PHILLIP GOMEZ / PVT Pahrump's Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) and deputies assigned to it gather earlier this month with Sheriff Tony DeMeo and Assistant Sheriff Rick Marshall, far end of table, to discuss training needs for better collaborative handling of sexual assaults. Advertisement

There were 14 sexual assaults last year in Nye County, but those are just the ones reported to the Sheriff's Office for prosecution.

The actual number is believed to be at least twice that, including two pending cases in Pahrump of victims under the age of 10.

"Usually sexual assaults start in the family," said Sheriff Tony DeMeo. "It's domestic violence. We're seeing more and more of it. It's a social problem."

Now, with the opening of Desert View Regional Medical Center, a state-wide program three years in the making is getting under way in Pahrump to deal more methodically with the social problem of rape, or sexual assault, and catching those responsible.

The new program seeks to demonstrate that sexual assault is a community problem, not just a problem for the victim and the local response team.

The SANE/SART program (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner/Sexual Assault Response Team) seeks to integrate the twin tasks necessary for dealing with a rape: collection and documentation of legal evidence that a rape took place with immediate and compassionate care for the victim. In other words, health professionals need to provide timely medical treatment, complementing that with careful police work.

For a variety of reasons, many victims of forced sexual acts don't press charges, and often it's because the assailant is the victim's husband or someone she knows. Of all the rapes committed in the U.S., 88.6 percent are by males with whom the victim is acquainted.

Because of that familiarity, often the victim perceives the assault as a less aggressive act than in fact it is.

Only 1 to 2 percent of all sexual assaults in Los Angeles County in 2004 were violent in nature, said Debora Ratcliff, the sexual assault advocate at Pahrump's No To Abuse, a social service agency for abused men and women. Ratcliff said 20 cases of sexual assault in Pahrump were reported to her just last quarter.

Once or twice a month a woman reports her sexual abuse to community health nurse Maureen Budahl but doesn't want to report it to law enforcement.

Sexual assault, while deeply personal, involves a legitimate public health concern, said Budahl, the Nevada Health Division's nurse-practitioner-in-residence in Pahrump.

Since 1998, Budahl has made presentations on sexually transmitted diseases to Pahrump Valley High School health classes. She also talks about legal age-of-consent issues. No to Abuse, an agency that provides help for women, for the past four years has also presented high school students with information on how to deal with sexual assault.

"The welfare of the victim is primary," said Assistant Sheriff Rick Marshall. "Catching the perpetrator is secondary."

Nurse examiner training, conducted by registered nurses at Rose Heart Inc., a private organization in Las Vegas, consists of 42 hours of classroom training plus 45 hours of clinical training in conducting medical exams of rape victims. Examinations are performed with an eye toward victim advocacy and anticipating the client's needs during her time of crisis.

"Getting the personnel trained is what really needs to be done," said Budahl. The hospital is expecting to have two nurses trained in using rape kits provided by the Sheriff's Office for conducting the medical examinations.

"The biggest barrier to reporting is the trip to Las Vegas," said Budahl. The experience is typically cold and impersonal, the victim usually wanting nothing more than to put it behind her. Now, having a hospital in town with staff able to do the forensics exam, the SANE/SART group hopes to eliminate that barrier.

"People are more familiar with their own community," said Ratcliff.

Choosing to report the crime is often a difficult personal decision for victims to make, Ratcliff said. Agreeing to go through the difficult criminal justice system is not a decision most victims readily make.

"Court testimony is the hardest thing for victims to prepare for and contemplate," said DeMeo. But he added that if not caught, "That sex preditor will repeat his predation on numerous other victims."

An immediate exam of the victim designed to retrieve any tiny evidence that might reveal the perpetrator's DNA is the first step in a successful prosecution.

The idea behind the program is that victims heal faster when they have been properly treated by trained service providers, and they are more likely to follow through with prosecution when they have been treated sensitively on a consistent basis.

"Through proper training, more accurate evidence collection occurs," according to the program description. "More prosecutions are successful, and subsequently more perpetrators will be incarcerated."

"It's probably not the first time that he sexually assaulted someone," Budahl said of a hypothetical case, reenforcing the need to catch the offender.

The age of consent for sexual relations in Nevada is 16, but in cases of underage sexual abuse, consent is irrelevant. A criminal report is automatic in an underage rape.

Ratcliff, who said she was raped when she was 13, has been pushing to get the SANE/SART program started for some time. She said women in need of counselling for sexual abuse should call No To Abuse at 1-888-88A-BUSE or 751-1118.

If someone does not want to report the rape or sexual abuse to authorities, they do not have to, and the information will remain confidential, Ratcliff promised.