Rape Exam Facility Long Overdue

When a woman has been raped, no gesture of comfort or consolation can take away the pain. But at the very least, her decision to seek police help should not make matters worse.

That is why an east county site for the specialized medical exams and evidence gathering required in sexual assault cases should be established as soon as possible.

For the past decade, Ventura County Medical Center has been the only area hospital with the space and equipment for “medicolegal” examinations, performed by certified nurses, that include the collection of samples necessary for prosecution.

That means rape victims from Simi Valley or Thousand Oaks must travel 45 minutes to Ventura to receive exams that will hold up in court. Of the 175 medicolegal exams performed last year, about 45 were for east county victims.

A group of east county public officials says its top priority for 1998 is securing medicolegal exams at Simi Valley Hospital for rape and child abuse survivors. Simi Valley City Councilman Paul Miller, Police Chief Randy Adams and Supervisor Judy Mikels are ready to canvass local service groups for necessary hospital supplies--a $15,000 to $20,000 microscopic camera and evidence storage lockers.

Simi Valley Hospital President Alan Rice has offered free space for the county’s four contract sexual-assault nurse examiners--on call 24 hours a day.

“We’re trying to minimize [the victim’s] trauma,” Adams said. “Right now, the time involved for this examination is an hour and a half just in driving. Wouldn’t it be more compassionate and empathetic to offer this [examination] at a local facility?”

Until 10 years ago, St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and Columbia Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks offered the service. They stopped because it took doctors and nurses away from other emergency room patients.

It is outrageous that this indignity has lasted so long. The time to end it is now.