THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 7, 1995 TAG: 9508070065
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Three nurses have begun a training program for medical personnel who must gather potential evidence in rape investigations.
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. Nationwide, 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 will conclude with final exams Wednesday. It covers topics such as evidence collection, police procedures, rape-trauma syndrome, child abuse and patterns of injury suffered in assaults.
The Virginia curriculum was planned to meet the needs of the victim, the police, the forensic lab and the commonwealth's attorney, said Lisa Schiermeier, a senior scientist with the Division of Forensic Science.
Getting the physical evidence sometimes means talking victims into delaying doing some things they want to - like washing, drinking or changing clothes.
In a lecture Saturday on police rape-investigation procedures, investigator R.C. East of the Henrico County Police Department recalled a case about a year ago. He said a nurse persuaded a victim with semen in her mouth not to take a much-wanted drink until an evidence sample was taken.
The rapist was charged and convicted on the DNA evidence from that sample.
In dealing with a robbery or assault victim, or in notifying someone of a death, ``you may touch them or hold their hand,'' East said.
``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.''
About three-quarters of the rapes that East investigates could be called ``date rapes,'' committed by someone the woman knows, he said. In most such rapes, the woman will go to the hospital before calling police, he 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 are better able to testify against the accused, East said.
``It makes our job a little bit easier,'' he said. by CNB