It's become a maxim that rape and other sex crimes are not about sex. They are about power. If Moyer did in fact abuse the unconscious girl, as Mitchell believed he did, that act would have had more to do with Moyer's desire to exert some control over the girl than any other desire he might have harbored. By the same token, experts contend, if Nestor battered Moyer's testicles with a club, forced him to sodomize himself with the club, and then carved a mark on his nipple, then that too was a sex crime that had little to do with sex.

National Sexual Assault Hotline

As Zuieback put it, "We say that rape isn't about sex. Certainly there's sex involved, but it is often a control issue, it often is a power issue, it is often an issue of privilege, and I think when you boil it down to those elements, it's easy to see how this kind of an act is somebody's expression of exerting power, control and privilege over another person."

It wasn't until the day after the abduction that police arrived at Mitchell's house and began trying to untangle the knot of charges and counter charges that Moyer and his attackers were leveling at each other. There was, authorities say, little question that Mitchell believed that his stepdaughter had been assaulted and that he had more than a right, a responsibility to seek justice.

But to some degree he also refused, even then, to cooperate with the authorities, says Serina. "The first time that Mitchell reported the alleged crime against his stepdaughter was when the police showed up at his house regarding the assault on Moyer," he said. "That was the first time he even mentioned it, and the police said, 'Well, can we talk to her?' And he basically said, 'No, we're not talking.'"

"It wasn't until three or four days later when the search warrant was executed at his house that Mitchell and his wife took the daughter down to the police station," Serina said.

The events at the police station seemed to confirm, in Moyer's mind, his worst fears about the way the system worked. The way Erickson describes it, the Mitchell's complaint against Moyer was referred to a female detective who, after hearing the girl's story both from her and from Mitchell, "apparently didn't believe my client when he said there was rape involved."

It only added fuel to Mitchell's simmering rage against the system, when an officer did charge the young woman, who was still two years shy of 21, with underage drinking.

Serina, for his part, defends the decision to charge the young woman while opting not to charge Moyer. In fact, he argues, the girl did not immediately admit that she had several beers with the Moyers that night. "Actually she didn't admit right away, she gave a statement to the police and then the police asked her if she lied about anything and she said, yeah, she did. She had four or five beers."

"As to why there weren't any charges filed against Mr. Moyer," Serina continued, "I can't tell you what the police were thinking, but the facts that were there didn't support the allegations."