Fox’s ‘Accused’ is an anthology crime series that focuses on a different case in each episode, telling the story of a different person and how they got caught up in a situation that has changed their entire lives. In the fourth episode, we follow the story of Kendall. A night of fun with his friends is brought to an abrupt end when he receives a call about his daughter, who was molested. While the cops are on the case, Kendall and his friends conduct an investigation of their own. Despite not wanting to turn into a vigilante, things take a drastic turn for Kendall.
The events in the episode are horrifying and ask the audience to put themselves in the shoes of Kendall and the other characters. This makes the story a rather personal watch, making the audience ponder upon the nature of revenge. If you are wondering whether the realistic nature of the story means that it is based on true events, then here’s what you should know about it.
Accused Kendall’s Story is Fictional But Draws Inspiration From Real-Life
No, the fourth episode of ‘Accused’, titled ‘Kendall’s Story’, is not based on true events. The series uses a fictional lens to shed light on important subjects. Through Kendall’s story, we get to see the perspective of the father in the aftermath of sexual abuse suffered by his daughter and how it impacts his decision-making process. Revenge becomes a critical element in his story, and we find Kendall’s life destroyed after he is arrested for the murder of the man who attacked his daughter. While the show doesn’t acknowledge any particular real-life case that inspired this episode, several cases of people attacking, if not killing, have come to light.
In June 2012, a 23-year-old man in Texas beat to death a 47-year-old man named Jesus Mora Flores, whom he found molesting his five-year-old daughter. Flores was hired to help with the horses on the ranch which was in a remote location. It is reported to be located “off a quiet, two-lane county road between the farming towns of Shiner and Yoakum.” Someone witnessed Flores “forcibly carrying” the young girl, whose screams later brought her father running to find her. The man, in trying to save his daughter and fuelled by rage, hit Flores repeatedly inflicting “several blows to the man’s head and neck area.”
Much like Kendall in ‘Accused’ reconsiders his actions as soon the molester is beaten up, the Texan became aware of the fact that Flores had been beaten up to the point of dying. The man immediately called the authorities and was visibly distressed over all that had happened. The death of Flores was investigated as a homicide, however, the man wasn’t arrested for murder. According to District Attorney Heather McMinn, “Under the law in the state of Texas, deadly force is authorized and justified in order to stop an aggravated sexual assault or sexual assault. All the evidence provided by the sheriff’s department and the Texas Rangers indicated that’s what was occurring when the victim’s father arrived at the scene.”
While the Texan man received sympathy from the law, the same didn’t happen to a Russian man. In April 2022, 35-year-old Vyacheslav (Slava) Matrosov was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for killing his friend, 32-year-old Oleg Sviridov, who had sexually abused his six-year-old daughter. Reportedly, when he found out what Sviridov had done, Matrosov forced him “to dig his own grave and then kill himself”. Matrosov was found guilty of “inciting” Sviridov “into suicide”. However, he received public support and was released from prison six months later.
In ‘Accused’, Kendall ends up in a similar situation, though it plays out differently than what happened in the aforementioned real-life cases. It is possible that the writers drew upon the real incidents to create Kendall’s story to ground his case in reality and make the audience think how they would have reacted if they were in his shoes.