New law for rape victims could hinder capture of attackers

A new option for rape victims in Colorado comes with a sobering warning from law enforcement authorities: Victims who choose to accept it could lose the opportunity to bring their attackers to justice.

Rape victims — traumatized, fearful of their attackers and haunted by the idea of their humiliation made public in open court — are less likely than most victims of crime to file reports with the police, experts say.

A new law in Colorado aims to address that quandary. It gives victims the opportunity to preserve physical evidence of an attack even if they are not yet ready to disclose details to law enforcement officers.

But while the law provides an avenue for people who otherwise wouldn't come forward — an obvious advantage — some law enforcement officers warn of a downside.

Rape victims, terrified of revisiting their attacks and confident that their attackers' DNA is preserved, could delay their decision to cooperate with investigators, making it harder to obtain supporting evidence.

Detectives must work fast to process the scene of the attack and interview suspects before they leave the region or concoct alibis - all of which is more likely to happen should a victim decide to cooperate immediately.

"Our hope would be that if victims of crime choose to use this, within a relatively short period of time they would contact us," said Joe Breister, chief of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office Law Enforcement Bureau.

"The law prevents us from contacting them and encouraging them to come forward. We can't even do that."

The point was echoed by Colorado Springs police Sgt. Hugh Velasquez, who worked with the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner's program at Memorial Hospital to help create new procedures to accommodate the law.

Under the law, which went into effect July 1, the state Division of Criminal Justice must provide funding to cover the expense of evidence-collection kits for women who elect to seek treatment at a hospital but do not wish to speak to law enforcement officers.

The kits — which document injuries and collect evidence — cost an average of $600.

They were previously covered by local law enforcement agencies only when victims filed police reports. Colorado Springs police and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office will continue to pay for the exams when they are called upon to investigate.

The law mandates that the kits be kept for a minimum of two years. The statute of limitations for sex assault is 10 years, raising the possibility that some kits could be disposed of before victims report the crime.

The kits are processed for DNA only when victims come forward.

That means fluids from the attacker cannot be compared with nationwide databases, making it impossible to know whether a repeat offender is to blame or whether attacks in a certain region could be related.

"We don't know who's out there committing crimes. We don't know if there are other victims. We don't know what the case may be," Breister said.

As of last month, three women have elected to have kits collected but not cooperate with police after seeking treatment at Memorial Hospital, said Jennifer Pierce-Weeks, coordinator of the hospital's forensic nurse examiner program.

One of the women changed course and elected to be interviewed, police said.

"I think it gives the public more options, and I think that's a beneficial thing," Pierce-Weeks said.

TESSA, an agency that assists victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in El Paso and Teller counties, helps women who are reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement officers. State law requires authorities to investigate when anyone younger than 18 reports a sexual assault.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office investigated 173 felony-level sex crimes through the end of August. Of those, 123 cases were cleared by arrest, 38 remain under investigation, and 12 were closed because of lack of evidence.

Colorado Springs police reported 174 rapes through the end of June. Details on how many of those resulted in arrest were not available.


Contact the writer: 636-0366 or lance.benzel@gazette.com