Although Walter Nix Jr. was not the hoax caller featured in Don’t Pick Up the Phone, he would still face judgment for his role in one of the crimes.
This article contains discussions of sexual assault.
Don’t Pick Up The Phone takes a close look at a series of hoax calls that plagued the United States throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Although the main suspect in this case, David Stewart, would ultimately escape punishment, others involved in the case were not as lucky. One of these men was Walter Nix, who was profiled extensively in the three-episode series.
According to the Netflix true crime show, each case would follow the same modus operandi. First, the suspect would call a restaurant, typically a fast-food restaurant, and claim to be a police officer. He would ask to speak to a manager and would then tell the manager that an employee had been suspected of stealing something. The suspect would then command the manager take the “suspect” to the manager’s office where the caller would demand the manager strip-search the “suspect”. The caller would continue requesting more and more sexual actions be taken against the victim until the call ended.
Walter Nix Jr. Was Sentenced To 5 Years In Prison
Although Walter Nix Jr. was not the suspect who was making the calls, he would face consequences for following the orders of the hoax caller. In his case, which occurred at a McDonald’s in Mount Washington, Kentucky a man calling himself “Officer Scott” called the establishment. Like in previous cases featured in the true crime documentary show, the man on the phone informed manager Donna Summers that the victim was responsible for a theft. He ordered Summers to detain the victim in a back office and to conduct a strip search. He also requested Summers call her fiancée, Walter Nix Jr., to assist.
When Nix arrived, the caller instructed Summers to hand Nix the phone. For the next several hours, the caller instructed Nix to continue sexually assaulting the victim in various manners under the guise of ‘inspecting her for stolen items’. For his role in the crime, Nix would face criminal charges. Specifically, he was charged with sodomy and sexual assault. Despite his claims that he was “just following orders”, from who he believed to be a police officer, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. He has also had to register as a sex offender upon his release.
What Happened To Walter Nix's Victim
As mentioned in the true crime documentary, Walter Nix Jr.’s victim, Louise Ogborn, was only 18 years old at the time of the assault. Unsurprisingly after the incident she never returned to work. She has also spoken of the intense mental trauma she has suffered as a result of the incident, describing years of depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Ogborn would later file a lawsuit against McDonald’s, on grounds that the restaurant chain did not warn its staff at the Mount Washington location about the hoax calls, despite the fact that they had been an ongoing issue.
Although Ogborn had sought $200 million in her lawsuit regarding the ordeal that the Netflix documentary Don't Pick Up the Phone details, she ended up only being awarded $6.1 million, $5 million in punitive damages and $1.1 million in compensatory damages. McDonald’s would appeal these findings and the judge would ultimately rule in the company's favor, getting rid of the punitive damages and leaving Ogborn with only the $1.1 million in compensatory damages (via Daily Mail).
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