Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 24, 1995 TAG: 9507240138
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONTGOMERY, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
Alabama is the only state requiring most rape victims to pay for the exams needed to gather the semen, hair and fiber samples used to prosecute rapists.
A bill to end the policy nearly died in the legislature until media coverage set people talking and Gov. Fob James moved the bill to the top of his agenda for today.
``There's a lot of things about this crime that strike me as strange. This is just one of them,'' Lindsey said.
Rape is the only Alabama crime in which the victim bears the cost of evidence collection, said Anita Drummond, director of the state Crime Victims Compensation Commission.
The exams average $350 but can run as high as $1,200. A few police departments pay hospitals for the work; most do not.
Drummond wants lawmakers to allow her commission to pay for the exams.
Without making that change, Alabama stands to lose its share of $35 million in law enforcement training money available under the 1994 Violence Against Women Act.
Just last week, Drummond and other supporters believed it would take a miracle to get the bill passed this year.
On Friday, after The Associated Press and The Montgomery Advertiser reported on the situation, James threw his weight behind the bill.
``I cannot think of anything worse than to require a victim of sexual assault to be forced to pay to prove they were wronged,'' James said.
His support tilts the odds in the bill's favor, said sponsor Rep. Tony Petelos, but Drummond and her colleagues are still concerned.
``Rape is probably one of the lowest issues on the totem pole,'' she said, adding that efforts to improve treatment of rape victims in Alabama have stalled for a decade.
Ten years ago, Lindsey, now director of the Council Against Rape, was a clerk at a motel when two armed men burst in, robbed the motel and kidnapped her. They handcuffed her to a tree, sodomized and raped her.
She managed to break free and eventually found herself at a hospital undergoing a ``humiliating prodding and probing.''
The next day, she was fired because of the attack. Her boss ``didn't want me around any more,'' she said.
A few weeks later, she found the hospital's $200 bill in her mailbox.
``It never occurred to me that I would have to pay for this. That was the last thing that was on my mind,'' she said. ``I didn't have any insurance, I was fired from my job, I couldn't pay the bill. Eventually the hospital turned me over to a collection agency.''
She eventually was able to pay.
The traditional stigma attached to rape lies behind the struggle over the legislation, said Lou Lacey, director of Rape Response in Birmingham.
``Our society is still completely full of misconceptions about sexual assault, especially about who's to blame,'' Lacey said. ``If we're unclear about where to put the blame, we certainly don't want to pay for it.''
The typical rape victim doesn't complain. ``She just accepts it: `Well, of course I've got to pay for it,''' Lacey said. ``That's the saddest thing about this.''
by CNB