Panel Urges Two More Teams to Speed Aid to Rape Victims

There were no “sexual assault response teams” at local hospitals four years ago when a masked man broke into the Mira Mesa home where Sheri Bonner was house-sitting, threatened her with a gun, choked her silent and raped her for two hours.

For Bonner and many others, the aftermath of the rape became a second ordeal. After questioning at the scene, police ignored Bonner until she pleaded to go home. At the hospital, there followed a painful examination in an unfriendly emergency room, without benefit of a counselor, or even a cup of coffee.

“You’re being treated like an object again, and that’s how you were treated during the rape,” Bonner said. “Your body is just evidence for a trial.”

Seeking to reduce insensitivity to rape victims like Bonner and speed the gathering of crucial forensic evidence, a county task force Monday recommended creation of two more specialized rape response teams at local hospitals and establishment of uniform treatment standards.

The task force, created last November by the County Board of Supervisors and headed by Supervisor Susan Golding, called for efforts to reduce the hours that traumatized rape victims often spend in emergency rooms, unable to shower or seek comfort, while physicians and nurses tend to more badly injured people.

“I think one of the main things this will help . . . with is the timeliness aspect,” said Bonner, who did receive prompt attention in the emergency room of a local hospital. “For most rape victims, myself included, all we want to do is get home and shower and scrub off that experience from our lives.”

Under the system recommended Monday, Bonner and other victims would be quickly taken to a hospital specializing in rape examinations. The victims would then be examined in a setting other than the emergency room by a nurse or physician with extensive training in collecting forensic evidence.

With the aid of a powerful instrument called a colposcope, evidence of internal injuries could be documented. Photographs of external cuts and bruises might be taken. Throughout the procedure, victims would receive comfort and advice from counselors trained in aiding rape victims.

“If you’re a woman, and you’ve been raped, there’s got to be a better way to get that evidentiary examination done--done quickly, done right, so that there is less trauma to you again as a victim,” said Golding, who called for creation of the task force after reading news reports of a Rancho Santa Fe woman who waited nine hours for a post-rape exam because two local hospitals refused to perform it.

“There is no need for someone to be victimized twice,” Golding said.

Two hospitals already have trained teams on their staffs. Pomerado Hospital in Poway has examined 110 rape victims, including one male, since the team’s inception in September, said Patty Seneski, coordinator of the sexual assault response team.

Although evidence gathered there is most often used by prosecutors, the team has helped to clear three rape suspects, she said.

For more than a decade, Children’s Hospital also has employed a sexual assault response team to examine child and developmentally disabled adult rape victims.

The task force called for creation of one team at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa and another team at Sharp Cabrillo Hospital in San Diego, at an estimated cost of $50,000 to $100,000 per hospital. Southwestern Community College is developing a training program curriculum, according to the report.

Cost and proficiency in the specialized exam are two more reasons for setting up the centers, according to the task force report. Hospitals, which charge law enforcement agencies $580 for every victim examined, need to conduct about 20 exams each month to justify the costs of the rape team and keep members proficient in the procedures, according to the report.

There were 836 reported rapes in San Diego County in 1989, according to task force members.

“The cost per exam for the SART (Sexual Assault Response Teams) model may initially be more than is currently paid by law enforcement,” the report warned. “This increase in cost would be offset by salary savings, in that law enforcement personnel would be returned to service sooner.”