Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 7, 1995                   TAG: 9508070067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

NURSES TRAINING TO HELP COLLECT RAPE EVIDENCE

Registered nurse Stacey Lasseter and two other emergency room nurses at St. Mary's Hospital helped start the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner certification program for the Richmond area.

The program has helped improve rape-conviction rates for localities in California, Texas, Minnesota and Oklahoma, proponents say.

The course, sponsored by the hospital and the Virginia Division of Forensic Science, began Saturday with two dozen nurses and concludes with final exams Wednesday.

It covers topics such as evidence collection, police procedures, rape-trauma syndrome, child abuse and patterns of injury received in assaults.

Objectivity is important in dealing with the mental and physical needs of the victim, ``whether it's a prostitute who's been raped or a 6-year-old girl,'' said Lisa Schiermeier, a senior scientist with the Division of Forensic Science.

The Virginia curriculum was planned to meet the needs of everyone involved - the victim, the police, the forensic lab and the commonwealth's attorney, Schiermeier said.

Getting the physical evidence sometimes means talking a victim into delaying doing some things she wants to - such as washing or changing clothes.

Comforting a rape victim can be touchy, said investigator R.C. East of the Henrico County Police Department. In dealing with a robbery or assault victim, or in notifying someone of a death, ``you may touch them or hold their hand.''

``You don't want to do that with a rape victim. The last thing she may want is another man, or any person, touching her,'' he said. ``If she reaches out to touch you, that's another matter.''

The police report shouldn't contain too much detail from the victim or the nurse who speaks with her, East said. Discrepancies caused by stress can be picked apart by a defense attorney.

East said about three-quarters of the rapes he investigates could be called ``date rapes,'' committed by someone the woman knows.

In most such rapes, the woman will go to the hospital before calling police, East said. That makes the nurse's role in those cases even more important.

Nurse training leads to fewer discrepancies in testimony, fewer challenges to evidence and victims who are better able to testify against the accused, East said.