Transcripts For CSPAN2 Mariska Hargitay Testifies On Combati

Transcripts For CSPAN2 Mariska Hargitay Testifies On Combating Sexual Assault 20170616

Misfire and i announced the formation of the task force to end Sexual Violence in april. Sexual awareness month. With the goal of highlighting these issues in congress and educating our self and peers about the challenges our nation faces and the ways we as representatives of the people can help combat Sexual Violence in its many forms. I know my colleagues on these task forces have their own reasons for being here but for me i want to be involved because i saw this problem firsthand in my years as a prosecuting attorney in ohio. Two topics we have decided on the roundtable on or Sexual Assault and access to nurses. The Sexual Assault kit, the jewel use to collect evidence by a survivor after an assault. These examinations are completed by a medical professional as specifically trained Sexual Assault new nurse examiner also known as the scene nurse. The purpose of this again is to collect any genetic evidence that may have been left behind by an attacker. The problem is our nation faces a backlog of hundreds of thousands of kids. The backlog as a result of factors such as testing procedures, outdated equipment, unclear guidelines, lack of training, budget restrictions and generally a large caseload. These kits represent victims, victims who are still waiting for justice. That is why this issue is a priority for this task force. We understand without trained nurses we are unable to collect the necessary evidence to go after the perpetrators. In a very special panel of witnesses today, first we are pleased to welcome miss mariskahargitay , most of all if you dont know her, detective lidia benson on law and order sv you and as i told her this morning, a reason my daughter is now finishing her first year of law school is because she wants to follow up on the work you portrayed on tv. What she does behindthescenes, what she does is a reallife advocate for victims of Sexual Assault. As an actress, actor and advocate miss Mariska Hargitay has dedicated her talents to be an inspiration and force for change. Parole is detective benson on law and order, she was awakened to the weight that survivors of Domestic Assault carried, the weight of shame, pain, fear, darkness, judgment and isolation. Inspired by their courage, she decided be part of multiple education awareness campaigns for joyful heart and other organizations. Shes made Public Service announcements and the rape kit backlog, prevent child abuse and engage men to end violence and abuse. She has found that many Public Service announcement with nbcs the more you know campaign and got milk. Her voice for Victim Service organizations to raise Financial Support for their programs. Committed to ending violence, caring for those who have survived it, mariska spends as much time on screen dealing with these crimes as she did bucking purpose through her role as detective benson. She is pleased to speak with us and we look forward to hearing from you. I like to welcome our next victim advocate, virginia masters, a native of texas, mixmasters is a loving mother and author, speaker, radio host and Sexual Assault survivor. She serves as a volunteer in Sexual Assault Response Team for dentoncounty friends of the family of rate councils centers , a network and a spokesperson for the Dallas Police department Sexual Assault cold case program. Ms. Masters is the director of the sexual abuse and powering ministry and the survivor initiative. Ms. Masters, were honored to have you speak with us and were looking forward to your testimony. Our next witness mister nathan james is an analyst of crime politics for the Congressional Research service, focusing on issues including state and local Law Enforcement, Crime Statistics and forensic science. His recent published work focused on commerce justice and related agencies appropriation with a focus on appropriations for the department of justice, Needs Assessment in criminal Justice Systems, the role of government in producing reform and increases in Violent Crime in cities across the United States and the Law Enforcement militarization. Were glad to have your expert knowledge with us here and look forward to working with you. Im pleased to announce the next two witnesses, my good friend mike omalley and chief bell who ive known from my days as prosecutor and thank you for traveling all the way from cleveland. November 2016 mike omalley was elected prosecuting attorney of calhoun county, the Largest Office in the state of ohio. 144 thats. Ive got to admit i know he knows it well having been achieved for many years running the program and made a lot of other prosecutors and elected officials look good while doing so so im glad to see you have the rains yourself. His office has nearly 12,000 defendants on charges as well as 7000 juvenile complaints annually. Hired to taking office Mister Omalley served his First Assistant safety director for the Cleveland City councilman. He began his career as the cleveland probation officer while attending law school at night. The bell is super site has been an assistant prosecutor for 27 years and is the special Investigations Division chief overseeing the following forces, cold case homicide, human trafficking, internet crimes against and Sexual Assault task force. Mister bell supervisor unit including major crime unit, and communitybased protection unit. Im glad both of you could be here today and look forward to your testimony. Last but not least, doctor jennifer markowitz, she hails from the International Association of nurses, doctor markowitz is a nursing consultant who specializes in issues related to Sexual Assault and strangle asian including medical, forensic examinations and professional education and curriculum development. In addition to teaching workshops around the world she provides expert testimony, consultation and Technical Assistance to develop training materials and publications in forensic nurse examiners since 1995 doctor markowitz serves us back to the expert consultant for the jagged core of the us army, navy, marine corps and coast guard. In 2004 she was named thing was fellow of the association of forensic nurses. In 2012 she servedas president. Thank you very much for being here and we look forward to your testimony. Ill hand it over to my cochairs or their Opening Statements , miss custer. Thank you very much and i want to thank everyone for being with us for the kick off of our Bipartisan Congressional Task force to end Sexual Violence. Living and i had a moment before but im delighted to haveeveryone with us. Mariska hargitay, thank you for your leadership on this issue and for your advocacy for speaking out. Im delighted to have Michael Omalley and richard bell with us. We got a lot to learn and hopefully good practices to share. Jennifer markowitz and nathan, thank you for the work you do. David said that his reason for being here, my reason for being here is that over 40 years ago as an undergraduate in college i was assaulted. A few years after that i was working in staff on capitol hill, jackie and i were working in offices next door to each other and i was what we now know to be sexually harassed, i guess we had a name for it back then and a few months after that i was attacked walking home on capitol hill and luckily was able to get away. But the reason i bring these up is that not about my story but because its really so common. I didnt tell anyone any of these stories for 40 years. I didnt tell my husband, i didnt tell my sons, i didnt tell my own family and the reason i now understand his because i thought that it was my fault. I thought that i was in the wrong place, i had done the wrong thing. It didnt make any sense to me in my 20s why it would be my fault. And its taken me 40 years to understand that it certainly was not and i really appreciate and i said if our generation had been more courageous and had spoken up, but now im dedicating my life and im delighted to be here with my colleagues in a bipartisan way. Men and women coming together, our staff has done an extraordinary job. Young men and women, the time is now and mariska said this morning we had a moment and we can really change the world so our intention is to bring together members of congress to put legislation and initiatives to address actual violence in some of the areas we intend to tackle k12 education, College Campus safety, military sexual trauma, Online Harassment and improved Data Collection in Law Enforcement training but were starting here today with the rape kit backlog because we understand that this is really at the core and mariska said it so well this morning, its a demonstration we are not hearing about, victims, survivors of Sexual Assault, men and women. After experiencing the trauma of Sexual Assault in an intensely personal, forensic evidence exam, no survivors should experience the pain and disruption of having their Sexual Assault kit act log. Theres no other crime that we would do this, not process the evidence. But failure to test backlog Sexual Assault kit allows rapists to remain on the street and puts more people at risk and we know this to be true from the evidence of communities that have gone back to test and i think we will hear from mariska and others about what we learned about serial predators. Im encouraged by previous federal bipartisanefforts , the Sexual Assault initiative which enabled communities to keep their backlogs, reengage with survivors and bring Sexual Assault predators to justice. Thomas must continue to find these programs, to build on the progress we have made reducing the Sexual Assault kit backlog and funding is important and we will be prepared to discuss that with you. Im eager to explore the important topics of access to Sexual Assault nurse examiners, better known as seen nurses. Those provides for survivors with compassionate trauma informed support for their short and longterm recovery. Unfortunately in communities across this country and particularly in Rural Communities such as my district in New Hampshire, many survivors do not have access to see nurses and i love to explore ways that we can make that available. Congress owes it to survivors to ensure that everyone has access to a scene nurse so thank you for being here, but my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and i look forward to this discussion. Ideal back. Thank yourepresentative , representative liam if you would have an Opening Statement . I want to thank my colleagues for being part of the Bipartisan Task force and identifying this full gamut of important issues that we want to collectively address but i cant think of anything that is more important for us to kick it off then this important issue that has this distinguished panel before us today so i thank you each for your presence here today but honestly i thank you for your dedication to this issue through your professional work. As a former prosecutor, we have had the ability or the opportunity i think to engage with victims on a Broad Spectrum of issues but in my own sense there was really nothing more dehumanizing than someone who has had to go through the crime of being sexually assaulted in and of itself. And its a different type of victim that any other we deal with because i think as representative custer and others have discussed, nobody considers himself if they are robbed on the side of the street as somehow participants and yet we so often see the victims beginning to question what their role and relationship is to this so how we respond is every bit as important to that victim as the mechanics of this process that we are going through. And we i think have also seen some progress in this area, certainly from my time as a prosecutor about a decade ago to where we are today. But we also know theres a long way to go, and i want to thank Mariska Hargitay and your organization, the joyful heart which has looked at the issue of rape kit backlogs, something we will hear that we do experience by virtue of your professional work but those who open themselves to you and thats often what we find is this once somebody has a place to go, these stories are overwhelming in the form of not just the emotion but the search for a place to help give me some closure but not even closure. I think its the issue, give me back control. This thing that was stolen from me. And i thank you for allowing us to go onthis journey together. I will note and i hope everyone here will Pay Attention to a film that was put together by miss hargitay and was released last night. I am evidence to what is identified together as remarkable response. I wish you luck as you move forward and continue to use that as a springboard for victims who have experienced this and where we need to go to continue. Jennifer markowitz, i want to thank you for your work in this space because one of the most important places we made progress is with the Sexual Assault nurse examiners and again, it goes to that First Experience post trauma and how somebody is engaged and the importance of us not only being able to collect the evidence but the humiliating process of what could be a 5 to 6 hourprocedure. We close with the idea that having had that procedure and now youve been doubly victimized, what happens with that evidence . And if after going through all of that we leave it sitting on a shelf, we have been part of the process and lastly, michael malloy. I want to thank you for your dedication in your office because you are demonstrating there is an interest on the part of Law Enforcement and so many to do this right. Most offices what to do whats right for the victim. Some things are just issues of resources, sometimes theres not an appreciation for what you can tell us how we been able to do this better and what we can continue to do to close it so i want to thank this remarkably experienced panel, bringing a Broad Perspective in my colleagues for putting this issue front and center and it couldnt be more timely and miss hargitay, i wish you and others will allow us to continue to press forward not only from this hearing but more collectively on this issue and i thank you and youll back thank you very much and now representative sphere. Thank you. After this particularly traumatic week for all of us, it is really very soothing to me personally that we have a Bipartisan Group of members here focused on a very important issue so i want to thank my colleagues all for being here and being part of this very important effort. I want to especially thank living a masters, a victims survivor who is here because it is very hard to have to recall that experience over and over again and for our starstudded panel who are here, miss hargitay if it werent for you the Joyful Foundation wouldnt be here. I am evidence wouldnt be filled and we are deeply grateful for your longterm commitment to this issue. I look around this room and there are mostly women here. And we know the statistics that one in four women are probably going to be sexually assaulted in their lives and if we look at your faces, we know that some of you have. And i wish we would have as many men in this room as we have women in this room because this issue will not be fully addressed until we have a complete understanding by both sexes of what really goes on. Over 30 years ago, i was then a county supervisor and one of the deputy das came in to meet with me and said were having a terrible time getting convictions on rape cases. And i said tell me what the problem is. One of the problems was that there wasnt a comprehensive investigation done and an actual evaluation of the victim when they came into the emergency room. There was an issue around the chain of custody of the evidence and so that started my effort to try and address the issue, the conviction rate went way up so when theres commitment by people, to do the right thing, we can do the right thing. There is no clear demonstration of our countries lack of regard for Sexual Assault survivors then ignoring the growth backlog of Sexual Assault cases. We would never, ever let the d

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