutually agreed.For the sake of this article, I tried to contact two boys by phone, email and mail, and family;While a friend of the football player reported that he knew I was trying to get in touch, none of them responded to the information I was seeking to get in touch.Why is the district attorney's office not suing?The assistant district attorney responsible for handling the Wyatt case, Alicia Cooper, declined a repeated request to comment on the article by phone, email and letter.There is no doubt that this will challenge the prosecutor."I know DA's office will face a tough battle at trial," retired former US senator Malcolm bearS.I was told by a lawyer in the eastern Texas area bordering Tarrant.He said the defense lawyer would seize her chance to get drunk because she could not recall things clearly."But Bales is still surprised that the prosecutor of Tarrant has not sued any of the persons involved."If it were me, I would definitely sue the football player [with physical evidence] and I would go on trial," said Bales .".In some cases, it's hard.It's hard for them to sue.But you have to sue the victims, the responsible person, and the state of Texas."But this is not the case.Wyatt's father, Mark Wyatt, remembers receiving a phone call on February 2007 from what he thought was from Cooper telling him that there would be no legal consequences for the two boys Wyatt accused of rape."I got a call ..."They chose not to sue because it was something that he said, she said," he said .".Mark Wyatt was very angry and very upset.Because the case has never been heard before, rumors of Amber Wyatt either withdrawing the charge or abandoning the charge have been popping up, confirming her claim that she invented the whole thing.Mark Wyatt still believes that if the case of his daughter is tried, then her next painful years --Spiral rise in drug abuse and addictionNot so serious."Even if it is tried, they will find them innocent, at least they will be tried for it," he said ."."I hope she can leave it behind sooner."Amber Wyatt took drugs before 2006, and once the rumors spread, it seems that those who know about Wyatt taking drugs think that her fame is the reason to doubt her view of the incident.But Deborah Cadi, director of Rape Crisis and victim services at the Tarante County Women's Center, suggested a different relationship between victims and drug abuse.Rape of strangers --The attackers who hurt people they don't know.Caddy says the search for victims who are vulnerable.Caddy points out that acquaintances rapists show similar behavior, scan their social environment, and look for people who are incapacitated in some way: no one will believe, no one who can't fight backIn other words, it's like hunting.The whole thing is like hunting. Wyatt can easily be a prey.In the crime-Wyatt said that the scene photo taken in the cabin where she was attacked, you can count buck's head --On the first floor, there were half a dozen antlers scattered on the attic. the antlers were wrapped together like thorns, and their eyes were wide open and stared.Wyatt's underwear is also on the concrete under the empty watch of the beheaded deer.How stiff it looks, almost exaggerated --Prey between prey.Many papers on atrocities are themed on deer, because according to their meekness and Grace, the joy of killing them is so disturbing.Montaigne lamented the death of an injured Hart in an article about cruelty;In his poem, "Hart-Leap Well.Both Montaigne and Wadsworth are thinking about the last misstep of the deer, the long prelude to death, and the moment when the light leaves the eyes.Wyatt's eyes are like this: thick-The wide and dark whip lashed, sometimes darkened by drugs and alcohol.She is beautiful and fragile.Everyone knows.In fact, Wyatt's case remains a dark reminder of the vulnerability to plunder occurring on more than one axis.Wyatt is young.But she is also a person who struggles with drugs and alcohol, and her peers understand that she is at work --class.For the attack itself, and everything that follows, she is easy to discount.Montaigne and Wadsworth live close enough to the indifference of nature to keep an idea for their victims.But the civilized appearance depicted in modern life reveals, paradoxically, some contempt for the victim and the condition of the victim.Perhaps, in all the complaints about our presumed culture of victims, there is something more ugly than universal contempt: contempt for the weak.It is clear that vulnerability can cause the predator's malice.But the rest of us-Starting from the midnight party, arlingtonian cast ended with high school rumors-In addition to the honorable audience, they laughed at Wyatt in the worst case and ignored her at best.Wyatt's story asks us to ask: What is the extreme demand for kindness in person that prompts ordinary people to give up all the excuses for kindness?Looking into the eyes of a vulnerable person is to see yourself.This is a more painful experience than people can easily admit.There is a version of yourself that becomes powerless, status is lowered, and depends on the goodwill of others.One response is empathy: Hopefully others will do the same to support your charitable and trust reserves.The other is denial: If you refuse to believe that you will be in a situation like this --Perhaps it is to blame their vulnerability on the weak, or to blame their vulnerability on moral failure --Then you will never have to face such an uncomfortable episode in your imagination.You are disgusted with the weak, but you certainly do not belong to them.Or they make you feel helpless just because you can't do anything about what they do.In this case, the temptation is to look away and make all this a problem for others, or to first deny that there is a problem that needs to be solved.When I was covering her story for three years, Wyatt alternating patience and frustration.In a series of private messages from Facebook to me, she wondered if the article would be published and whether it was worth paying an emotional price to revisit that time in her life.Last year, she told me, "This is a wound that has been reopened.Sometimes I answer,Sometimes I don't.I also don't know if the article will be published.But I don't want to be the last one to leave.---After Wyatt moved from Martin to another high school in Arlington, her drug habit deteriorated.On December 2006, she was arrested for drunk driving, she pleaded guilty in the County Court, and on 2009, she was again arrested for possession of controlled substances and cannabis, which she did not object.Her records show that on 2010, she was charged with her last arrest for drunk driving, this time in Denton, Texas.She again said she would not participate in the competition.She lost her driver's license for a while.Texas Department of Public Security posted 2010 photos of her online, showing her well-dressed and about to shed tears. she has only a little resemblance to the smart and outgoing cheerleader four years ago.In the late November 2010 s, Yue Klonopin's drug-taking cocktails, vodka, cocaine and heroin left her on the verge of organ failure.On Dec.1, Wyatt posted a state of frustration on Facebook: "In the ICU for the past two days.My kidney failure.Please pray for me."Once she is discharged from the hospital and is treated for addiction, Wyatt's advisor tells her that she needs to put trust into higher power --to have faith.With everything before, the word hurts more than it comforts.Her past followed her.Wyatt told me in 2015, "even four years after I graduated, I would meet people who would say, 'Oh, you're Amber Wyatt.As Wyatt explained their answer, they meant "lying about the girl who was raped "."Nevertheless, the events of normal life are hard to recoverA car, a home, a stable job.In last March, she married Stephen Wilson, the man she met in her recovery.The two met on an outing at Six Flags amusement park in Texas, where they sat side by side on Batman --Theme roller coasterThey now live quietly in San Marcos, Texas, and have a dog named Stu, who Wilson's former roommate abandoned when he re-used it.Wyatt took Wilson's last name.The last time I saw her was a warm night in Dallas in April.The city is wide and authoritative. in the dark, its peak is the shining lights.On a bright night the city and Sky will lose their seams.It was such a night that she turned around in a corner of a quiet restaurant and saw me waiting for her at a stall.Wyatt is completing an undergraduate course in psychology at Texas State University.This year, she is a teaching assistant in forensic psychology;Since then, she has considered pursuing a master's degree.I noticed that while we were sitting in the restaurant, a peace sign was tattooed under Wyatt's wrist.I wonder if she found it?Faithis is still a gentle word.But she told me that she believed in "spiritual power "."I let myself believe."In the years after thatDoomed parties, society has made important cultural and legal progress in treating victims of sexual harassment and attacks with dignity and respect --Thank you very much to feminists.Led movements such as # MeToo.In fact, Wyatt decided to work with my report at the beginning of 2015, which is an exciting momentShe wants to tell a very familiar story by publicly speaking her name, helping other girls in other cities.Imagine if it all really happens right now, things will be different after # MeToo, and justice will get better service, which is tempting.Some things have indeed changed.In the past few years, people have been paying attention to sexual assault cases outside strangers.Due to the changing awareness of the reality of coercion and consent, the pattern of rape has increased.With the story of 2012 Steubenville, Ohio, rape cases and 2012 prosecution of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, we have begun to understand that when prosecution or even reporting sexual assault, how does the power system distort the conscience of other ordinary people.Again, the # MeToo phenomenon leads to a high-The typical perpetrators of sexual abuse, sometimes for decades, have been protected by institutions composed of their own powers, prestige and wealth.Characters such as Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and Steve Wayne face serious repercussions after allegations of sexual misconduct, demonstrating the real and growing resistance of the highest class of society to sexual abuse.Still, under the socio-economic ladder, progress is slower and abuse is more frequent, where poverty and work areClass people have relatively little help in suffering from sexual misconduct, both because the cost of public speaking is often unbearable and because their masochers are rarely like Hollywood rainmakers and politiciansTherefore, I can't go back easily. I don't believe that we have taken such a long way after all.Because there is always a chance to be evil and evil opportunistic.There will always be some brutal acts that are reasonably denied pre-packaging, or that are easily covered up by the crowd to spread responsibility.There will always be people who no one believes: people with bad reputation, people who struggle with addiction, people who don't have much capital, social capital or other capital to trust them.There will always be criminal cases that are real but difficult to prosecute, which means justice in the world --If it does exist-In addition to formal and official forms, other forms must be taken, and in addition to proper settlement, peace must be generated from other settlements.This is the imperfect service I have provided for this purpose: to record what has happened, and the will to have been troubled over the years.I'm still upset now.It will always be unresolved.I hope it will bother you because there will be no result from the moral conscience.After such a long time, Wyatt was not very interested in urging the trial or other remedies.Even if she did, it was impossible.The files of Lucero show that all physical evidence relating to the Wyatt case has been destroyed --common with no-billed cases -in 2009.The rest is the City legends and memories, wounds and scars, a bunch of files from the Texas public safety office, what you know now, hopefully you can bring it to the world.---On the second day of her 29 th birthday, the day after the story first appeared online, now Wilson, Amber Wyatt stands in the shower of her San Marcos home cryingHard, painful, painful-out tears.They have been here for a long time."I'm trying to face my emotions because I didn't do that last time."I am numb myself," Wyatt explained on a phone call on Thursday afternoon .".She sounds very tired. she is: she just woke up from her nap --Her husband, Stephen's good lawyer, came home with her after her shower crashed.Timing of publicationNot just on Wyatt's birthday, but in yet another national heated debate about the treatment or abuse of women and girls and how to reconcile conflict stories --One of the accidents of the perfect universe.But it found Wyatt to be an unexpected, somewhat overwhelmed gift recipient --It is not the form of material goods, but the form of language. More importantly, it is the form of emotion, the form of comfort, the form of respect, and the form of regret.In short, contrary to what greeted her in the dark --Dark years, reallyAfter the August party a dozen years agoWyatt himself has a lot to do.Of course, there is also a huge effort to share yourself --Her story, her pain, her face, her name, all hope for her self-behaviorGiving can save people in needOn her Facebook page, she's Dallas-Rape Crisis Center;She asked her friend to donate money for the group instead of giving gifts for herself.She set a target of $200 for a good amount.On Thursday night, a day and a half after the story was released, curious readers found her profile and Wyatt raised $1,275.That felt good.But even though all the old people thought it was better to give gifts, the gifts Wyatt received felt better, especially during the time they came.The influx of support is sudden and intense, almost surreal.In the picture of Wyatt's life, the ancient and cruel inscriptions --the spray-The slander painted on the school wall and the "faith" declaration scrawled on the car --Replaced by new words this week: Hours after the article went live, hashtag # IBelieveAmberWyatt appeared on Twitter, amplified by hundreds of messages responding to the same view.A few days before the article was published, I have shared the final version of the article with Wyatt, and reading her story brings a sense of satisfaction and end to it, but, none of us expected such support.If any, she is ready for more anger and ugliness."It's an amazing feeling," Wyatt told me ."."I have a very exciting side where everyone is open and listening.But there's another 16-year-The old girl in my heart, just overwhelmed....From no one at all believed me, to how many now believed me, it was overwhelming."Not all new believers are strangers.Some voices come from the past, and it turns out that this is the most powerful gift."At the time of Amber's rape, I was in Martin, the captain of the football team," a former student wrote in a lengthy email to me."I also attended the party in the article.I want to share my thoughts on what I think I owe Amber.I owe her my regret for not doing more at this moment and after.Although I did not participate in after-sales serviceI didn't do anything to stop it and I had a voice that might be heard."Martin's other students and Arlington residents have contacted Wyatt to apologize for the way they treated her at the time and to deny their loyalty to the people who hurt her.In 2008, she posted her story on Facebook, and several former students in Martin's high school class also made similar regrets.A male classmate wrote: "Amber, I don't know why I pretend to know what happened, even how incorrect my understanding of this matter is, and my understanding of this matter is also...We are sorry to say that 6 months of exercise is more important than your life."I'm sorry we all let you down when you need help," added a female classmate .".Another: "I was disgusted with my behavior at that time. I apologize."There are also people who share the accounts they attacked on their own, including an email in my inbox. The article was published by a woman who attended the Martin conference shortly before Wyatt."Like Amber, I'm a cheerleader, and like Amber, I have a similar experience," she wrote ."."She was brave and stood up right away, but I didn't.This happened to me and to other girls I know.We never talked about it after the party.We just went on, and I think we accepted what happened after we got drunk.In the coming week, hearing someone talking about it at school, I felt that the best thing I could do was to minimize the experience.I didn't see it as a violation until a long time later.She came to the conclusion on a matter full of hope and unforgettable."I hope my children will have a very different experience than we do," she wrote ."."It won't leave you after all."---Video embed code video: Columnist Elizabeth brunig discusses how she started reporting rumors about Texas high school in 2006.(Washington Brockell/Washington Post) embed code: Video: Elizabeth brunig explains why she contacted Wyatt nine years after reporting her rape.(Washington Brockell/Washington Post) embed code: Video: victims of sexual assault usually feel the effect after years.