Oh, yeah. I was going hard. You knew what they said: go big or go home—and I was most definitely not going to go home.
My feet drew me to the doors, and I kicked off my shoes before going to the front desk, where an older man was working, glasses on his nose as he stared at a computer screen. I leaned on his desk, saying, “Hi. I, uh, I’m not sure how this works, but I need to talk to somebody.” When the man only turned his gaze to me, I added, “A cop, obviously. I’d like it to be a woman, if possible.”
Didn’t know why, but I felt like a woman officer would better understand how serious this whole situation was, whereas a man might just shrug it off as boys being boys.
No. This was worse than that. This was not a boys will be boys situation. This was a dick being a dick, and me trying to prove that sometimes being a dick didn’t pay.
“Let me see who’s available,” the man spoke, grabbing his phone and starting to dial some extensions. “Take a seat,” he added, pointing to the chairs across from him.
I gave him a smile, hoping I wasn’t too forward with my request to be seen by a female officer. It was almost ten minutes later when a young female cop walked out from the back, her blonde hair drawn in a low bun, tight, not a single hair out of place. The dark blue uniform was snug on her body, her badge shiny on her chest. I was guessing she didn’t see much street duty, that she got stuck with a lot of the paperwork of the department.
The woman gave me a smile. “Hey there. What can I help you with?”
I got up. “Do you…do you have an office or something?”
“Sure, come on back.” She gestured for me to follow her.
It wasn’t so much an office as it was a desk surrounded by a bunch of other desks. Two metal chairs sat opposite hers, though hers didn’t look too much more comfortable. We both sat down, and she asked if she could get me something to drink.
“No,” I said, feeling a bit nervous. “I just…I’ve never done this before, so…”
“Never done what before?”
“I wanted to talk to an officer, to see if something can be done.”
“Are you a student at SCC?” she asked, folding her hands along her desk. A computer sat to her left, paper trays to her right. It was a mess, and I was pretty sure it would only get messier once I told her everything I had to tell her.
“I am,” I said. “It’s a long story though, but I need to know if you think there’s enough of a case to arrest someone, or at least press charges or something.”
Her expression suddenly grew serious, and she nodded once. “Start at the beginning, then.”
And so I did. I explained to her everything I could—minus the drama between Levi and me. I told her about me coming to SCC for the first time a few months back, everything that transpired between my roommate and her ex-boyfriend last year. How said ex-boyfriend kept trying to talk to her, stalking her, trying to get me to help reconcile him with her. I told the officer how I refused, and how he immediately released a sex video of me I did not consent to—and when I added in the fact that he’d spread a second video around campus, this one of my roommate who was currently fighting for her life in the hospital after being terrorized by him.
“She blocked him, but he got one of his fraternity brothers to send her the video,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out Mel’s phone. “This is her phone.” I typed in her passcode, unlocking it, going into her text messages and clicking on the video to show her. Just from the angle of the video, you could tell it was from a hidden camera and not filmed purposefully.
The officer had to pause the video, setting the phone down slowly. “Wow. Are her parents aware of the extent of the bullying and the stalking?”
“I don’t know, maybe.”
“I’ll need you to make an official police report,” she told me, reaching for a drawer on her desk and pulling out a form. “And I’ll contact her parents and see if they want to pursue it as well.”
My heart was in my stomach as I added, “I think he has more videos. I think…I think he might have a whole lot more, with a lot of other girls.” The flash drive in his safe held tons of videos, videos of his fraternity brothers getting it on with different girls, those girls being filmed unknowingly.
“I’ll see what I can do about a warrant, but for now, let’s get that statement done, okay?” She gave me a smile, and I tried not to get my hopes up. Even if this didn’t result in Dean being arrested or charged, it still would show him that I wasn’t about to play around. Not anymore.
I nodded, and the officer helped me out when she could. I’d never written a police statement before, never asked to have a police report done, but there was a first time for everything. Fall in love, get to know the local police better. It went hand in hand.
By the time I was done, by the time I walked out of that police station, I felt proud of myself. Content. The officer had kept Mel’s phone for evidence, and her parents were due here any time to talk to her. Hopefully something would be done about Dean, and maybe
