Hate crime a hoax? Neighbor doubts it
LINCOLN — If Linda Rappl hadn’t been up late visiting her husband in the nursing home Saturday night, she would have never been sleeping on the couch in her living room early Sunday morning, never would have heard the knocks on her door at about 4 a.m., never would have opened the door to see her neighbor standing there naked, hands bound, dripping blood and sobbing.
Rappl was well acquainted with the 33-year-old Lincoln woman, and quickly threw a blanket over her. The woman’s forehead was slashed and her legs were bleeding.
“She was sobbing, she was shaking. She said ‘Could you call 911?’ ” Rappl said. “She said, ‘I think my house is on fire.’ ”
Rappl didn’t ask her any questions, just called 911 and handed the phone to the woman when the dispatcher started asking questions. Her neighbor told police three masked men came into her house while she was sleeping, overpowered her, carved anti-gay slurs into her skin and tried to set her house on fire. Rappl heard her tell the dispatcher she believed they did it “because she was gay.”
Rappl said the woman had been her neighbor for about six years, and she knew she was a lesbian, even though she wasn’t very brazen about it.
“She was real concerned when she first moved in — she thought I wouldn’t like her because she was a lesbian,” said Rappl, a 68-year-old retired special education paraeducator for Lincoln Public Schools. “I really had to make an effort to let her know I didn’t care.”
Rappl said the woman mowed lawns, shoveled snow and helped carry groceries for neighbors. She took in foster dogs and had three rescue dogs and one foster dog at the time – dogs that Rappl rounded up because they were running loose in the neighborhood after the incident.
The woman is “a tough cookie,” hard worker and good neighbor, Rappl said.
So she was stunned to see reports today that police have not ruled out the possibility that her neighbor staged the whole incident. The woman knew Rappl’s husband was sick with cancer, emphysema and Alzheimer’s disease and she was getting ready to bring him home to die. It’s hard for her to believe her neighbor was acting, staging the whole thing, involving her in a hoax when she knows Rappl is going through a difficult time. In fact, her husband died last night.
“She definitely would have had to have an accomplice,” she said. “It’s hard for me to imagine.”
The woman’s hands were bound tightly with plastic ties, she said. And the woman wasn’t very bold about her sexuality. She lived with one woman for several years before they split up about a year ago.
“I don’t know much about that life of hers but I don’t think she’s a real activist,” Rappl said. “She’s been very low key about her lifestyle and everything. It’s not like she advertises it.”
She said the woman had a job but “got laid off or something” and was working part time while looking for a new job.
“She kind of reminds you of an ol’ farm girl,” she said. “She wouldn’t want people to see a weak side of her.”
Later on Sunday, when the woman got out of the hospital she returned to home to get her dogs and went to Rappl’s house to apologize to her foster son for waking him up so early.
“I just said, ‘I’m so sorry,’ ” Rappl said. “We hugged and she left.”
The woman went to an emergency shelter, Rappl said.
Today police spokeswoman Katie Flood said police are investigating all aspects of the case, including the possibility it was a false report, which is not uncommon and part of a thorough investigation.
“We examine cases on a daily basis with the possibility that details could be embellished or fabricated – not just hate crimes, but also cases such as assaults, robberies and hit and run accidents,” Flood said via email.
The case has Lincolnites puzzled, not sure whether they live in a town where such hatred exists, or such a hoax happened. Gay rights have been in the news a lot lately after the Lincoln City Council approved an ordinance extending civil rights protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity. But residents got enough signatures to refer the issue to voters, likely in November.
Lincoln was the birthplace of Brandon Teena, a transgendered 21-year-old who was among three people killed in 1993 near Humboldt.
Some 500 people attended a candlelight vigil for the victim outside the capitol on Sunday night, and another vigil was held tonight in Lincoln.
The president of a Lincoln gay rights group called Outlinc released a statement today in response to the news that police haven’t ruled out the possibility of a hoax.
Tyler Richard said Lincolnites can only trust in police to investigate every possibility.
“They have my full faith and trust as they move forward,” Richard said. “People are concerned, confused and many are still afraid.”
He added that Outlinc hasn’t accepted any donations on behalf of the victim, saying “Allegations that the support being offered has been taken advantage of are as disturbing to me as the reports we learned of earlier this week.”
“It is my hope that the residents of Lincoln will respect that this is a time when we need facts – not rumors – and that this investigation takes time,” he continued. “I have trust that law enforcement will look into these allegations and when appropriate release their findings.”
Reported by Deena Winter, deena@nebraskawatchdog.org
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