Power

This is not your garden-variety kidnapping and rape case.

Victim Jane Doe received a series of anonymous letters ordering her to engage in graphically detailed sex acts with defendant Michael Robert Power, her friend and coworker; if she did not, the letterwriter would “fuck [her] family up.” (Capitalization omitted.) Some of the letters also demanded money. Defendant managed to convince the victim that the sender was another coworker named Tiffany; he explained that Tiffany was “psycho” and that she had a grudge against the victim and wanted to humiliate her. He claimed that he was receiving similar letters. As a result, over a period of seven months, defendant repeatedly had sex with Jane Doe, against her will, and accepted money from her, claiming that he would deliver it to Tiffany.

As the letters grew increasingly angry, demanding, and pornographic, the victim became suicidal. Finally, when defendant made the mistake of going away on vacation, she went to the police. Unlike the victim, the police suspected defendant immediately. At first, defendant insisted that he and Jane Doe were both the victims of the anonymous letterwriter. Eventually, however, he admitted…