Aahana Swrup
‘Compliance’ is a crime film that revolves around the rather unbelievable events that unravel in the backroom of a fast-food restaurant, ChickWich. Manager Sandra is troubled when a police officer, Daniels, calls her in the middle of a Friday shift to inform her that one of her employees is suspected of having stolen a customer’s purse. As such, she easily complies with his demands to bring the employee—whom she concludes to be Becky—into the backroom for questioning. However, Sandra fails to question Daniels as his instructions turn questionable and agrees to follow through with his demand for her to strip-search the teenage employee.
The 2012 film offers a chilling narrative about exploitation and the hazards of obedience at the cost of personal morals. However, even more unnerving remains the fact that the film is mostly a close-to-reality account of an actual crime that took place multiple times in real life. For the same reason, Daniels—the hoax caller behind the entire charade—ends up sporting troubling off-screen origins.
Officer Scott: The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Daniels
The origin story behind ‘Compliance’ remains tied to the real-life incident that took place in Mount Washington, Kentucky, on April 9, 2004, wherein a hoax call led to the abuse and assault of a young female employee. On a Friday, a man called the store, presuming the false identity of a police officer named Scott. The caller spoke with the assistant manager, Donna Summers, and convinced her that one of her employees—18-year-old Louise Ogborn—had stolen a purse while on duty. Furthermore, he continued to talk Summers into taking Ogborn to the back office and strip-searching her before taking the teenager’s clothes and belongings away.
Once it became necessary for Summers to return to the store’s counter, the caller asked her to call up her then-fiance, Walter Wes Nix Jr., and bring him to the location to keep watch over Ogborn. All this time, the caller insisted that the teenager was involved in a bigger drug case and that the police would arrive to take her down to the station. Furthermore, he claimed to be on the line with Summers’ boss, Lisa Siddons, and McDonald’s corporate. Meanwhile, Ogborn repeatedly denied any involvement in illegal activities. Nonetheless, once left alone with her and Scott’s voice over the phone, Nix followed the caller’s instructions of sexually abusing and assaulting the teenager.
Ultimately, after Nix left, Thomas Simms—another man Summers attempted to put a guard over Ogborn—called out the situation’s horror. This compelled Summers to reach out to Siddons, who confirmed that she had received no call from the police and was instead asleep at home. Consequently, Scott’s hoax was caught. However, he had already hung up the phone by then. In the aftermath, Detective Buddy Stump worked on the case, deeply furious about the injustice against Ogborn. Through extensive research, Stump arrested a suspect, Florida-based David Richard Stewart. Nonetheless, in the end, Stewart’s involvement in the case couldn’t be proven.
Since Stewart was ultimately acquitted of all charges, it can’t be said with certainty if he was the man behind Officer Scott. Either way, ‘Compliance’ only identifies its antagonist as Officer Daniels, leaving the character to be directly based on the actual voice on the line that spoke to Summers and the others in 2004. The same person is also suspected of being involved with various other cases of hoax calls that led to strip searches and worse between 1994 and 2004. Some of these calls had even hit other McDonald’s branches across states. It’s worth noting that police reports suggest that cases involving such calls never came up again after Stewart’s initial arrest.
David Stewart Has Returned to a Private Life Since Acquittal
The hoax calls began in 1994 and continued until 2004, with 70 reported cases across states. As Detective Stump began working on the case, he traced the call that Donna Summers received to Panama City, where another Massachusetts detective from West Bridgewater, Detective Sergeant Vic Flaherty was working on a very similar case. With his help, Stump was able to trace the calling card to its time of purchase. Through security footage, local cops identified that the buyer was wearing a uniform piece that belonged to guards at a private prison, Corrections Corporation of America.
From there, Stump, Flaherty, and their team were able to identify the man in the obscure security tapes as David Stewart, a 38-year-old guard. Moreover, the cops were able to find a calling card in the accused’s apartment that had been used to call many restaurants in the past year. The same, paired with other circumstantial evidence, led to Stewart’s arrest by the Mount Washington Police Department. Nonetheless, the charges against him were dropped when he was acquitted in 2006 following a court case.
In a letter to Louise Ogborn regarding her lawsuit, Stewart reportedly wrote, “I received your notice, but I’m in no way responsible. I feel bad for your loss because I am a victim as well. I lost my job, my home, and my car all over something I did not do.” According to the last known reports, Stewart had a wife and five kids. He also owned a mobile home north of Panama City. Following his arrest, the house was deeded to his wife. However, no other updates about his life are available to the public. In his 50s, Stewart seems to have returned to a private life.
Read More: Compliance: Is Sandra Based on a Real Person? Where is She Now?
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