Worst Ex Ever cases facing backlash for one “blood boiling” reason

While Worst Ex Ever is the latest Netflix true crime hit, all four cases explored in its debut season are facing backlash, leaving viewers’ “blood boiling.”

As a spinoff of Worst Roommate Ever, the new docu-series shows the dark side of love, starting off with Episode 1’s Ben Foster, an abuser who went on the run after attacking Justine Siemens, sparking a manhunt that resulted in three deaths. 

Arguably the most infuriating episode is the second, ‘Betrayed by the Badge’, in which Seemona Sumasar spent months in prison for a crime she didn’t commit – due to her abuser, Jerry Ramrattan.

Episode 3 looks at a custody battle that turned deadly at the hands of mother-daughter, Mei Li and Rosa Hill. Finally, the fourth installment tells the tragic case of Amanda Canales, whose escape from her abusive husband, Kevin Lewis, led to murder.

Other than the third episode, many Worst Ex Ever viewers believe the docu-series highlights a worrying trend of victims being let down by law enforcement. 

That’s not to say every police department is at fault, as many officers and detectives even appear in the docu-series to discuss how they managed to put a stop to the perpetrators. 

But in Sumasar’s case, for example, a simple investigation into Ramrattan’s background would have shown she was not to blame. So much so that she successfully sued Nassau County for $2 million. 

In the case explored in Episode 1, Foster was abusive to his girlfriend at the time, Amber. She appears in the docu-series to share what happened to her, including one attack she managed to escape from and call the police. 

When officers questioned Foster, he alleged that Amber had instigated it. Despite Foster’s record of abuse, law enforcement ended up arresting Amber instead. 

Even though they later found out the truth, Amber had to spend 18 hours in a jail cell. But to her, this was far from the biggest issue, as Foster went on to kidnap and attack two of his future girlfriends before murdering two innocent men while on the run. 

“In my opinion, I think the justice system here did a great disservice to Justine. Ben was obviously getting increasingly more abusive and increasingly more dangerous,” says Amber. 

“If they would’ve taken my story and Jaimee’s story more seriously, they could’ve prevented this from happening to her and they could’ve saved two lives.”

Since landing on the streaming service yesterday (August 28), viewers have been sharing their opinions. 

“Just once I’d like to hear about police doing their job properly, putting away a guy like this BEFORE he can keep attempting to murder every single woman he has a relationship with,” said one Redditor in response to the Foster case.

“For police to make a heavily bleeding woman spend 18 hours in jail because they believe HIM over HER is f**king disgusting and so obviously racist, I hope she sued that police department.”

Another replied, “If you think what the police did to her was bad, wait till you see episode two, absolutely unbelievable.” A third agreed, “That one made me so angry.”

A fourth chimed in, “All of the episodes made me so angry! WTH And these people ‘law enforcement’ are supposed to protect us all. This makes me sick.” 

One said this “seems to be a theme of the entire season,” adding, “I’m on the last episode, shaking my head.” Another suggested they could have changed the name of the show to “getting railroaded by law enforcement.”

A similar discussion unfolded on a separate Reddit thread, where one viewer said, “Just watched the first three episodes and my blood is BOILING. I watch true crime a lot and sh*t rarely gets me this upset.”

For some, the most infuriating aspect is the contrast to the case explored in Episode 4. Prior to the murder, Canales was attacked outside of her home, yet police told her they didn’t have enough to arrest Lewis.

Even after the murder of her sister Alisha Canales-McGuire, which took place at Canales’ home, it was months before any arrest was made. As she says in the Netflix documentary, “After the second assault had taken place, I was trying to get him charged with the assault. 

“But there was all this back and forth about which department to file it with, and it wasn’t until the murder that things started moving forward with the assault charges. Which is just another thing that’s frustrating, because if he had been locked up, this couldn’t have happened.”

After watching Worst Ex Ever, one viewer said they think the “final episode when the woman gets beaten the hell up by her ex when she arrives home” is the most frustrating.

“I think she has a restraining order against him by this point, or at the very least he’s assaulted her before, threatened her, and they’re having a contentious divorce,” they wrote. 

“The police ask her if she definitely saw it was him and she was like, ‘Well no, my eyes were filled with blood.’ Police go to his house, he’s just arriving on a bicycle even though it’s like midnight, 1am. No phone on him. And they say, ‘Oh, not enough to arrest him, she didn’t definitely see him.’

“How hard would it be to bring him in for questioning? Are they so scared of arresting the wrong people and having to pay out $$$? Because they seem pretty happy to arrest some people with little evidence (as shown in a couple of the other stories).”

Worst Ex Ever is streaming on Netflix now. For more of the same, read about why Vallejo PD was review-bombed after American Nightmare. You can also learn about the Laci Peterson case, what you need to know about the Menendez brothers ahead of Monster Season 2, and whether Scott Peterson will get a retrial.