• September 22, 2003
• Vol. 60
• No. 12

Mom's Mission

After Her Daughter's Rapist Almost Escaped Prosecution, Maggie Ragle Fights to Give Other Victims Better Odds

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From PEOPLE Magazine

When her then-16-year-old daughter Kelley Hollings-worth was raped by an unidentified attacker in 1997, Maggie Ragle knew they were up against a vicious predator. What she didn't know was that they were also up against a deadline. As the investigation stalled, Ragle, 48, a property manager living at the time in Santa Fe, learned to her shock that New Mexico had a statute of limitations in rape cases of as little as five years, depending on the circumstances. If Kelley's assailant wasn't caught before October 2003 there could be no prosecution. "All of a sudden that statute of limitations became the elephant in our home," says Ragle, who is divorced with two older daughters. "I knew I had to get him before it ran out."

Thanks to Ragle's pressure, and some luck, police did arrest a suspect, who pleaded guilty in February 2002 and was sentenced to nine years in prison. "When he finally confessed, it was as if a weight that I never knew was on my shoulders finally lifted," says Kelley, now 22 and a senior at the University of New Mexico. But her mother wasn't satisfied. She turned her attention to a catch-22 in New Mexico's and some other states' law enforcement—in part because of budget constraints, DNA testing in rape cases wasn't done until a suspect had been identified. This meant that at times the statute of limitations ran out even though investigators had DNA that could have been matched against a national database. "Something wasn't right about this process," Ragle says.

Last year, Ragle began lobbying for the state legislature to change that law. "She has an unrelenting passion for righting wrongs," says Barbara Goldman, executive director of the Santa Fe Rape Crisis Center. "She didn't allow the system to beat her down." Passed earlier this year, the law went into effect in July. Ragle's next project is to campaign for more funds to ensure that rape kits can be tested in a timely fashion. "What she did is amazing," says Kelley. "My mom is my biggest hero."