DA, Stepping Stone team up to help law enforcement with special victim’s cases

A local organization and the district attorney’s office recently teamed up to host a law enforcement training program designed to give guidance to investigators and first responders when they are dealing with special victim cases.

They gathered in a classroom at the Oconee Fall Line Technical College on Oct. 16 to listen and watch presentations from Dublin Chief Assistant District Attorney Kelly Weathers, Dublin District Attorney’s Office attorney Grady Cullens and Emily Brookshire, the executive director of Stepping Stone Child and Sexual Assault Center.

“By special victim I mean child victims, domestic violence, sexual assault for adults and children,” Weathers said. “When law enforcement first responds to an allegation of this type, we want them to know there are many steps in these types of investigations.”

They want them to be aware of the services provided by Stepping Stone, whose goal is to help children and adults who have been abused or assaulted by having a safe place to talk and offer services while working with law enforcement and DA’s offices. Stepping Stone covers the counties in Dublin (Laurens, Johnson, Treutlen and Twiggs) and Oconee Judicial Circuits (Bleckley, Montgomery, Wheeler, Dodge, Pulaski and Telfair).

“Stepping Stone is a fabulous organization,” Weathers said. “They offer things from forensic interviews to forensic medical exams to counseling and other basic support needs that a lot of victims of more complicated crimes like domestic violence or sexual abuse often require.”

Brookshire wanted law enforcement to know how to optimize the initial conversations with victims. That sets the stage for everything that follows.

“This is to let the victims know that there is going to be a team responding to these very serious allegations,” Weathers said. “All of us are mission-focused to get to the truth of the matter and make sure we can maximize putting the case together to get the right consequence and outcome for the perpetrator.”

Cullens presented strangulation cases. Weathers said these are common in domestic violence cases.

“Stepping Stone has special equipment to help document this for evidentially purposes,” Weathers said. “Obviously, this was the real reason we wanted to have this training. We wanted law enforcement to be aware of the resources that are available to them.”

If someone alleges to have been choked, the marks may be hard to see.

“But now they can take them to Stepping Stone where they have specialized medical equipment that will detect things that with the naked eye you won’t be able to see,” Weathers said. “A strangulation event can often lead to stroke, heart attacks and things like that.”

Brookshire is thrilled to have this type of technology to verify what happened to a victim.

“That helps people understand that this is an extremely common crime and we are taking this seriously,” she said. “It also lets people get medical attention that they desperately deserve.”

Brookshire recalled a case where a victim went to Stepping Stone more than a week after an assault that included a strangulation.

“We were able to collect photographic evidence that proved that strangulation happened more than a week after,” Brookshire said. “That was amazing. It was something no one would be able to see with the naked eye.”

Dublin DA Harold McLendon, who called Stepping Stone “a world class organization,” was impressed with a stat about those who had been strangled in a domestic violence situation.

“If they remain in the relationship, there is a 75 percent chance that it is going to end in death,” McLendon said. “It is very important that we get involved and try to prevent some of this.”

McLendon mentioned that his office had a strangulation death case a few months ago where the male defendant pleaded guilty to life in prison.

Weathers ended the day with talking about collecting evidence for them to present to juries.

“We want our cases to be strong,” she said. “We want the jury to come back with a guilty verdict, which is the outcome we are looking for when we go to trial.”

Brookshire hopes they will be able to do this type of training with law enforcement more. Law enforcement, the DA’s office and Stepping Stone need each other to make sure these types of crimes end positively for the victims and their families.

“We are a team here,” Brookshire said. “We can learn and get together as a team. It makes the process for survivors as thorough and holistic as possible. With that, we are creating a more excellent, streamlined process for victims that they deserve.”