Don't Pick Up the Phone (2022) s01e03 Episode Script

1
And now
to an unbelievable hoax
that police say
many people fell victim to.
A caller pretending to be
a police officer was convincing enough
to talk some managers
into sexually abusing fast food employees.
If I didn't submit to this search,
then I'd be
either arrested or lose my job or both.
Couple police officers telling me
there's a video of what happened here.
I'd never seen anything like it
and I still haven't in 30 years.
Who is this?
The caller, of course,
has committed the perfect crime
because he's completely anonymous.
We have a sexual predator
on the loose
and the phone's still ringing every day.
It was about a ten-hour drive
from Florida back to Kentucky.
I'm thinking
I've got a guy in the back seat
that has pulled this off for ten years
and, hell, he got away with causing
some pretty awful crimes to be committed.
We felt like all the evidence pointed
to him being the hoax caller. Nobody else.
It was tense at first.
We were just talking about stuff
in general.
He'd been working as a corrections officer
for quite some time in Panama City.
Before that, he delivered propane
for this propane company.
He seemed to be the average guy
that you would see.
An average Joe on the street.
Even his co-workers at work
probably thought he was a nice guy.
We talked about his family some,
and asked him how many kids he had,
and some of that kind of chitchat.
David Stewart was not
what I was expecting.
I was surprised to find out
he was married and had kids.
I figured he was a lone wolf, you know?
Sitting in his apartment somewhere,
practicing his art.
And you know what?
Maybe he just told the wife
he's working overtime.
Maybe told her he's working that night.
Is he, like, two different people
and the family don't know
the other side of him?
I think David Stewart
probably wanted to be a police officer
more than anything in life.
He went to the academy.
He was obsessed with having the power
over people, of the authoritative figure.
I got the feeling
like he thought he was one of us.
I think it started getting real for him
as we were getting closer to Kentucky.
We put him in jail and now I'm thinking,
"What are you thinking, sucker?"
"Thought you're going to get away with it.
But now your ass is sitting in a place
650 miles from home,
and you don't know nobody."
"How's it feel?"
David Stewart was charged
with solicitation of sodomy.
He might not have been
in the room when Louise was assaulted,
but if he bought the calling card
and made the call,
that alone is solicitation.
He was also charged
with impersonating a peace officer.
These are very serious felony charges
that he's looking at.
I felt satisfaction. He's behind bars.
No other victim
is going to fall prey to him.
That was a huge relief
that we have the individual
we believed made these phone calls
in jail and awaiting trial.
After we put him in jail,
some time goes by
and then I found out
that he's got a big-dog defense attorney.
It was a bizarre case
that I've never seen
anything like it in 30 years.
David's brother called me
and asked me to take the case.
I thought it was Somebody was playing
a practical joke or something on me
because these things were alleged
to have occurred over the phone.
And if you think about it,
it would be very difficult
to sexually assault someone
over the phone.
My initial reaction was,
"Well, you can't do that over the phone."
"It's not possible under the statute."
David's bail was
a half million dollars initially.
This is a guy who's never charged
with a crime in his life.
Never had a speeding ticket.
And so, a half-million-dollar bond
was an extraordinarily high bond,
in the first place.
The judge set the bond on a warrant.
And I think the reason he set it
at a half a million dollars
is because if this guy was to get out,
and he's 600 and some miles from home,
he might go on the run,
he might do whatever.
He'd be a flight risk.
And it was important that we get
a bail that the family could post.
Ultimately, I think
it was reduced to a $100,000.
Next thing I know,
he got out on bail.
He's out of jail and he's gone.
I was upset with the fact
that he was walking around free,
but I'm thinking,
"Okay, take your last walk."
"Enjoy, buddy, because we'll meet again."
Today, we're gonna talk about
prank calls that take it way too far.
In fact, these calls
are plain sadistic and cruel.
I'm Javier Leiva, and this is Pretend.
Stories about real people
pretending to be someone else.
When I started looking into this,
it was shocking that
there was even one hoax call like this.
But then, come to find out that there were
over 100 calls just like this
in 32 states,
and it went on for more than ten years.
It was the Mount Washington case
with Louise Ogborn
that caught worldwide attention.
It was shocking to know that a hoax call
could be so sadistic and go this far.
It is incredible how long
this guy got away with it.
God knows how many other calls happened
that just weren't reported.
So many victims
went through these horrible ordeals.
It shows people weren't warned
about the dangers of the hoax caller.
And I'll tell you, from my research
I traveled the United States,
and I stopped at
different fast food restaurants.
And I very casually asked the managers,
"Hey, have you heard of these prank calls
that have been happening?"
And they're like, "No, never heard
of it." It was news to them.
Even today, people aren't aware of it,
which just shows
how it kept happening and happening.
Somebody had to be held accountable
for what happened
to all these different people.
So, at the time,
I had no idea this had happened
to anyone else anywhere, at all.
The manager, he lost his job,
but they never officially charged him
with anything that I'm aware of.
The Taco Bell was a franchise,
so I decided to sue the franchise owner
as well as my manager.
It was pretty clear that
they were just worried about
a lawsuit pretty much
right out of the gate.
They didn't care about her well-being.
They were basically gonna make it out
that she was complicit in what happened.
My attorney told me
that it very well could happen
that they would try
to attack my character.
From what I understand,
they were trying to get the notes
from Deborah's therapy sessions
to bring those into court.
I think it was a ploy to ensure
that Deborah wasn't going to testify.
And if Deborah didn't testify,
there was no case.
The judge
and the other attorney,
they just sort of blamed me, in a way.
The case was thrown out,
in part,
because either Deborah
wouldn't testify or wouldn't answer
the questions that they were asking her.
She didn't want to recount
all of this stuff
in front of a room full of strangers.
I was embarrassed,
I didn't want to go through it.
It was all too much and I was not
willing or able, probably, to do it.
The judge said
And I actually have it on my phone.
He said "courts should not be used
to propagate
a culture of victimology/entitlement
that degrades the sense
of individual responsibility and hard work
on which this great nation was founded."
"The best lessons learned
are usually the most expensive."
"At tremendous expense,
plaintiff will hopefully have learned
to think for herself."
Basically, "Shame on you,
hope you learn a lesson."
Months later, they kinda just were like,
"Oh, by the way, we found out the caller
was a prison guard in Florida."
And that was all I knew.
When there's no justice,
when the police don't do anything,
the DA doesn't do anything,
it doesn't feel or doesn't seem at all
like there's gonna be any effort
to do anything
to dissuade this from happening again.
And that's exactly what happened.
It's a very flawed system
that a very healthy percentage of people
never get any sort of justice
and never any attempt at real justice.
The criminal trial
of David Stewart
was what everybody was talking about,
but the real villain here
is not just the prank caller.
I mean, what they did is horrible,
but McDonald's, in a way, are just as
complicit for allowing this to continue.
Louise decides
she's gonna go after the Goliath.
She's going to go after McDonald's
and she's gonna get some kind of justice.
Her name, Louise Ogborn.
The company, McDonald's.
The two, once employee and employer,
now defendant and plaintiff.
All Louise Ogborn wanted
was McDonald's to acknowledge
they were culpable in this whole thing.
She just wanted an apology
for ruining her life.
This could be the first time
anyone involved in one of these hoaxes
has managed to get to trial.
I think Louise was a brave person.
Now she's got to go on the witness stand
to seal the deal on this thing.
So Louise Ogborn
hires an attorney named Ann Oldfather
and they'd sue McDonald's for $200 million
and that's a lot of money.
McDonald's has this searchlight of blame
and it's going on everybody else
except the Golden Arches.
Ann Oldfather is known
for being a fierce litigator.
Your verdict can measure the harm
that's been done to Louise,
in this community.
This was, without a doubt,
the biggest civil case
ever tried in Bullitt County.
$200 million?
I think the fact
that they even asked for that much
tells you what this case is all about.
All rise, please.
My name's Tom McDonald.
I served as a judge
for 25 years in Louisville, Kentucky.
Please be seated.
I never thought
this case would get to trial
because the facts are so bizarre.
There was an awful lot at stake.
Here you have
an 18-year-old woman,
from a small town,
who's going up against
one of the biggest companies in the world.
My thought is that
they were gonna do everything
in their power to make her go away.
Now, Fox News at 10:00.
Your first choice for news.
There's a new development
in the legal fallout
from a strip search hoax
at a McDonald's restaurant
in Mount Washington.
One of the private detectives
hired by McDonald's
was arrested
for impersonating an officer
when he was serving a subpoena
on one of Louise's friends.
There are charges
that McDonald's is intimidating witnesses,
and at least one bailiff,
hired by the restaurant chain's attorneys,
has been arrested.
You gotta wonder
if McDonald's strategy
was to victim shame Louise Ogborn.
They went after her therapy notes,
they went after her Myspace account.
And I think they wanted to pin this
on everyone but themselves.
McDonald's claimed it only had
a few documents about the prior hoaxes,
but Ann Oldfather did not believe that.
And she started researching this
and showed how many cases
there had been previously
and how McDonald's obviously knew
of this danger, years earlier.
Louise's case is basically that,
you know, McDonald's had several
of these hoax callers
and how did they tell their restaurants
about it?
Did they do enough
to warn their employees?
And their case was that,
"No, they did not."
Before this case got to trial,
Oldfather kept demanding documents
from McDonald's about these other hoaxes.
McDonald's acknowledged
they had settled six cases
concerning hoaxes similar to these.
They said that's all they knew.
But Ann Oldfather ultimately got an order
from the trial judge
threatening McDonald's with sanctions
unless it produced what it had.
We had an emergency hearing
and I ordered McDonald's
to turn over all of their files.
Forty-eight hours
before the trial started,
McDonald's delivered her
boxes and boxes full of information,
with no time to review it.
Louise Ogborn's lawyer
has pages, folders,
and boxes of paperwork
that show McDonald's office knew
of more than two dozen strip searches
at its restaurants across the country.
Sixteen boxes of material
from McDonald's attorneys,
that we haven't even had time
to go through.
At one point,
McDonald's was implying
that Louise was in on the hoax
and that she was just trying
to get money from the company.
Come right on over there, sir.
McDonald's got the maintenance guy,
the guy who ended the call,
the hero who saved the day.
They put him up on the stand in court.
Now, Tom, were you
at the store the following date?
Yes.
McDonald's made
a pretty interesting, compelling case
that maybe Louise Ogborn
was going after the money from day one.
She said she was gonna
get a big check or some money and
- Louise said that?
- Yeah.
Ann Oldfather was able to poke holes
in that testimony,
but at the end of the day,
you really don't know
what the jury's thinking.
When Louise came out publicly,
it really showed, you know,
it's not a victimless crime anymore.
This could be my daughter.
- Would you like to call your next witness?
- Yes, Your Honor.
We call Louise Ogborn.
There was a pre-trial motion
to allow the jury to view
the actual videotape of the assault
in its entirety.
It was a brutal three hours.
It was hard for me to watch.
There was absolute silence
in the courtroom.
The only thing you could hear
was some of the jurors crying.
You could have heard a pin drop
other than for that.
So what happened
when you got back to the office?
She kind of motioned me in.
- And you went inside?
- Yes.
And then what happened?
She told me
I had been accused of stealing
some money from a customers' purse.
I said it couldn't be me,
I wouldn't do anything like that.
And you should know that.
So how did that make you feel?
One word I can think of is "devastated."
Tell us, Louise, whether you have
any fears that come back to you.
I'd have dreams somebody was attacking me
and I couldn't tell you who it was.
I would avoid going to sleep at night.
I can't breathe.
I feel like I'm hyperventilating.
My chest starts to hurt. My arm goes numb.
Let's not forget
that Louise is a victim of sexual assault.
How could you not sympathize with her?
I mean, it was humiliating.
Four employees saw her
at her most vulnerable moment,
where she was sitting there, naked.
I was doing
what I had to do to survive.
I didn't know
if this was my last day on Earth.
I didn't know if I'd make it through.
She has been through so much trauma,
she will never get part of her life back.
That will always be out there.
Did you think to tell Donna
what her fiancé was doing to you?
He was still in the room.
I was scared what he might do
to me and her if I did.
He'd already hit me, beat me.
There's no telling what he could've done
if I stood up for myself
and tried to get help.
Louise Ogborn and her attorney
are claiming false imprisonment,
but McDonald's says, "That's not true."
"Nobody physically restrained her.
She could've left any time."
The tape shows
that you were left alone
there in the office,
for almost ten minutes.
Did you ever go over and try the door?
- No. Because I thought I couldn't get out.
- I'm sorry?
I thought
I couldn't get out.
I think McDonald's suggestion
that she should've walked out of the room
was perhaps a strategic error,
to say that a young woman who had been
deprived of her clothes and her car keys
could have
and should have put a stop to it
when their own
adult employee supervisors didn't.
How could McDonald's
ever have anticipated
that on April 9, of '04, this guy
was going to call Mount Washington?
If McDonald's really knew
what was going on,
then they should've prepared
their employees better.
There was a problem here
and they clearly did not get the word out
because it kept happening and happening.
McDonald's has taken
no responsibility for the strip search
that led to Louise Ogborn's
monster lawsuit against them.
And the blaming of everyone else continued
throughout their closing arguments.
It's not too much to expect an employee
to distinguish between right and wrong
and use their common sense.
McDonald's tried to pin this thing
on Louise Ogborn, on Donna Summers,
when, in reality, it was them
who did not warn their employees.
In this case,
you see how many restaurants
where this had happened
and how many of them were McDonald's.
And that really kind of hits home.
Armed with their opinions
and a list of instructions,
jurors are deciding
if they should take a financial bite
out of the largest fast-food chain
in the world
and give it to former Mount Washington
restaurant crew member, Louise Ogborn.
The jury comes back
into the courtroom.
The foreperson of the jury
hands their verdict
to the sheriff, and hands it to me.
This was going to be the largest verdict
in the history
of Bullitt County, Kentucky.
"We the jury find for Louise Ogborn
under instruction number nine,
and award her punitive damages
against McDonald's Corporation."
Some serious cash is on the way
in another high profile civil suit.
Louise Ogborn was the McDonald's employee
who was forced to strip
after someone called the Mount Washington
restaurant, posing as a police officer.
Louise Ogborn was awarded
more than $6 million
in a lawsuit against McDonald's
and others involved in the case.
Louise has stood up
for what happened to her
and what McDonald's failed to do
for three and a half years
and this jury
just vindicated her completely.
And we are so proud.
I don't really know what to say.
I can't talk about it right now.
It wasn't the super-sized award
Ogborn's legal team was after,
but they're happy with the money
and the message it sends McDonald's.
The jury,
I think they got it right.
She deserved that and I felt like that
Okay, McDonald's knew this was going on
for ten years and didn't seem to stop it
and get the word out to stop it.
They get slapped with a $6 million bill,
maybe they'll think
about changing training.
McDonald's is responsible
for not protecting their employees.
That's the number one thing.
If they did it to protect
their bottom line and not their employees
they're absolutely the villain in this.
It was astounding,
the fact that McDonald's
had been aware of this occurring
at many of its restaurants
and the remedy would have been very simple
and I believe this was Miss Oldfather's
One of her major arguments to the jury.
It would have been simple for McDonald's
to simply notify each of the stores.
Put up a thing by the telephone.
Put up a sign that said
"There's a hoax caller."
"If this occurs,
don't do anything, it's a hoax."
But they did not warn their employees.
Do you think
McDonald's tried to cover this up?
I'm not gonna comment on that.
I think what was shocking
about the civil trial
was the details of how many
fast food joints were involved.
And how many settlements had happened
that people didn't know about.
You know, it's not just McDonald's.
It almost seemed like
there was an effort to keep it quiet.
Whether that happened or not,
we don't know,
but there was a feeling
that's what was happening.
We probably all individually
had the feeling
that this was only us
and felt stupid and dumb about it.
So you could probably interview
99 of those 100 women
and they would feel singularly
responsible and foolish.
Just knowing that there are more people
than just myself, that helps a lot.
It wasn't just that they weren't
stepping up and informing people
or providing better training or even
some kind of a warning or acknowledgement.
And the question is
whether they were actively hiding it.
It wasn't just about them.
At the end of the day, the hoax caller
needs to pay for his actions.
People were
humiliated everywhere.
They believed that David Stewart
was connected
to all these cases, these fast food cases.
Whether he was or not,
his name was linked to them all.
David Stewart went back to Florida
on a lowered bond
and that's where he remained
until they had a trial date set.
While Stewart's out
and enjoying being back with his family,
I'm trying make sure
I got the i's dotted, the t's crossed.
I'm thinking, "Okay. You will take
your last walk into the courthouse,
and right on over to corrections,
that'll be the end of it."
The criminal trial starts
in October of 2006
and it's a huge deal in Bullitt County.
You've got news crews
from all over the country
following this story of a young woman
who was sexually assaulted inside
a McDonald's because of a hoax caller.
Prosecutors said
they traced prepaid phone cards,
allegedly used in the hoax,
to David Stewart,
a former Florida prison guard.
Everybody wanted to know
about David Stewart.
Where did he live? Was he married?
Did he have children?
He was a husband and a father of five.
And they couldn't find anybody to say
anything bad about him
around his community.
People liked him.
He made the call, or calls.
I absolutely feel
that he needs to be made to pay for this.
I was all stirred up and like,
"Give 'em hell" kind of attitude
because to me, I was so personally wronged
and it was awful.
This was the biggest case
that I'd had.
The night before the trial, I'm thinking,
"All right, the day is finally here,
and hopefully, everything goes right."
I think I've got an airtight,
air-sealed case.
At this point, I did my job,
we have a great case.
We have now submitted it to the lawyers
in the trial courts of Mount Washington,
and it's now up to them
to prosecute this case.
Romines walked in,
putting on the show that attorneys do.
I'm thinking, "Romines can blow
all the smoke he wants."
"He can't blow this up," because every
police officer that I talked to said,
"You got the best case in the nation."
There are so many things
that just seemed very inconsistent
with the portrayal the police
and prosecution was trying to make.
It was very important to me to make sure
we followed all the way through
and that he was found guilty.
The police think every case is a slam dunk
which is why the police's version
is what's put out to the media.
As we've learned over the last two years,
with social justice protests
and George Floyd, Breonna Taylor,
and cell phone cameras,
the police's version of what happened
is almost never what actually happened.
We have David Stewart
in line, purchasing a calling card.
We have David Stewart
entering the Walmart on the day
the Massachusetts cards are purchased,
wearing CCA security-type uniform.
We have David Stewart identified
from these photos
from the warden
at his jail where he worked.
If that's not enough evidence
to convict somebody, I don't know what is.
The Walmart video was really
kind of portrayed as the bombshell
or the irrefutable evidence of his guilt.
Could it be David Stewart?
Sure, it could be David Stewart.
But beyond a reasonable doubt
is it David Stewart?
That's bullcrap. You can still look
at Stewart and tell that's still Stewart.
It's him. There's no question
about it. Perfect match.
But even with that, the rest
of the evidence was so inconsistent.
That, to me, was not even close
to sufficient evidence in the case.
We went through his work schedule.
Every time a call was made
that we could track,
we could show that he was not at work,
he was available to make this call.
And he was very familiar with the area
where some of these calls were made from.
One that was nearby, a payphone
where he used to deliver gas.
There were some of those calls
that David Stewart had an alibi
that they could not refute.
His wife testified
that they had a set schedule
and when she worked,
he was to pick up the kids.
Our investigation uncovered
that Stewart did not make them.
We had a guy driving all over,
he might make a call from this payphone
and later, he might make
a call from another payphone.
The caller is using calling cards,
he thinks nobody can track him down.
He happened to be in the store
when the calling card was purchased.
We had a near confession.
We're this close from him admitting this.
He goes, "Thank God, it's over."
That was it. Didn't say another word.
Plead the fifth. Done.
When the police interrogate you
for a period of time
and you never admit to committing a crime
and then finally,
they're done questioning you,
and you say, "Thank God, this is over"?
That has more to do
with police interrogating you
than it does, you know,
a confession to a crime.
All I'm thinking,
"If not David Stewart, who is it?"
Because the facts are there,
the evidence is there.
Part of the prosecution's case
was that David
is this Svengali mastermind conman,
who can convince people
to do things over the telephone
that they wouldn't ordinarily do.
It's wholly inconsistent with the person
David Stewart had been his entire life.
His lawyer painted that story
that he was a family man,
a good hard-working guy,
had a police officer as a brother,
and really did a good job
in telling the jury
that David Stewart is not the guy.
The jury came back
after only two hours of being out.
I didn't really know what to think.
David Stewart
was facing ten to 20 years.
The judge asked if they've reached
a verdict, and they say yes.
Kinda sucks the air out of the room.
We, the jury,
find the defendant not guilty
of solicitation to commit
first degree sexual abuse.
There has been an unbelievable end
to an unbelievable Florida story
involving what amounted
to a long-distance rape.
It was like being hit with a two-by-four.
My heart just sank down in my gut.
I just went
I'm numb! I'm like, "What the fuck?"
This was the only time
that I can remember in my career
that I got a not guilty verdict,
there's nothing I can do to change it.
People were just stunned.
The case was not won.
There wasn't enough proof,
there wasn't enough evidence
for a jury to believe
that it was David Stewart.
The issue in this case
was they didn't have anything
that is indicative or proof
of David Stewart making the call.
Maybe I could've done better
interviewing him.
Maybe we should have not interviewed him,
hoped he didn't know we were there
and put him under surveillance.
In my view,
we didn't arrest the wrong guy.
We thought we arrested the right guy.
He was brought to trial, found not guilty.
That's the process.
Do I think
David Stewart's innocent?
Yeah, I think David Stewart's innocent.
There's obviously
a difference under the law
in not guilty and innocent, okay?
I know for a fact, he's not guilty.
We presented the best
possible case that could be presented
to bring justice for Louise
and the other victims.
Could I have arrested the wrong guy?
I don't think so.
I mean, nobody dropped
those calling cards in his room.
There are questions that've never
been asked that need to be asked.
The only thing I knew was,
my client didn't do it, a jury agreed.
To my knowledge, still today,
I've not been made aware of this
exact crime still ever happening again.
What's really hard to believe
is that only eight people were charged
and they were managers at the restaurants,
not the caller.
But there were hundreds of calls
and people wonder,
"What happened here?
Were all the cases not investigated?"
"Were people afraid to report it?"
Since 2004,
these hoax calls have stopped.
Justice wasn't served to the caller.
Whoever made those calls
is a disturbed individual.
Who is it?
This individual, this hoax caller
is an evil sex predator,
dangerous to society.
The calls stopped for now
but have they stopped for good?