Victim/Suspect Review: Netflix’s latest documentary film features investigative journalist Rachel de Leon at The Center for Investigative Reporting. The docufilm is directed by Nancy Schwartzman and features a few rape survivors, cops and lawyers. The runtime of the documentary is 90 minutes.
In January 2023, Victim/Suspect premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
Victim/Suspect Review Contains Spoilers
(Trigger Warning: Rape, Sexual Assault, mention of manipulation and suicide)
In Netflix’s Victim/Suspect documentary, a young aspiring journalist, Rachel de Leon, wishes to do a solo piece on something significant. One day, she stumbles upon the Nikki Yovino case. In the 2016 rape case, Nikki accused two football players of raping her in the college bathroom. But the result of the investigation came out shocking. She was accused of falsifying the case and was sent to prison.
Rachel then came across Emma Mannion’s case in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Like Nikki, even Emma was charged with making a false rape case. The subject concerned the journalist, and she decided to dig deeper to find similar cases where the person who reported the case becomes the suspect/gets arrested.
The documentary also features Dyanie Bermeo, another victim who was made a suspect in a case she filed. Dyanie was sexually assaulted by a man who posed as traffic police. Dyanie, who dreamt of becoming a cop since childhood, lost faith in the police department completely.
The docufilm shows footage of investigations conducted by the cops back then. We are explained the technique of “ruse”, where cops lie during an investigation to churn out the truth. In sexual assault cases, most of the time, the ruse (lie) is video footage. The cops tell the girls that their story doesn’t match the video footage they have. These young, scared, traumatised girls start questioning their recollection of the incident and understanding of what happened to them. Why is a ruse or, in simpler words, gaslighting allowed as a valid means of inquiry for sexual assault cases?
Another heartbreaking reality we learn is how the men against whom the case was filed were not always questioned. In the 2015 case of Megan Rodini, the cop was very casual and had a fun banter with TJ Bunn, the man she accused of raping her. Megan was also charged with filing a “fake” rape case. She couldn’t take the bullying and accusations anymore and took her own life.
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When Rachel was working on finding out more and more about such cases, she tried to contact the police officers who worked on these cases. But none of them showed interest. Watching the footage and horrifying questions these cops asked young girls pains and angers you. They casually throw away the word “consensual” because the girl usually is familiar with the man/men.
The main intention of the Victim/Suspect is to expose the loopholes in the investigation of many sexual assault cases. The police officers want to get rid of paperwork as quickly as possible. The film stresses how if a girl is drunk and young and knows the guy, their prejudiced mind immediately believes she’s doing it for attention.
Briefly, the docufilm highlights how the media also reports such cases with sensationalism and without doing their own investigations. In a world of the #NotAllMen trend against the #MeToo trend, many people find ways to show that women are the bad guys. These poorly inspected and biased cases help such people (especially men like these cops) to fuel their anti-Me Too agenda.
Victim/Suspect Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, Victim/Suspect highlights the inadequacy and gaslighting by several cops in sex crimes against women. But it is just the tip of the iceberg. Journalist Rachel de Leon has put in a lot of effort to uncover the truth. However, it leaves you feeling disheartened because in a world where hate and lies sell easily, how many are willing to find the truth, even if it takes time? It doesn’t give any hope that all the police officers will do their job properly.
The documentary is now streaming on Netflix.
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