Skip to comments.

Posted on 08/13/2017 4:35:33 PM PDT by Mark

LAW-ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY

Time to show rape victims matter

By Helena Lazaro

I’d just turned 17 when I was abducted from a car wash by a stranger near my Los Angeles home and repeatedly raped at knife-point. I begged the attacker to spare my life and release me, and he did — but not before he took my driver’s license swearing to kill everyone in my home if I ever told police what happened.

That cold night in 1996, I risked my life and the safety of my family by reporting what happened. I underwent the deeply traumatic evidence collection process needed to compile a rape kit. As the doctor put his fingers inside my body — in the torn and bleeding places where I had never been touched until that night — I wept in pain and humiliation.

I recounted my trauma to four disbelieving law enforcement agents that night, one after another, answering the same questions again and again while I sat completely vulnerable — nude but for my paper gown. The nurse combed and plucked, swabbed and inspected, as the men examined my account with equal scrutiny.

When I left the hospital with my mother, the sun was rising. I had made it. I had survived. But the crime went virtually ignored by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for more than 13 years. Throughout that time, I lived in a constant state of terror.

I called the sheriff’s station repeatedly, begging for updates and help from anyone who would listen. But no one did until 2009. That year, I got an advocate at a local rape crisis agency to help with my case. Within two weeks, a sergeant from the L.A. Sheriff’s Department called to tell me that my rape kit had finally been processed and there was a DNA match.

Through my own research, I discovered that the man who abducted me was a serial rapist and a murderer. He was imprisoned in Ohio for an identical abduction that could have been prevented if my kit had been tested sooner. And my case could have been solved less than six weeks after my abduction — when the knife-point rape of his wife established his identity, making his DNA available in a national database. The information was always there. But no one from the Sheriff’s Department could be bothered to investigate.

I just didn’t count.

Assembly Bill 41, the landmark bill by California Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, that would mandate the tracking of rape kits, is the first step towards California ensuring the most basic level of accountability from law enforcement. Today, in spite of unanimous, bipartisan support, the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The sole opponent is the California Sheriff’s Association, which claims that tracking evidence related to sexual assault constitutes an undue burden to them. It’s unfortunate that they consider this most basic of measures to improve the safety of their constituents to be burdensome. The truth is, tracking kits could actually reduce costs down the line.

A tracking system would reduce the burden on law enforcement by allowing victims to determine the status of their kits without requiring assistance from personnel; it is a labor-reducing and victim centered best practice. Transparent reporting would help identify where additional funding or support is necessary. Millions of dollars in state and federal grants are available to agencies wishing to address untested evidence, and have been for more than a decade. Tracking would tell us where these resources are needed.

Opposition to AB41 is motivated by a desire to maintain the status quo and to preserve the present lack of accountability enjoyed by law enforcement agencies that do not wish to acknowledge victims of sexual assault.

I’m lucky. Despite the mishandling of my investigation, my evidence was not lost or destroyed. I am alive. And the man who attacked me eventually received a 25-year sentence. Not because he raped me, but because he stole $20 from my wallet. That theft constituted a special allegation that wasn’t subject to the long-expired statutes for rape or abduction.

But I’ve come to believe that it doesn’t really matter why he is in prison — as long as he is. And he will be, until 2044.

I hope that, by then, California will have finally enacted legislation to ensure that the law is enforced equally, and that all victims know they count.

Helena Lazaro is a Los Angeles-based writer and advocate for rape victims.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.