Rival Centers Aid Sexual Assault Victims

Her pager’s piercing sound tells her another victim has arrived. Within an hour, Rochelle Juran will meet the woman in a small, wallpapered room at Mission Community Hospital and guide her through an intricate rape examination.

Juran will take swabs of the victim’s mouth, vagina and rectum. She’ll take pictures. And along the way, Juran will try to calm the victim, gain her trust and tell her what’s happening next.

“They already feel victimized and that they are out of control, so it helps to let them know what’s going on,” said Juran, a retired school nurse.

Juran is one of eight nurses who help make up the Valley’s Sexual Assault Response Team at Mission Community Hospital. The team, which also includes police and psychologists, is designed to provide comprehensive rape treatment, including medical examinations, police reports and counseling.

Since the center opened in December 1996, it has treated more than 200 patients, said Madeline Marini, executive director of the Sexual Assault Response Team. Before it took over an old respiratory therapy room, Marini said, victims were taken to emergency rooms--sometimes far from their homes in the San Fernando Valley--where they might not have received immediate assistance.

The multidisciplinary approach to rape treatment at Mission Community, the first of its kind in the Valley, combines in one place help for victims, and the officers who hope to prosecute the attackers.

The nurses have become specialists in rape examinations, Marini said. They work closely with police, learning how to collect and store evidence and how to take accurate police reports. The center also performs semen and blood tests on suspects, which keeps potential evidence all in one place.

The recent acquisition of a colposcope, a camera used to magnify the area around the vagina, has been a valuable investigation tool, documenting tearing, hair and fibers that may not have been seen otherwise, Marini said. The rape treatment center also is equipped with a private examination area, evidence dryer and microscope.

The nurses are trained to testify in court about their examinations. Although Marini could not provide conviction statistics, police officials said they believe the center has aided investigations and prosecutions.

“Their expert testimony at a trial can be a deciding factor,” said Det. Sean Mahoney of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

Marini said both she and Juran testified this year in the trial of Jose Luis Zarate, who was sentenced to 157 years to life for robbing and raping four women in the Valley between Dec. 22, 1996, and Jan. 6, 1997. Two of his victims were treated at the center.

The center treats 12 to 16 patients a month and would receive even more victims of sexual assault if not for Northridge Hospital Medical Center’s Sherman Way campus, which operates its own sexual assault response team about a mile away. The evolving rivalry between the two is becoming a sore point for Mission Community’s staff members, who say garnering as much experience as possible is their concern. Each facility is funded by grants and reimbursements from the LAPD.

“If you see 20 patients a month, you will be better than if you see only 10,” Marini said.

Initially, Marini said, Northridge Hospital agreed to send patients ages 14 and up to the rape treatment center. In return, the center committed to sending victims under 14 years of age to Northridge Hospital--and it does, Marini said.

“After we were around [for] six months, they decided to take adults,” Marini said. “They just saw something successful and they thought they could get in on it.”

Dr. Ed Lowder, director of the sexual assault program at Northridge Hospital’s Sherman Way campus, said his hospital never agreed to such an arrangement. He said it would not be economically responsible to finance a team of six people to be on call 24 hours a day--and then cut down their patient load with an age restriction.

“Certainly, we’re in direct competition for adult victims,” Lowder said, estimating that half of the 30 to 40 patients his team sees each month are 14 or older.

Lowder acknowledges the competition stems in part from pride. Before Mission Community Hospital’s center was created, Lowder said he handled most of the sexual abuse and rape cases in the Valley. For three years, he said, he treated victims at Northridge Hospital’s Roscoe campus before moving to Sherman Way in July.

“I’ve put a lot of energy into this program,” Lowder said. “When you’ve been involved in something like that, you hate to give it away.”

Emergency and police personnel do not find any problems with having two rape treatment facilities in the Valley--in fact, they say victims are better served.

Dr. Samuel Stratton, medical director for Emergency Medical Services for the county of Los Angeles, said with more facilities available, there’s a better chance the victim would not have to travel far for treatment.

“The victim is then closer to home, closer to family, which can reduce the feeling of isolation,” Stratton said. “And the paramedics and the police can stay in their jurisdiction.”

Lt. Kevin McCarthy of the LAPD’s Valley Bureau said victims are given the option of treatment and then taken to one of the two facilities, depending on which is closest and least busy.

Det. Robert Jacobs of the San Fernando Police Department said though he believes it’s good to have two places for treatment available, he usually takes victims to the rape treatment center at Mission Community.

“At this point, we’ve only been dealing with Mission Community because we have a rapport with them,” he said.

The relationship between the nurses, police and psychologists has been the key to the rape center’s success, Marini said. The three share information and often conduct examinations or questioning together. A committee with representatives from each discipline meets once a month to discuss trends, problems and share information.

Part of the nurses’ extensive extensive training includes police ride-alongs and learning how to take accurate reports, Marini said.

“It’s sort of like a whole picture for them,” Marini said.