Missoula County Attorney's Office treatment of rape victims

[PhoenixAsh]

Montana Attorneys Said 'Terrible Things' to Rape Victims

In January, Fred Van Valkenburg, the head of the Missoula County Attorney's Office in Montana, denied that his office had systematic issues with prosecuting sexual assault cases. But a letter released by the Department of Justice Friday detailing the results of the DOJ's investigation into MCAO reveals that the opposite is true.

Previously, the Justice Department had investigated and made recommendations for the University of Montana and the Missoula Police Department to improve their handling of rape cases. Though they'd suggested MCAO do the same, they hadn't laid out exactly what their issues with the office were. But the DOJ said Friday that the 20-page letter obtained by Mother Jones explaining the results of their investigation concludes "that there is substantial evidence that the County Attorney's response to sexual assault discriminates against women." Furthermore:

The County Attorney does not provide Deputy County Attorneys with the basic knowledge and training about sexual assault necessary to effectively and impartially investigate and prosecute these cases;
The County Attorney's Office generally does not develop evidence in support of sexual assault prosecutions, either on its own or in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies
Adult women victims, particularly victims of non-stranger sexual assault and rape, are often treated with disrespect, not informed of the status of their case and revictimized by the process; and
The County Attorney's Office routinely fails to engage in the most basic communication about its cases of sexual assault with law enforcement and advocacy partners.
For their investigation, the DOJ interviewed 30 women who had dealt with MCAO over their sexual assault cases, numerous law enforcement officials, victim advocacy organizations and many police detectives, among others. According to their report, "Women consistently told us that Deputy County Attorneys treated them with indifference or disrespect, and frequently made statements to women victims, advocates, and the public diminishing the seriousness of sexual violence and minimizing the culpability of those who commit it." The DOJ says that MCAO also consistently didn't communicate with victims about the statuses of their cases.

Past the obvious communication issues the office struggles with, the details from the women who spoke with the Justice Department paint an image of a group of attorneys who are unconcerned about the lives of these potential victims – or treating them in an appropriate or professional manner:

One woman reported that the Missoula Police detective in her case informed her that because "no one had a limb cut off and there was no video of the incident," prosecutors "wouldn't see this [the rape] as anything more than a girl getting drunk at a party."

In one instance, for example, a Deputy County Attorney quoted religious passages to a woman who had reported a sexual assault, in a way that the victim interpreted to mean that the Deputy County Attorney was judging her negatively for having made the report. We also spoke to a woman whose daughter was sexually assault, at the age of five, by an adolescent boy. In response to a question about why the perpetrator had been sentence to only two years of community service, the prosecutor handling the case reportedly told the women that "boys will be boys." Advocates told us that Deputy County Attorneys "said terrible things to victims," including saying to one woman in the course of discussing the decision not to prosecute her sexual assault, "All you want is revenge."
The DOJ said that other women had been discouraged from reporting their own rapes because they'd heard about MCAO mishandling the cases they were given. And outside of case-by-case details, the numbers overall don't look good either. The DOJ found that between January 2008 and May 2012, the Missoula police referred 85 sexual assault cases to MCAO. MCAO proceeded to file charges in just 14 out of those 85 cases.

Van Valkenburg is, yet again, fighting back against these claims. Three days before the report was released, Van Valkenburg filed a motion hoping to prove that the DOJ doesn't have jurisdiction over his office, the Missoulian reported. "These are things I have never even heard of," he told the paper. "It is impossible to believe these things are true. This is not how the Missoula County Attorney's Office conducts itself. These are half-truths, mistruths and maybe even outright lies." Van Valkenburg also told Mother Jones that those working at the DOJ are "as unethical as any I have ever seen," repeating his previously expressed belief that the office has "a political agenda they want to push."

The communication issues in his office obviously run deep, however. Van Valkenburg told the Missoulian that he took issue with the DOJ not getting in contact with him before releasing their letter, but the Justice Department says they've tried to talk to MCAO "more than a half-dozen times over the past 21 months in an attempt to reach an amicable resolution."

Image via J. Stephen Conn/Flickr










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[PhoenixAsh]

That the DOJ is only now taking any form of action...which naturally is extremely insincere...seeing as we are talking about a 4 year investigative period. It is not like they didn't know about it sooner or didn't know this was happening. Complaints have been coming in for decades. So....

Apparently it was only now politically opportune to take action. :glare:

[PhoenixAsh]

And if you were under the impression that the MCAO is a stand alone case and not part of a wider culture of rape...look at this december 2013 article


The retiring police chief in Missoula, Mont., said he's leaving his department in good shape.

But in the last years of Chief Mark Muir's 22-year career, Missoula, home to the University of Montana, was unflatteringly nicknamed the rape capital of America. A federal investigation concluded in May that police didn't adequately respond to reports of sexual assault, failing to seek timely interviews with both victims and suspects. And the chief himself was accused of telling a sexual assault victim that half of rape reports are false.

"I never told her that," Muir told The Huffington Post, adding that it was "a pretty outrageous statement."

Muir, who has been chief for five years, retires Friday. His department has been roiled since 2011, when University of Montana student Kerry Barrett spoke out about the police handled her sexual assault case -- and how the chief defended his department.

The night she was sexually assaulted in September 2011, Barrett said she was asked by a Missoula police officer if she had a boyfriend.

"I said, 'No, but why does that matter?'" recalled Barrett. "He responded, 'Some girls cheat on their boyfriend and regret it and blame it on rape.'"

The years since that remark turned Barrett into an activist who brought national attention to the town, stirring the U.S. departments of Justice and Education to investigate the police and the university for mishandling sexual assault reports. And they spurred Muir to institute reforms. A civilian review panel has begun examining the department's handling of sexual assault investigations, for example. Muir said the panel looked at nine cases this week.

Muir said he now wants to be sure sexual assault victims don't get "the feeling of being disbelieved." He said he believes new training for his officers is paying off, with police now communicating better with victims.

"We now can look at it and say, 'We get it,'" Muir said. "Women feel judged by society. Similarly, they also feel judged by the cops, the investigators. We're trying to distance ourselves from the societal biases that most of the people in the country have grown up with."

That's a long way from the night a cop asked a sexual assault victim about her boyfriend.

Barrett said a Missoula detective later apologized to her for the officer's comment. But then the detective warned that nothing was likely to come of an investigation, because it was a he-said, she-said situation.

Two months later, police interviewed the man Barrett had identified as her assailant. The detective later told Barrett that the man had cried and insisted the sex had been consensual.

Barrett said she learned in November 2011 that police considered her case inactive. She and a friend, who had similar experiences with Missoula police, met with Muir, who addressed his officers' comments.

"I apologized for the fact that she felt that the detective was more sympathetic to the perpetrator," Muir said. "That was simply a matter of her perception."

The conversation was cordial, the chief and the women agreed, until the topic of false rape reports arose.

Barrett said that she insisted no more than 6 percent of rape reports are bogus, citing a 2009 study that originated with End Violence Against Women International. She and her friend, who asked not to be named, said Muir disagreed, saying that some studies show a majority of rape reports are false.

Muir said he "disputed that it's not disputable" that a small number of reports are false.

"I explained to her I don't believe those numbers that are on the high end," Muir said. "But I just wanted to be perfectly clear that there are studies that have been done. Not everyone supports them, but that [false reports] may be as high as 40 to 50 percent."

A couple of days after their meeting, Muir sent Barrett an email, telling her he had found a study to support his claim. He also assured Barrett he would speak again to the officer who conducted the initial interview.

Since then, Barrett said she has had no contact with the police and nothing ever happened with her case.

"All they're doing is taking the rapists' word and not doing any more," Barrett told HuffPost.

She decided to speak out, first to local media and then at city council meetings, which Muir cited as reason for the national attention.

That national attention included a yearlong investigation by Justice Department and Education Department officials. The Justice Department report released in May presented a harsh view of Muir's department.

The police department's "failure to adequately respond to reports of sexual assault has an unjustified disparate impact on women and thus violates the Safe Streets Act," wrote Thomas E. Perez, then an assistant attorney general, and Michael W. Cotter, a U.S. attorney for the District of Montana.

One case cited in the report echoed Barrett's experience. A police summary said an assault victim "has made out with other males while she has had a boyfriend." The Justice Department interpreted that to mean that "officers were asking questions about the woman's sexual history," rather than making inquiries relevant to the assault. Statements by police officials reflected "assumptions that women reporting non-stranger sexual assault are lying, and that such assaults are less severe" than other serious crimes, the report said.

Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, said it's a serious problem when officers appear skeptical of women reporting sexual assault. Such skepticism may be due to a "misunderstanding or a belief that false reports are more common than they actually are," he said.

Muir cautioned it will take time for police to fix everything. And it will take time for Missoula to escape its "rape capital" moniker.

But even Barrett said she doesn't fully agree with the slur.

"Missoula has a problem, but so does every other college town in this country," Barrett said. "They're just unlucky enough to get the attention."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/19/missoula-police-rape-capital_n_4453867.html

[tachosomoza]

I stopped reading when I saw "Missoula County". Fuck Montana and their shitty, racist, homophobic, apple pie values.

[Os Cangaceiros]

One thing I will say for Missoula (and much of Montana in general), it's a beautiful area of the USA IMO. Montana is one of the most beautiful states I've seen in the USA, and I've seen all 48 in the "lower 48", plus Alaska. It's too bad the political/social climate is what it is there (drive the freeways and you'll see quite a bit pro-life/anti-abortion stuff, as you will in other areas of the southern and Midwestern USA, for example) but it is what it is I guess, that's just the situation which hopefully will change at some point