Instead, survivors can jump around in their timeline - retrieving their memories as they were stored in a time of stress and danger. It’s because of how our brains respond to a traumatic event. When sexual assault survivors tell their stories, experts say, it’s often not as a narrative where they concisely recall first this event happened, then this second one and finally this third one. Decades of research has shown inconsistencies could have explanations other than a person's veracity. Inconsistencies are used to cast doubt on a person's version of events and suggest they are not credible. 'None of us ever tell an identical story' The office does not track the dates when prosecutors make a decision not to charge, so it’s unknown if it took longer to make a decision in the Sensabaugh matter than in other uncharged cases. On average, it takes the sensitive crimes unit about 55 days to make a charging decision, but that timeframe is only for cases in which charges are filed, according to data provided by the District Attorney's Office. It took weeks and months to request, receive and review social media data from large companies, such as Facebook and Google, for the investigation, Torbenson said. In this case, the decision took 17 months. In general, prosecutors try to make a charging decision within a week of getting a referral from law enforcement, said Matthew Torbenson, deputy district attorney, who supervises the sensitives crimes unit. That's down from five years earlier, when prosecutors charged 55% of the 551 adult sexual assault cases referred to them. Last year, police agencies referred 306 cases and prosecutors issued charges in 40% of them. The decision in the case comes as the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office is getting fewer referrals for adult sexual assault cases from police and is charging a smaller percentage of them. The three women who told their stories to the Journal Sentinel said they were never asked by police or prosecutors to explain any inconsistencies and were never given the opportunity to address or refute whatever information Sensabaugh's attorney provided. Sensabaugh has maintained any sexual contact was consensual. Karshen said the decision not to interview Sensabaugh came after conversations with his attorney, who provided materials to support the activist's defense. He was not arrested or questioned by police about the other three allegations. Milwaukee police interviewed Sensabaugh about the first allegation after his arrest. Police and prosecutors typically receive training on these responses to guide their work interviewing victims and contextualizing a victims' actions to a jury. Psychologists and other experts have long known trauma can influence how a person's memories of a specific event are stored and retrieved as their body enters a "fight, flight or freeze" state. "Anytime you retell something, there can be minor inconsistencies," she said. Karshen did acknowledge a "passage of time" between when the police reports were first filed and her decision. ![]() She declined to detail the inconsistencies. "The DA’s office failed us," said Tiffany Engel-Rivera, one of the women who came forward, in a statement to the Journal Sentinel.Īssistant District Attorney Erin Karshen said she believes “these things happened” to the women but cited inconsistencies in the women’s statements to police, on social media and to the Journal Sentinel as a barrier to convincing a jury. Nearly three months later, the district attorney’s office notified the women it would not issue charges. Three women later spoke to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and shared their frustration at the long wait for a decision in the case and lack of communication from prosecutors. The Journal Sentinel published the article in late January, more than a year after Sensabaugh was arrested. ![]() Sensabaugh denied wrongdoing in his own videos and later, in response to media inquiries, through his attorney. Some of the women posted videos about their allegations. The back-and-forth played out on social media for much of last year. ![]() Soon after, three more women separately went to police and described experiences of unwanted or coerced oral sex with Sensabaugh.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |