In November 2016, Emma Mannion, a freshman at the University of Alabama, called her mom in distress. She had been going to bars with friends, she said, and something happened that she didn’t want to happen. Her mother advised her to go to the hospital. While receiving a vaginal exam as part of a “rape kit”, Tuscaloosa police arrived; they took an initial statement while she was still in her hospital gown.
Three days later, Mannion responded to a request for a formal interview at the police station. She again stated what she could remember: that she had met a few guys while out with friends; that while intoxicated, two guys put their arms around her and forced into the backseat of a car in a gravel parking lot; that one stood outside while the other raped her. As seen in interview footage, the investigator, Jared Akridge, pointed to “inconsistencies” in her account – he has security footage, he says but does not provide, that shows her making out with her alleged perpetrator. “You’re not being honest with me,” he says. “I do not believe you. I do not believe you at all.”
