Unified rape case protocol adopted

Michelle Corrao still remembers the day she was raped.

Sept. 13, 1996.

After police found her, she was taken to the Fort Wayne Sexual Assault Treatment Center, where she was treated and informed about her options for medical and legal care.

That period, she recalled Tuesday, was critical.

“At the time of the crime, you don’t want anyone to know,” she said. Although The Journal Gazette does not usually identify sexual assault victims, Corrao said it was OK to use her name.

After a person is victimized like she was, Corrao said, that person dies and a new one is born who must learn to live life with what’s happened to them.

“It’s important they’re given the information of what steps to take next,” she said.

On Tuesday, the treatment center announced a new partnership with local law enforcement officials and the county’s five hospitals to improve and standardize the way sexual assault victims are treated.

Before, each hospital had its own process for treating victims and working with law enforcement. Now each hospital will follow the same procedure, such as preserving DNA evidence and giving each victim the opportunity to talk with a trained member of the treatment center about their health care and legal options.

Regardless of whether the victims want to report the crime to police, each one will be given the same standard of medical care, including an exam, medications if wanted and follow-up information.

Corrao said the changes are a good step in the recovery process and will help more women report the crime to police, thus discouraging rapists.

“It’s a very important, positive step for this county,” she said.

Michelle Ditton, chief nursing officer with the center, points out that one of the key issues will be having victims tell their story just one time, with a detective at the center, rather than to several officials.

She calls the hospitals heroes for thinking of the victims.

“By working together, we can provide fast information to victims of sexual assault and they can make informed decisions about the care they want, be it just health care or health and legal care,” Ditton said.

Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards said the hospitals need to have the new, unified approach because they want to give people the best medical treatment possible. It’s important, she said, to use the highly trained forensic nurses at the treatment center.

“People are so emotionally fragile, and if you don’t help them appropriately, then you will leave them with a lasting trauma that just doesn’t have to be there,” Richards said.

The center can also answer questions about reporting the crimes to police, what happens next and how the justice system works, she added.

Richards and Ditton describe how Allen County treats its crime victims as being ahead of the region. Fort Wayne-based Polar King International Inc. made a contribution to the county’s efforts Tuesday by donating a walk-in cooler to the Fort Wayne Police Department. The new cooler will give its investigative division a greater storage capacity for sexual assault evidence kits.

Corrao said she knows the new process won’t stop the crime of rape from happening.

“But, hopefully,” she said, “it’ll happen less.”