A Former Prosecutor's Take on the Cornell Case

Okay, so I want to talk about what other remedies are available through the criminal justice system, potentially, but first I want to ask you just generally about this type of case.

You have experience investigating and prosecuting cases that involve allegations of rape or sexual assault.

And regardless of the context of the investigation, these cases present some unique challenges for investigators and prosecutors.

Can you talk a little bit about what is unique about this type of case and what challenges they can pose?

Yeah, I mean, if we're talking about sexual assault and rape cases, they are incredibly challenging to investigate and, frankly, to prosecute, to bring charges.

And the reason for that is, first of all, there's trauma involved.

I mean, as there is in many kinds of crimes, but it's a very certain kind of trauma for someone who is sexually assaulted or raped.

And that kind of trauma can have a significant impact on a person's ability to remember what happened to remember details about what happened it may even cause delay in being able to remember recall or frankly talk about the trauma so there are all sorts of psychological physiological and this this isn't just like my opinion i mean these are scientifically backed um i mean i've seen it in practice And, you know, in fairness, probably a lot of your listeners have seen it in everyday life.

I mean, you know, I can think of examples of things that I've seen, like I think of 9-11.

On 9-11, you know, I saw something very traumatic.

And I can describe a lot of what happened, but the details about it still come back to me to this day, 25 years later.

And that's not because I'm making them up.

It's because my brain has kind of worked to suppress them.

Right.

That's the easiest way to put it.

And so you need investigators when investigating any kind of trauma.

But again, specifically something like sexual assault and rape who are trained in being able to ask the questions in a way that don't.

unnecessarily result in conflicting statements that don't unnecessarily craft one narrative that then looks like it's changed for bad reasons, right? Even if there are legitimate reasons, you need investigators who are sensitive to The person who's telling the story of what happened, literally kind of reliving that trauma and being able to ask it.

It's what, you know, we call it a trauma informed survivor centered method, which, you know, is basically a fancy way of saying that.

being very sensitive to what that person is going through and not just saying, okay, tell me what happened, because you're going to get a jumbled story.

Often you do want to kind of just get the lay of the land from witnesses, but here the witness is also potentially a victim and a survivor.

And so you have to deal with that in a different way.

So that's one problem.

The other challenge, I shouldn't say problem, challenge, is what I just said, that your main witness in a sexual assault case is also the victim and the survivor.

And sometimes it's your only witness.

Okay, so I want to talk about what other remedies are available through the criminal justice system, potentially, but first I want to ask you just generally about this type of case.

You have experience investigating and prosecuting cases that involve allegations of rape or sexual assault.

And regardless of the context of the investigation, these cases present some unique challenges for investigators and prosecutors.

Can you talk a little bit about what is unique about this type of case and what challenges they can pose?

Yeah, I mean, if we're talking about sexual assault and rape cases, they are incredibly challenging to investigate and, frankly, to prosecute, to bring charges.

And the reason for that is, first of all, there's trauma involved.

I mean, as there is in many kinds of crimes, but it's a very certain kind of trauma for someone who is sexually assaulted or raped.

And that kind of trauma can have a significant impact on a person's ability to remember what happened to remember details about what happened it may even cause delay in being able to remember recall or frankly talk about the trauma so there are all sorts of psychological physiological and this this isn't just like my opinion i mean these are scientifically backed um i mean i've seen it in practice And, you know, in fairness, probably a lot of your listeners have seen it in everyday life.

I mean, you know, I can think of examples of things that I've seen, like I think of 9-11.

On 9-11, you know, I saw something very traumatic.

And I can describe a lot of what happened, but the details about it still come back to me to this day, 25 years later.

And that's not because I'm making them up.

It's because my brain has kind of worked to suppress them.

Right.

That's the easiest way to put it.

And so you need investigators when investigating any kind of trauma.

But again, specifically something like sexual assault and rape who are trained in being able to ask the questions in a way that don't.

unnecessarily result in conflicting statements that don't unnecessarily craft one narrative that then looks like it's changed for bad reasons, right? Even if there are legitimate reasons, you need investigators who are sensitive to The person who's telling the story of what happened, literally kind of reliving that trauma and being able to ask it.

It's what, you know, we call it a trauma informed survivor centered method, which, you know, is basically a fancy way of saying that.

being very sensitive to what that person is going through and not just saying, okay, tell me what happened, because you're going to get a jumbled story.

Often you do want to kind of just get the lay of the land from witnesses, but here the witness is also potentially a victim and a survivor.

And so you have to deal with that in a different way.

So that's one problem.

The other challenge, I shouldn't say problem, challenge, is what I just said, that your main witness in a sexual assault case is also the victim and the survivor.

And sometimes it's your only witness.