Ellen Mason is an elementary education teacher at a Miami-area school. In 1986 Mason was the victim of a rape at the hands of Alan Beaks, a member of a wealthy family. Beaks was tried, convicted, and sentenced to three years in prison. But due to overcrowding and Beaks showing remorse by creating a prison choir and using his family fortune to help with the prison library, Beaks was released after 20 months, much to Mason's (and the arresting officer, Trudy Joplin's) horror, as Beaks threatened to "get even" when he got out of prison. Beaks' story caught the attention of the Miami press, and he appeared on The Murray Phillips Show to tell his side, and to publicly apologize to Mason for what happened, but Mason refused his call, and the relentless press began coming down on Mason, crowding