Protocol sought in sex abuse

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

March 21, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Local professionals who work with sexual assault cases met with representatives of the Victim Services-Sexual Assault Program of Dodge, Fillmore and Olmstead Counties Thursday in an attempt to develop a statewide protocol for handling sexual assault cases.

At the first of two hearings in Bemidji, sheriff's officers, police officers, sexual assault program employees and others met in a two-hour session at the Otter Tail Power Co.'s Community Room to brainstorm on what should be in a sexual assault program in the works by the VSSAP. The second hearing was open to the public and was held at the Bemidji Public Library.

The Victims Services-Sexual Assault Program is using a Minnesota Department of Corrections grant to conduct several hearings around the state, according to information provided by Laura Williams, a VSSAP representative. The information will then be used to develop the sexual assault protocol.

The Violence Against Women Act passed by Congress enables Minnesota to provide funds for the project. The goal is to produce written protocols for law enforcement and prosecution and make them available to all jurisdictions for integration into the overall community response to sexual assault.

There's a long list of needs to be addressed by such a protocol, the attendees concluded, but they agreed the need for one is much more important than the hassle it will take to develop it.

"We want to hear what works and doesn't work," Williams said. "We want to hear your ideas and any ideas you'd caution against."

Elaine Gamache, a community outreach coordinator for the Sexual Assault Program in Hubbard, Beltrami and Cass counties, said she wished there were more consistency throughout the process -- including defining just what role each player in the sexual assault process plays.

Another common concern is the length of the process from the reporting of an incident to the prosecution of a perpetrator is much too long, and it seems to punish the victim.

"It's important (sexual assault) survivors are kept aware that something is happening in their case," said Danna Farabee, director of the Hubbard, Beltrami and Cass Sexual Assault Program. "There is a flurry of activity at the beginning of a case. Then there's this huge lag of time. Survivors need to be aware of this, or they feel nothing's getting done."

Tom Neustrom, an Itasca County sheriff's officer, said the process is so long he has some cases currently pending in which he is afraid the sexually-assaulted minors might begin to forget some of the case's details, hindering the prosecutor's case.

Once concern shared by many of the local professionals is that not everything is done correctly by North Country Regional Hospital staff when they are the first to encounter a sexual assault case.

"One of the problems we have with the hospital here is that we have 'rent-a-docs,'" said Nancy Lee-Borden, the clinical director of the Upper Mississippi Mental Health Clinic. "There never is any consistency. Every two weeks there's new doctors ... I'm sure that 'rent-a-docs' aren't what they want to be called, but it's the most appropriate term."

Farabee agreed, but added that the hospital's nurses are willing to attend sexual assault training, whereas doctors seldom participate in such training.

"It's like judges," she said. "Judges won't go to training either."

North Country Health Services President Mark Richardson said in an interview Thursday he had heard of any sexual assault incidents in which the hospital has been criticized.

"If I were aware of something," he said, "I would look into it."

Williams said the model protocol could be developed as early as June.