Thumbnail: Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin awards A’Lissa Scott and Amanda LeBlanc a certificate of commendation on Dec. 2 for their part in resurrecting the Del Norte Sexual Assault Response Team.

Scrawled on a whiteboard inside A’Lissa Scott’s office at the Del Norte County Courthouse is the following quote: “Children of all ages can tell us what they know if we ask them the right questions in the right way.”

Taken from a manual on the best practices of child forensic interviewing, the 30-year-old quote reminds Scott and her colleague Amanda LeBlanc that much of their job is about allowing, and trusting, sexual assault survivors to make the decision that’s right for them.

“One big thing about mentoring is there is no victim-blaming. That went out in the ‘70s or ‘80s, or it should have,” said Scott, a field investigator in the county’s Victim Witness Center. “We bring kids in that are going to have to testify and if they say, ‘I don’t want to do this’ We are never going to force them to testify.”

LeBlanc, executive director of the North Coast Rape Crisis Team, said her job as an advocate is also about ensuring the survivors and their families, especially if they’re children, understand the intricacies of the criminal justice process. That includes supporting the survivor if they have to face the person who hurt them in court, and respecting the survivor’s wishes if they choose not to.

“I think a lot of survivors feel responsibility to other people in their community,” LeBlanc said. “But sometimes they have to choose themselves and that’s a totally fair decision to make.”

Scott and LeBlanc sat down with Redwood Voice Community News about two weeks after they received the Crescent City Police Chief’s Certificate of Commendation on Dec. 2 for their work in resurrecting the Del Norte County Sexual Assault Response Team.

In addition to reinstating monthly meetings with the team’s member agencies after being dormant for three to five years, LeBlanc and Scott recruited four nurses last year who volunteer to be on call 24-hours a day on a weekly basis to respond to Sutter Coast Hospital for sexual assault cases.

Scott said there wasn’t a forensic investigator until she began working for the DA’s office in February 2023.

Scott said that while the nurses are paid when they conduct a sexual assault examination — collecting evidence to build a case against a perpetrator — they are not paid to be on call.

“Amanda had money through North Coast Rape Crisis,” Scott said. “She paid for them to go to training. She paid them for their per diem and their motel and their tuition. They got their certificate, which they can take anywhere — I think a shout-out needs to go to those SART nurses.”

CCPD Chief Richard Griffin said he remembers having to tell sexual assault survivors that they had to go to Humboldt County if they wanted to get a forensic examination done.

Though the SART program in Del Norte County has been in existence since at least 2007, Griffin told Redwood Voice that it hasn’t been as active as it is currently.

“Especially with the overall participation [from] all the agencies who show up for meetings,” he said. “And the SART nurses that are available locally. To have one on call 24/7, I never thought that would happen in my career.”

The North Coast Rape Crisis Team also secured a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Office on Violence Against women that will be used to recruit more nurses into the Del Norte County SART program. Those dollars, which come from the OVW’s Rural Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner grant program will go toward compensating nurses for their on-call time as well as provide mentorship from the Humboldt County SART team in an effort to build their confidence when conducting sexual assault exams, LeBlanc said.

The North Coast Rape Crisis Team was one of two nonprofits in the United States that received a Rural Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner grant this year, according to LeBlanc.

“We’re going to purchase forensic interview equipment and we’re going to have our office, which is right across the street from Enoteca at 903 3rd Street, Suite A, as our county forensic interview site,” LeBlanc said. “The interviews can be recorded with audio and video and really meet the needs of all the multidisciplinary partners at the same time, hopefully.”

Agencies who participate in the SART team include the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office, Crescent City Police Department, Del Norte County Probation, Adult Protective Services and Child Welfare Services, Victim Witness/Assistance Center, the Yurok Tribe’s Crisis Intervention Team, the North Coast Rape Crisis and Pelican Bay State Prison.

During their monthly meetings, Scott said the SART team discusses any training member agencies have participated in, whether someone is investigating a sexual assault or advocating on behalf of a survivor. This includes asking whether a forensic examination was performed, whether there was a problem with it and if there was a problem getting in touch with a SART nurse to perform the examination.

Scott said they also talk about the various sexual assault cases that are making their way through the legal process. This includes tracking if someone was arrested, whether or not he pled guilty, if he showed up in court or is still in custody, she said.

“To make sure that these cases don’t fall through the cracks and that we can find where our deficiencies are,” Scott said. “Because it’s a lot of different agencies coming together.”

Scott and LeBlanc would like to get more agencies involved, including the California Highway Patrol as well as Redwood National and State Parks law enforcement.

LeBlanc also pointed out that various agencies come into play from the moment a survivor reports that they have been sexually assaulted. Currently, if someone goes to the hospital and reports that they have been sexually assaulted, a North Coast Rape Crisis Team advocate will be there to triage the situation.

This includes determining if the survivor is safe to go home as well as providing them with a comfort kit, which consists of a new outfit and hygiene products. Sometimes people need a new phone or phone service. They may also need emergency shelter.

“Sometimes, whenever I meet a survivor, I think, ‘Do you need a cool aunt or do you need a mom?’” LeBlanc said, adding that they try to have that advocate be with the survivor long-term. “Because I can be that mom. I’m definitely not the cool aunt, but I got lots of young people who can be that person.”

LeBlan said there’s magic in looking everyone on the SART team in the eye, having their cell phone numbers and being able to build a rapport with them.

Scott agreed, saying before those monthly in-person meetings, even if one agency had a protocol and a plan to deal with sexual assault, glitches happened. Sometimes this meant that, though sexual assault examinations were being conducted, the North Coast Rape Crisis Team hadn’t been called, she said.

It was worse before Scott and LeBlanc started the SART team back up. For about three-to-five years — primarly during the COVID pandemic, Scott says — there wasn’t a forensic interviewer or a sexual assault response nurse locally in Del Norte County, according to Scott.

In addition to being told that they had to go to Eureka for a rape kit, survivors were told not to shower, brush their teeth, change their clothes, eat or go to the bathroom until they could get that examination, Scott said.

The trip cost survivors a full day of travel over precarious roads often in nasty weather, LeBlanc said. Sometimes it meant traveling in the back of a police car if they needed a ride. Many have to find child care and lose a day of work. And since the Humboldt County SART team has to handle its own sexual assault cases, the wait for Del Norte County survivors was often two to three days instead of just 24 hours.

That’s no longer the case.

“Part of the reason we wanted to talk to you today is because we wanted people to understand that this is a local service again,” LeBlanc told Redwood Voice. “I have a feeling, from an advocacy perspective that a lot of survivors who might come forward aren’t because they understand that that was the process for a very long time.”

According to the most recent numbers — from between October-December 2023 — the North Coast Rape Crisis Team served 187 survivors across Del Norte and Humboldt counties and 24 loved ones. The North Coast Rape Crisis Team provided 66 peer counseling sessions, provided criminal advocacy or accompaniments 404 times and general advocacy accompaniments 193 times across both counties between October and December 2023.

Scott said one thing that survivors may not understand is she, LeBlanc and other members of the SART team would respect their wishes if they decide they don’t want to testify or move forward with a sexual assault investigation. She said she usually asks them to take a day or so to think about it, but “when they say no it’s final.”

LeBlanc said going through the legal process to bring the person who sexually assaulted you to justice is long. In some cases it can take up to 15 years for that to happen.

Often, survivors aren’t believed. According to LeBlanc, there were three hung juries in Humboldt County related to child sexual abuse cases within the last three months because they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

“In two of these cases, these kids went off to college, and now, they’re like, ‘Hey, can you come back?’’ LeBlanc said. “There is a cost to both your soul and your life and your body and all of those things to come back here. In all of those cases a very minor percentage didn’t believe them, but it’s a very powerful percentage. And as a jury, you can’t say, ‘I believe you, but we can’t convict.’”

Scott says to really make an impact — to support the Del Norte SART team and survivors — the community should start putting its money where its mouth is. Law enforcement, prosecutors, nurses and advocates deserve better pay and the community needs to think about how to get them to stay in Del Norte, she said.

It’s relationships that make the SART program work, LeBlanc said, but local agencies including law enforcement, the District Attorney’s Office and the hospital are constantly having to train new recruits. Those rookies may not know to contact the Rape Crisis Team if someone reported being sexually assaulted or they tell a survivor that they need to go to Humboldt for a rape kit, she said.

“That’s what the [SART] meetings give us — a chance for everyone to get back on the same page,” LeBlanc said. “We want as many faces within those multidisciplinary teams to come so they can learn how this is supposed to happen.”

LeBlanc also urged people to volunteer for the North Coast Rape Crisis Team crisis line. Potential volunteers can fill out an application by clicking here and emailing it to mvs@ncrct.org.