This illustrated short documentary was an experimental multimedia feature created within a year-long, multi-platform investigation from the Center of Investigative Reporting. That umbrella project, called Broken Shield, was reported primarily by Ryan Gabrielson and included print newspaper reporting, television news reports, radio stories, and multimedia. The project uncovered the abuse of developmentally disabled residents in state-run institutions in California and found the state-run Office of Protective Services displayed an alarming inability to solve crimes reported against severely disabled patients under their care and protection.

I directed, produced, and edited “In Jennifer’s Room,” working closely with Gabrielson and illustrator Marina Luz. Read the full story by Ryan Gabrielson. Two weeks after this multimedia feature and Gabrielson’s article were published, state regulators revoked the operating license of the Sonoma institution where Jennifer and other sexual abuse victims had been housed.

“In Jennifer’s Room” won a national Emmy award for New Approaches to News & Documentary. It also won a Gracie Award — a contest for the best programming by, for, and about women — for Outstanding Online Investigative Feature. Along with another multimedia feature I produced (“Manner of Death: Undetermined”) it won a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, and was part of a Pulitzer-finalist package. It was selected as one of the best investigative features of 2012 by ProPublica’s Muckreads, and was highlighted by Poynter as an example of a creative way to tell a difficult story. “In Jennifer’s Room” was initially distributed online via The I Files, an investigative YouTube channel curated by CIR; from YouTube it spread to other publications, including The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, Jezebel, and Cartoon Movement.