Officials talk about issues they face during sexual assault trials

EVANSTON — April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the federal government has recently been slashing crucial funding toward its prevention.

On the first of the month, the Department of Health and Human Services fired an estimated two-thirds of the staffing at the Division of Violence Prevention — which falls under the Centers for Disease Control — in an ongoing effort to downsize the federal workforce.

The DVP conducts research and uses data to formulate prevention strategies for violent events such as sexual assault, child abuse and gun crime.

“The story it tells me is that violence prevention doesn’t matter,” an anonymous fired CDC employee told National Public Radio during a recent “All Things Considered” segment. “That women in abusive situations don’t matter, that women who have been sexually assaulted don’t matter.”

In light of such staggering nationwide cuts, the Herald recently sat down with members of the community who work with and on behalf of sexual assault victims to gauge the county’s current and future outlook regarding sex offenses.

“We are getting cuts, but I’m not sure what that looks like yet,” said Sexual Assault Family Violence Task Force Director Jesse Barnes, who is anticipating more insight after a budget meeting next month. “It’s a scary time for everyone, including victims.”

As prevention resources wane, inevitable and often-elusive pursuits of justice will likely increase as cases do.

According to literature from End Violence Against Women International, only about 5-20% of sexual assault victims will report the crime to law enforcement. Fewer than half will seek medical care or forensic examinations.

Reported barriers to reporting include the following: 68% fear reprisal; 63% feared personal blame; 57% stated they didn’t want others to know; 51% feared there wasn’t sufficient proof to prove a crime took place; and 43% feared the justice system.

“We have a 50/50 shot of getting a conviction [by jury] and that is a horribly low rate,” said Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson Kallas.

The data, pulled from the last 25 years of the county’s jury trial records, indicate a conviction rate of roughly 53%.

Why are conviction rates so low? Kallas cited, for instance, the recent trial of a local 23-year-old man accused of raping an underage teen girl. The defendant was found not guilty on two charges of sexual assault in the second degree and sexual abuse of a minor.

The outcome, Kallas surmised, likely came down to a “fundamental misunderstanding of DNA.”

Despite the fact that the defendant’s skin cell DNA was found on the victim’s underwear and that he’d made concerted efforts to dispose of other significant evidence, the jury, according the Kallas, likely chose to acquit because the male DNA discovered inside the victim’s vagina was a quantifiably insufficient-sized sample to specifically identify him as the donor. Seminal fluid was also not detected.

“For juries, I feel like they hold the state to a standard that we have to prove beyond any doubt what has happened rather than a reasonable doubt,” she said. “I feel like they look to find reasonable doubt, and I think that people are very hesitant to provide that stigmatization [of being labeled a sex offender].”

“I don’t know if the public is scrutinizing victims because they don’t look perfect,” said Evanston Police Department Victim Witness Coordinator Vanessa Weekly. “How do they see victims of sexual violence? The system is not perfect, but they expect a perfect victim.”

Midway through the trial mentioned above, the defense attorney requested that the charges be dropped altogether due to a lack of physical trauma, documented during the forensic examination and testified to during the state’s presentation.

District Court Judge James Kaste denied the motion, stating that “the testimony of the victim was sufficient to establish the element of sexual intrusion ... and that’s enough, honestly.”

“The absence of bruises and scratches ... or evidence of fighting doesn’t tell us anything either, because women aren’t required to fight to the death to avoid being sexually assaulted,” Kaste said, acknowledging the acute physiological response of fight, flight or freeze while under stress or duress. “It’s common knowledge that women and girls in situations like this often freeze. They don’t fight ... they just shut down ... there’s nothing else to do other than submit,” the judge said.

The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner who provided the rape kit procedure for the victim also testified on the stand that “a normal vaginal exam does not negate sexual abuse.”

“There is no such thing as a perfect victim,” Barnes said. “Looking at the research, it’s something like, out of every 1,000 rapists, only 100 of them might be prosecuted. People are not coming forward for a couple of reasons: they’re not going to be believed, or because people think highly of the perpetrator.”

Kallas said she agrees.

The defense’s humanizing of perpetrators during trial also likely contributes to low conviction rate.

“I think it’s on a subconscious level,” she said. “He doesn’t look or seem like a rapist.”

Wyoming, a state without a statute of limitations on sexual assault crimes, also carries a legal statute “that says that ‘a person’s word is all you need,’” Kallas said.

“More than anything is that we have to stick together as a society and believe these victims, whether that means a conviction in a criminal case or not,” she said. “We need to be here and support them and not berate them for telling their truth, which is what I see too often happening.”

As far as conviction rates go, Barnes added, “If you speak up, and the case outcome does not favor you, it does not mean that you were not assaulted.”

Support for victims is available.

In addition to Weekly with the EPD, other local victim witness coordinators include Gina Sundquist with the Uinta County Sheriff’s Office and Maria Oroz with the Uinta County Attorney’s Office. SAFV Task Force advocates in Evanston are Adelaida Ramirez and Jade Zuehlsdorff and, in the Bridger Valley, advocate Amber Elespuru.

AmeriCorp VISTA Housing Specialist Nadine Hijar’s services are also available through the SAFV office, located at the Human Services building in Evanston.

“It takes a community to at least give any victim of sexual assault a chance to feel supported,” Barnes said. “Start by believing them.”

The SAFV Task Force scheduled a one-mile “Denim Walk” for awareness at noon on April 30 at the Bear Ponds in Evanston.

Participants were encouraged to wear denim in protest of the overturning of a 1992 Italian rape conviction in which an 18-year-old woman was assaulted by her 45-year-old driving instructor.

Initially convicted, the man won his appeal when he argued that the sex was consensual because the victim removed her own tight jeans.

Women of the Italian Parliament were so enraged by his acquittal that they protested by wearing jeans to work.

Future awareness events include a Gentlemen’s Night Out fundraiser, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 9, at the Evanston Youth Club featuring “Fun Pianos.”

This story was published on April 30, 2025.