U.S. Senate hearing focuses on mishandling of sex crimes nationally, in Cleveland

from the Plain Dealer, by Rachel Dissell on September 14, 2010

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Advocates, academics, police and rape survivors called on a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday to investigate whether police departments across the country -- including Cleveland -- routinely mishandle investigations of rapes and other sex crimes.

Attorney Carol E. Tracy, with The Women's Law Project in Philadelphia, called on the FBI to take a lead role in assuring that police departments report accurate statistics about how many reports they receive and what happens to those cases.

The center, joined by dozens of other agencies, is also calling for the FBI to update an antiquated 70-year-old definition the agency uses to define rape. That definition leaves many rapes out of the official count.

Cleveland Rape Crisis Center President & CEO Megan O'Bryan said the center submitted testimony for the hearing and that Cleveland's work on the issue of sexual assault was gaining national attention.

"I want people to know that Cleveland is influencing the national agenda and helping create a national dialogue on police handling of sexual assault investigations," she said.

Tracy said calls have mounted from cities across the country with disturbing themes about police investigation of rapes: rape reports being discouraged or turned away; rapes and other sex crimes being downgraded or misclassified and cases being classified as "unfounded" in large numbers.

In her testimony before the subcommittee, which oversees crime and drug issues, Tracy said the statistics translate into horrifying real-life events, like those that unfolded in Cleveland last year after suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell was arrested and charged with killing 11 women and raping several others.

A year before the serial murders were discovered, a 41-year-old woman, Gladys Wade, flagged down police and reported that Sowell attacked her. Patrol officers initially believed the bleeding woman, took her to the hospital and recorded the crime as an attempted rape and robbery.

But a detective, who later interviewed the woman and Sowell, decided the woman was not credible and the case was labeled "unfounded."

A prosecutor declined to press charges against Sowell, who had already served more than 15 years in prison for a previous sex crime. Six of the women Sowell is accused of killing disappeared after that incident.

That type of scenario has been repeated in news reports across the county, including in Milwaukee, where rape reports from three women were belittled and ignored. The man they said attacked them was later arrested in a string of serial rapes.

"Initially I thought the reports of egregious police conduct were isolated incidents," Tracy said. "We believe this is a national crisis."

A Plain Dealer analysis of sexual assault reports in Cleveland from 2004 to 2008 shows that about 10 percent of cases reported are labeled unfounded, meaning the reports were false or had no basis in fact.

Perhaps a larger concern to advocates is that nearly 40 percent of victims who do initially report crimes, later cannot be located, do not want to cooperate or feel discouraged from prosecuting. More than 70 percent of cases reported never make it past the perfunctory review of a city prosecutor.

The rape crisis center, in written testimony, highlighted the plight of one of their clients, a woman who moved the Cleveland-area and was denied the right to make a police report about her rape because she couldn't pinpoint the location.

A center advocate was able to help the woman assert her right to make the report and have the case investigated.

"Law enforcement officers often buy into the same misperceptions as the general public," the letter states. "Perhaps most significantly, the lack of understanding and empathy police officers can display reflects the outlook of our society at large - that if a woman is raped, she is somehow to blame, and may not be telling the truth."

Tracy and other advocates say that forcing local police agencies to accurately record how rapes are reported and investigated is vital step to addressing sexual assault.

"In addition to accurately documenting those sex crimes reported, law enforcement agencies need to be accountable for the outcome of the report and investigation," Joanne Archambault, director of End Violence Against Women International and a retired San Diego police supervisor said.

"Reports need to be maintained on how many result in victims choosing not to participate in the investigation and prosecution, how many are unfounded, referred to the prosecutors or grand jury and what the final outcomes."