Emily Simpson

I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, Season 5, Episode 5.

Tornado Saskia had just started working again after taking a year off to manage her trauma.

That morning, she was sitting in a conference room, talking with her fellow social workers.

But the only thing on her mind was tomorrow's trial.

She was expecting a call from the prosecutor to let her know what time to be there the next day.

Instead, she got a message saying there was news.

I said I had to excuse myself, and I went into the psychiatrist's office because it was a bigger room, and I went and sat on the chair and was kind of shaking and just waiting to hear what happened, how we were proceeding.

The minutes crept by.

Then, after what felt like an eternity... I got the call saying that he made this plea deal, and they wanted to accept it.

Mike was pleading guilty.

He would serve time and be on the sex offender registry for life.

But... He only had to plead guilty for one count of rape.

And it kind of felt like it discounted all of the times, all of the deceit, all of the manipulation.

It was like it came down to one incident.

For a year, Saskia had been preparing to take the stand, to make Mike answer for what he'd done to her, in video after video.

Now, she learned, there would be only one charge, and there would be no trial.

I felt that my chance to speak my truth was gone, and my emotions all the lead up to that just kind of drained out of me in tears.

The decision to go to trial wasn't hers to make because the prosecutors don't represent Saskia like attorneys would in a civil case.

They represent the state of Maryland and its citizens as a whole, and they had to be realistic.

With the instructions given to the jury, would they convict?