Newberg Graphic Online

Getting the evidence to prove sexual abuse

A multi-part series looks at the incidents of sex crimes in the Newberg area, its causes, prosecution and treatment options

• By: Laurent Bonczijk  
• Published: 11/9/2009 1:47:41 PM

   Once a victim of child sexual abuse comes forward, she (it is most often a female) takes the most difficult step while the challenges for law enforcement and prosecutors are only starting.
   Det. Todd Baltzell of the Newberg-Dundee Police Department said that once he’s convinced that a child has been abused, his first question is: Can she handle the trial that may ensue?
   “I have to weigh everything,” Baltzell said. “Is there a way this kid can make it through a trial?” Or can it be solved by Department of Human Services (DHS)? “I get a lot of these cases,” where he believes that the victim is telling the truth about her abuse, but he is often powerless to prove it in court.
   If Baltzell is able to garner enough evidence to prove that a crime occurred, then the next step is taken by the Yamhill County district attorney or more often, by one of his deputies. Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gardiner has been prosecuting for five years, handling sex abuse cases for the last two.
   “The beauty of sex abuse,” she said, “is that it happens behind closed doors. This immediately gives the offender a leg up.”
   Oftentimes, Gardiner said, she won’t have any “real evidence.” Since the offender hides the behavior from other family members, there are no witnesses. “In most cases of sex abuse, there is no physical evidence, (and) in touching cases there is no evidence,” she said. Instead, she added, she’ll have to build a case based on the structure of the child’s life and the changes which occurred in it. “The younger the child, the bigger the obstacle,” she said.
   “You kind of start with how the disclosure came about,” and whether what the child is saying makes sense, Gardiner said. “Is what the child reported feasible?” What information can neighbors, non-offending family members or child care professionals provide that would help prosecute the case.
   One of the questions Gardiner has to answer is why the child didn’t disclose the abuse sooner. She also has to hunt for false disclosures by considering, “is it from a child’s perspective?”
   Another challenge for the prosecution is that offenders seldom have a criminal history. “The long-term offenders do not have criminal records,” Gardiner said. “They’re practiced, they’re careful.” Baltzell, who has been investigating and studying sexual predators for 11 years, said offenders carefully create an image of themselves as a “pillar of the community,” a description at odds with the stereotypical sexual predator in a trenchcoat. They also choose victims who are unlikely to make a good impression on a jury, choosing children with troubled pasts rather than the “good little angels,” another stereotype of sexual abuse, he said.
   “Oftentimes they will have an explanation ready,” Gardiner said for all the incriminating behaviors and situations. They will minimize, attempt to normalize and attempt to explain, she added. “(The) defendant’s statement has to make sense.” It’s her job to poke holes in his explanations.
   Sex abuse cases “do not have a finite lifespan,” Gardiner said. As the investigation progresses more abuse can come to light and the prosecution will need to follow up on it. “A lot of that is because of how children disclose abuse.”
   “That’s just the nature of the beast because you’re dealing with children who’ve been traumatized,” she said.
   Cases which happen within families (“which is often the case,” Gardiner said) tend to put family members at odds and make it even harder for the child to testify in court. Prosecuting child abuse cases forces Gardiner to fight “a lot of the myths surrounding children as witnesses.” She said that she also has to fight the false perception that there is plethora of false accusations when in fact the rate of false accusation is low, she said. Any defender who portrays themselves as an angel makes her very suspicious, she said.
  While crime victim advocates help support the victims during the trial, Gardiner said that she will take her witnesses to court and give a tour of her own. She’ll tell them that everyone who sits in the witness chair has to tell the truth and that “their offenders know that it is their job to tell the truth.” She’ll describe the chair in which the defendant sits besides his legal team as the “time-out chair” — they can stare at them but they can’t say a word.
   But the hardest part of the prosecution, she said, “(is) it’s just getting that child in the same room as their abuser. It’s very, very hard.” And unlike other cases she doesn’t celebrate if the verdict is in the state’s favor. “You don’t celebrate when you win, you just feel relieved.”

  (log in to rate)