Rape Center Problems Threaten Cases

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A shortage of nurses at a regional rape crisis center has delayed physical exams for some victims, and prosecutors are worried about losing crucial forensic evidence for taking accused rapists to trial.

"Without the nurses, the cases cannot be investigated adequately," said District Attorney General Bill Gibbons, the chief state prosecutor at Memphis.

The Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center provides specially trained nurses to conduct initial medical exams of rape victims. The nurses also offer early counseling and interview victims in a less intimidating environment than a police interrogation.

The center, overseen by the city, assists in sexual assault cases from throughout West Tennessee as well as parts of Arkansas and Mississippi.

But a shortage of nurses, blamed at least partially on management troubles and residency rules for city employees, has caused delays in conducting time-sensitive exams of suspected rape victims.

Authorities say such exams should be done as soon as possible after sexual attacks to document injuries to victims and collect forensic evidence such as body fluids left by attackers. Victims are advised not to bathe or change clothes until examined. The evidence can yield DNA results that point to, or exclude, suspects.

But police in the Memphis suburb of Bartlett say an exam they sought last week for a 14-year-old girl was delayed more than 36 hours, and police in nearby Horn Lake, Miss., were told that a teenage girl they wanted examined could not be seen at the clinic for 12 days.

The center bills itself as a 24-hour-a-day operation, but because of the shortage of nurses, none could be found to take those calls.

"The center is simply not functioning at all as it needs to, and it took these awful episodes for someone to finally say something," said Deborah Clubb, director of the Memphis Area Women's Council, a not-for-profit advocacy group.

City officials declined to discuss management of the center or its staffing problems. Interview requests from The Associated Press were rejected by the center and the city's director of public services, whose department oversees the center.

The center generally has 13 nurse-practitioners with certifications in sexual assault forensics who cover on-call shifts 24 hours a day. They are summoned by police dispatchers when needed.

Toni Holmon-Turner, a spokeswoman for Mayor Willie Herenton, said the center had eight nurses available to take calls as of Friday.

But Clubb of the women's advocacy council said staffing has fallen to as few as five nurses in recent weeks.

Judy Pinson, the center's former chief nurse and medical coordinator, resigned last month. She said her superiors knew a month in advance that she was leaving but still have not replaced her.

Residency rules requiring municipal employees to live in Memphis and squabbles between management and staff led to some nurses leaving the center, Pinson said, declining details.

Prosecutor Gibbons said he began noticing problems at the center early this year and wrote to Kenneth Moody, director of public services, in February complaining that the nursing shortage threatened to hinder criminal investigations.

But Gibbons said he got no response.

Gibbons said he did not know of any sexual assault prosecutions that have been dismissed because of the shortage, "but it's becoming more of a problem as the staff continues to be reduced."

"I think there are some management issues. There's the residency requirement. All those things taken together mean that a number of experienced, trained nurses have left," Gibbons said.

While hospitals can provide emergency room care if need for rape victims who are injured by their attackers, their nurses generally aren't trained in gathering and preserving forensic evidence or testifying in court.

Terre Fratesi, an assistant prosecutor who often handles sexual assault cases in juvenile court, said forensic work by the center's nurses is particularly important when victims are young children.

"While a 4-year-old may not be able to explain exactly what happened to her, she can say kind of what happened and the medical evidence tells the rest of the story," Fratesi said.