Convicted By Public Opinion
Summary: Tag to season 2 episode "Forced Entry" where a Marine wife, whose husband is deployed in Iraq, shoots an alleged rapist in her home.
Category: Drama
Rating: T
Warnings: Profanity and spoilers for the episode.
Disclaimer: Someone else owns everything NCIS. I'm just borrowing the characters for a bit.
All mistakes are mine.
Dec 7, 2004 Season 2 episode "Forced Entry"
Laura Rowens shot Jeremy Davison when he entered her home to rape her. The team investigated and after originally accusing Mrs. Rowen, they discovered that Jeremy and his girlfriend/wife Michelle were serial rapists and murderers and Davison wasn't even their real name.
NCIS~NCIS~NCIS
On July 19, 2005, Major David Rowens walked through the security gate at Reagan National into the loving arms of his wife. He'd been gone for just over seven months and was finally back on US soil for at least seven.
The next day after breakfast he was looking for his keys.
"You don't need to go to NCIS."
David hugged his wife gently against his chest, his voice filled with emotion. "Yes, Laura, I do." After kissing her tenderly, he went out the door.
NCIS~NCIS~NCIS
Two men entered the bullpen area and DiNozzo was immediately on guard. The uniformed Marine officer looked stoic, almost angry, while his escort looked worried. He stood up to greet them, find out what the officer was doing there, but before he could move or say anything, Gibbs was there.
"Major?"
"I'm looking for Special Agent Gibbs."
Tony, Kate and Tim were now on their feet, still behind their desks, but watching and listening with interest to find out what the man wanted.
Gibbs dismissed the NCIS escort with a sharp nod and extended his hand. "I'm Gibbs."
Rowens seemed hesitant, but shook Gibbs' hand anyway; his upbringing and military protocol overriding his feelings for the moment. "David Rowens."
The name seemed vaguely familiar, maybe, but Gibbs dismissed it. "Major Rowens, how can I help you?"
Stepping closer to Gibbs, Rowens declared, "I want to talk to you about the way you treated my wife."
Kate, Tim and Tony glanced at each other, trying to place the name and wondering if this was even work related. Gibbs was single and maybe he'd picked up a woman believing she was single too. Tim immediately sat back down, his fingers flying over the keyboard to make the computer spit out information about a case file with the name Rowens, if there was one.
To anyone observing the two men it looked like the major would punch the agent any second, but to Gibbs it wasn't a threatening situation at all. Not a physical one anyway, even though Rowens had stepped into his personal space and was glaring at him. He'd seen McGee and knew a one page summary would be in his hand very soon and the complete case file would arrive quickly.
Gibbs announced, "Let's go to a conference room," and turned to lead the man.
He opened the door, turned on the lights and stepped to the side. Rowens entered the room first as Kate, slightly out of breath, handed a single paper to her boss. She leaned in and whispered, "Tony is getting the case file."
Rowens was standing by the table, waiting, and as soon as Gibbs finished reading the first bullet point on the page, he asked, "Coffee, Major Rowens?"
"Black, please," and Kate was off to get it.
An hour later the three team members were curious about what the man had said. As soon as McGee retrieved the information, they remembered the supposed brother and sister duo and how they'd almost gotten away. Major Rowens said he didn't like the way his wife had been treated, but they knew she was fine. At least she was two months ago.
Gibbs was back and seated at his desk when the three approached. He'd sensed the tension and anticipated the questions, knowing they were curious.
DiNozzo went first. "No bruises or cuts. Guess he didn't hit you, boss?"
Gibbs stayed quiet, waiting for the rest of the comments and questions.
"Did something happen to Laura Rowens? Is that why he was here?"
Kate had gone right to the wife's condition, something they had no information about in the last two months. The MPs had held her until Gibbs and Kate arrived at Quantico, which was a long time after taking the brother and sister into custody.
McGee went next and actually addressed what Rowens had said when he arrived. "Mrs. Rowens wasn't treated any differently than any other murder suspect, boss. Did Major Rowens think she had been?"
Gibbs studied the face of each team member before revealing what he'd been told. "Laura Rowens is fine. Fine for a Marine wife who didn't feel part of the Quantico community to begin with and is now labeled murderer and rape manipulator for the rest of her life."
"What?"
"But she was innocent."
"Why?"
Gibbs understood the husband's anger and he even sympathized. He in particular had interrogated Mrs. Rowens, accused her of cheating on her husband, accused her of luring Davison into a trap, accused her of attempted murder and then he had ordered her detained for murder even before the missing eyeballs were found in her kitchen.
His gut had failed him on that case. They'd jumped from her not knowing anything about the emails and chats to Davison being set-up too and that should have never happened. Then without even checking her alibi or asking a single question, they'd assumed she was the eyeball plucker and murderer. The murderer on the video appeared female and because her husband taught her to fire a weapon for self defense, they assumed he'd also instructed her on how to slit a throat the Marine way. Because of the internet activity they were convinced she had cheated on her husband, lured Davison and tricked NCIS into thinking she was innocent of everything.
Because they believed she was guilty, they went to the hospital to let Davison go. Because they believed she committed the crimes and the Marine sent to her home found the eyeballs on her kitchen counter, Laura Rowens was not only arrested for murder, she was humiliated: frisked, handcuffed with her ankles shackled, paraded out of the house in front of all the neighbors and manhandled into a vehicle, taken away to be strip searched and put in a cell until NCIS came to pick her up. The groceries she'd dropped when entering her kitchen and facing a gun pointed at her, had been left in a mess on the floor. The home had once again been declared a crime scene with an MP waiting for NCIS to come and process the eyeballs.
They had believed Laura Rowens capable of hiring a third party to make it look like she and Davison had both been set up. Gibbs knew that without the video from hacker Victor Grotinski's place, Laura Rowens would most likely be in jail awaiting trial. He would have gladly testified against her. The Davisons would not have admitted to the man's murder and without the video, well, the evidence was found in Laura Rowens' kitchen. At the time, Gibbs hadn't questioned why the eyeballs would be displayed on the kitchen counter. It hadn't occurred to him that it was just too convenient for such an elaborate plan to begin with. His gut? His gut hadn't told him a thing. Without the DNA evidence, if Davison had been more careful in his crimes, he could have gotten away with everything and even testified against Mrs. Rowens. Without the DNA, Gibbs wondered when or if they would have figured out that Michelle, who had called Tony and Kate idiots before she was arrested, was his girlfriend/wife and not his sister.
NCIS is in the business of gathering evidence to convict people, not worrying about who gets caught up in a case. And in that case, Laura Rowens looked guilty of something. At the time, Gibbs hadn't been too sympathetic because it sure seemed like she was cheating on her deployed Marine husband. As for the case, they had followed the evidence, but they had also jumped to a lot of conclusions along the way; conclusions that turned out to be wrong.
Kate, Tim and Tony were still waiting so Gibbs told them, "Major Rowens returned from Iraq yesterday and he and Mrs. Rowens are moving off the base into civilian housing as soon as they can." He let that statement play with the team for a few seconds. "Seems she has been verbally abused and their home and car egged, spray painted with vulgarity and the windows broken."
"Has it been investigated?"
"Who would do that?"
Gibbs filled in the blanks. "Apparently the neighbors, some of them anyway, don't believe she's innocent of all the crimes related to the case." He watched disbelief flow over the team's faces before adding, "Laura Rowens has endured this abuse since being released from custody more than two months ago. And last night someone left a note on the front door telling David Rowens that his..." Gibbs hesitated, not usually one to use profanity. "His whore, slut, murdering wife cheated on him for seven months."
Did any of them ever think about what happens at the end of a case when the victims, witnesses and wrongly accused are left with public opinion?
The End
Thanks for reading this 'thing' especially since it is more poorly written than usual for my stories. More poorly written? Written more poorly? Sigh. I almost deleted it and then decided to let it stay. Hope you like it anyway. Please let me know.