Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505040020
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If the 17-year-old girl lied to her parents about where'd she gone that evening, wouldn't she also have lied about being raped?
And if indeed she had romance in mind when she got in the car with the 20-year-old man and drove to the parking lot of the Mill Mountain Star, was it unrealistic not to expect that sex would follow?
Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell sat on the opposite side of the courtroom last week, posing as a defense attorney. To his right sat one of his assistants, posing as the alleged rapist.
It was their job to show the jury - which was not a true jury, but actually 13 area nurses - just how brutal a rape trial can be.
The mock trial in Judge Cliff Weckstein's courtroom was the culmination of a weeklong course designed to train emergency-room nurses in how to deal with rape victims, from collecting the medical evidence and performing pelvic exams to testifying in court.
They're called sexual assault nurse examiners. And in areas of the country where they treat rape victims, experts report better collection of evidence, resulting in more guilty pleas and earlier admittance of guilt.
``The positive thing is the victims will see just one nurse that will do everything at the hospital,'' says Melissa Ratcliff, an emergency-department nurse at Community Hospital who took the course. ``They won't have to tell their story to a million different people,'' who in the past included a triage nurse, a primary nurse, an emergency-room doctor and an OB/GYN.
Historically, treatment of rape victims ``has been hit or miss," says Teresa Berry, director of Sexual Assault Response and Awareness, which runs the rape-crisis hotline. "Sometimes the E.R. doc is someone who's familiar with the female anatomy, and sometimes it's not.
``More than anything it's those first few hours that are so critical,'' Berry adds. ``If the victim is treated with empathy, that will do more for her recovery than anything.''
Last year, 61 rapes were reported in the Roanoke Valley. But the actual number is closer to 600, Berry believes. Nationally, one in 10 rapes is reported to police.
The new examining procedure, which Carilion hospitals plan to adopt in three months, hinges upon use of a colposcope, a lighted microscope that detects the hard-to-see genital wounds that tyically result from nonconsensual sex.
``Pictures are the best evidence,'' Ratcliff says. ``In all the [evidence recovery] kits I've done, never have I had a patient with vaginal injuries where I could see the injuries with my eye.''
Because most rape victims don't look like they've been assaulted, the colposcope will help prosecutors prove a rape occurred. ``People are so scared they won't be believed, that they'll be re-victimized. Hopefully with the pictures, the evidence will be much more striking,'' Ratcliff says, and victims who know the evidence is better will be more likely to report the crime.
At last week's mock trial, prosecutor Betty Jo Anthony presented slides of a rape victim's internal injuries. Nurse examiner Sherry Arndt, whose Santa Cruz, Calif., company provided the weeklong training, explained the evidence on the witness stand.
The nurses, who watched Caldwell attack Arndt's credentials and integrity, saw first-hand how stressful testifying can be. ``I think it'll be nerve-wracking, but I also think it'll be a very positive thing'' toward seeing that justice is served, Ratcliff says.
The nurses are now doing apprenticeships to learn how to perform pelvic exams. Anthony, chief assistant commonwealth's attorney, believes nurses will be more effective witnesses than doctors have been.
``Doctors have traditionally been the ones called in, and they're very reticent about coming to court,'' she says. ``Nurses are also better at noticing the human side: the demeanor of the victim, the state of clothing - signs other than what they're treating that can be very important from the prosection's standpoint.''
``People who report this are in a crisis,'' Arndt explains. ``They need to be reassured that the violence is never the victim's fault.
``We hope it enables people to report a sexual assault to law enforcement if they know there's a specialized program for them.''
by CNB