Sam Dalton (alias The River Rapist) is a serial rapist of women hiding out in an anonymous support group to try and get away with the crimes.
History[]
Dalton reportedly had an uncontrollably violent father with drug problems, serving seven years in Green Haven Correctional Facility for rape. Dalton later raped three women with a consistent M.O.: gagging them with wool socks, which were suffocating for the women, threatening them with an ice pick, and raping them while they were in shock. Each woman would always smell his cheap cigars with plastic he would smoke, which were given in their statements. Dalton would pretend the women "liked" being raped partly from them never screaming or fighting back under duress, and Dalton would make sure to brag about it at The Church of Our Holy Savior, an unofficial anonymous religious group at a private abandoned building where attendees with rapists for biological elder relatives would gather to discuss not acting on "rape genes". However, Dalton made the mistake of once speaking with attendee Will Stein, the only one without a criminal record, outside of a meeting about the rapes, saying Will "didn't get it" and infuriating Will enough that he almost punched Dalton out. Will only relented from being frightened and horrified from Dalton's sociopathy.
Dalton was sold out by another attendee, Nick Brown, when Brown wanted a deal after raping a woman out of compulsion. Brown wore a wire during the next meeting, and Dalton arrived announcing a pleasant date with a woman he came back from. When brown tried to get Dalton to confess, another attendee, Chris Perry, pulled a knife on brown and found his wire. The police rushed in and carried out a raid. Taking Dalton into interrogation, offering a chance to confess, Dalton just said he wanted and tried to leave. The detectives instead arrest him for trespassing and marijuana charges. Collecting his DNA matches him to the rapes, and the women are all ready to testify after picking him out in a lineup.
However, Dalton's council, Derek Strauss, gets everything thrown out on Dalton as "fruit of the poisonous tree", as the group had its religious officiality, and thus confidentiality, since the founder, Richard Witt, was an ordained minister, meaning Brown even mentioning Dalton ruined all credibility. Will, the only one with no record in the group, was questioned, and he saved the case by offering his testimony. Each of the women testified, and although they weren't concise and identical in their accounts, which Strauss tried to exploit and harass them over, they were certain Dalton raped them all. When Will was talked down from a suicide attempt after Witt tried to swear him into not testifying, he got on the stand and testified to Dalton's accounts of the rapes. Will specifically pointed to Dalton and said he raped three women.
Dalton was found guilty on all counts of rape and was imprisoned. (SVU: "Genes")
Known Victims[]
- Sara Perez
- Robin Landry
- Kim Espinoza