EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a weeklong series explaining how sexual assault cases are handled in Southeast Ohio and the resources available to assist survivors.
Children who have been sexually abused are expected to thoroughly recount their assault to law enforcement, medical professionals, investigators and more — but in Athens, that trauma only needs telling once.
At the Athens County Child Advocacy Center, half a dozen professionals involved in the investigation watch that confession through a closed circuit while the interview is filmed for those approved officials who can’t.
So when John Deak interviews a child survivor, which he did for about 85 cases in 2013, he leaves his suit and tie at home and allows the child to take the lead on his or her interview.
Anything to make the child more comfortable.
Deak, an investigative deputy with the Athens County Sheriff’s Office, is one the of numerous components of the CAC, the non-profit tasked with collaborating every agency involved in a sexual abuse case involving children within Athens County to reduce trauma for the survivor and his or her family.
Athens is one of six rural counties in Ohio that has an accredited CAC, making it one of the most capable in Appalachia to handle these cases.
“If kids don’t have a CAC approach, they’re going to be interviewed by a doctor, a nurse, a social worker,” Rebecca Miller, director of the Athens Child Advocacy Center, said.
Every position at the CAC is currently part-time, though Miller is always on call. All its services are free.
“Often, children are threatened that they or someone in their family will be hurt, and they believe it,” Miller said. “It takes a long time for children to want to report.”
The Center
Jane Broecker, medical director for the CAC, recognizes an emergency room isn’t always the most welcoming environment for a child.
She performs all emergency sexual assault forensic examinations — which have to occur within 96 hours after an assault — for patients under the age of 16 in Athens County at OhioHealth O’Bleness Memorial Hospital.
There have been fewer than 10 of these procedures at the hospital since it allowed children to have them a year ago.
But most children don’t show up in time for this examination.
Before last October, all child survivors of sexual abuse were referred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus for emergency sexual assault forensic examinations. Now Broecker is on call, 24/7, to perform the examination.
“It’s sort of nicer than the adult system,” Broecker said.
Typically a report of child sexual assault is called into Athens County Children Services, which is the investigative unit for the county.
Children services then utilizes the CAC, where a survivor forgoes separating the law, medical and therapy procedures that typically follow a sexual assault by having forensic interviewers, medical examiners, advocates and children services all under one roof.
“We serve the most vulnerable victim in our society,” Miller said.
The CAC also organizes its procedures more thoroughly so those involved can constantly know the status of their case, Miller said.
Currently, the center only serves Athens, but Miller said they hope to soon expand to adjacent counties.
The investigation & prosecution
Due to a memorandum of understanding with the sheriff’s office and the CAC, Deak is assigned to every case for child sexual assault in the county, because of what he said are the incredible “man hours” dedicated to each.
“It takes time to get used to sitting down and getting used to talking about sex with people,” Deak said. “When you take someone who doesn’t do that and they’re awkward, it can become very jumbled.”
Forensic interviews are conducted by both Deak and forensic interviewers from children services. The interview is filmed and sent to the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office.
That makes moving the child’s case to court a bit easier by involving the prosecutor’s office every step of the way, and packaged evidence comes as no surprise by the time it hits Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn’s desk.
“The investigative part doesn’t necessarily have to take that long, but the entire process will take a year,” Deak said. “Just for it to follow all the way through the court system.”
Anything that can be done to ease the legal process for a child sexual assault case is ideal, Deak said, as the investigations typically can be long and the laws surrounding child sexual assault are complicated.
Of the reports handled last year, Miller said many were children 13 through 15 who had consented to sex with “much older partners.” The age of consent is 16 in Ohio.
“A 12-year-old says they want to have sex with an 18-year-old, it’s called rape,” Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said. “The 12-year-old turns 13 the next day, and now it’s called unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, and the penalties are drastically different.”
The potential penalties vary depending on the age of the sexual partners.
If an adult has sex with a 12-year-old or younger, there’s a potential penalty of life in prison, Blackburn said. However, if a minor consents to having sex with an 18-year-old, the penalty can be as low as 18 months in prison.
“I don’t think any of us think that a 16-year-old, and that’s the age of consent, should be having sex with a 60-year-old, or a 70-year-old, but there’s no crime there at all,” he said.
But through the ages of 13 to 15, a child can legally have sex if the person he or she is having sex with is no more than four years older. So, if a 15-year-old has sex with a 19-year-old, it is technically a misdemeanor, as opposed to a felony.
Minors can legally have sex with each other, if they’re over the age of 12.
But, if a minor sexually assaults another minor, the case will be handled in juvenile court.
“There’s a bindover process that’s available where a child would turn into an adult, which is more likely if the assailant is 16 or 17, or 15 with a severe record,” Blackburn said.
It’s more common to see sexual assault cases involving minors than cases involving younger children, Broecker said, who handled a case a few weeks ago involving a 15-year-old.
“Shows like CSI have been really helpful because teenagers are much more aware now of what forensic evidence is,” Broecker said. “I said to her: ‘This is all going to be very CSI; we’re going to look for his semen in your vagina.’ They nod, they know what you’re talking about.”
Laws surrounding child sexual assault can be complicated. It’s best to package legal assistance with medical examinations and therapy to lessen trauma for survivors, Miller said.
Broecker has seen cases where the child has been as young as 18 months old.
In these cases, prosecutors only have to prove the sexual assault occurred, not that consent was given.
Still, it can take far longer for a young child to confess to his or her parent, or a supervisor, that he or she was assaulted.
That’s why it’s important for the CAC and children services to continue community outreach, emphasizing to children what exactly construes sexual misconduct.
“When you’re in kindergarten or first grade, and sexual assault is something that’s been happening to you your whole life, how do you know it’s wrong?” Deak said. “Sometimes the child doesn’t pick up that they’re a victim, but with the proper education, they’ll know what constitutes inappropriate conduct.”
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