WILMINGTON — Protestors are planning to gather at Wilmington Police Department headquarters to push for reforming the agency’s handling of sexual assault cases, but police say some of the proposed policy changes could make the process harder.
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Cassie Payton, a Wilmington resident and organizer of Saturday’s protest, is pushing for the WPD to investigate sexual assault cases with the same tenacity as other violent crimes.
“The protest is about accountability,” Payton told Port City Daily Friday. “The common theme is that we’re not met with urgency.”
The protest is aligned with a petition Payton started, which has climbed to almost 4,000 signatures over the last four weeks. The petition calls for mandatory timelines for evidence collection, victim-centered training and transparent procedures for addressing delays in sexual assault cases.
The issue is personal for Payton. On May 27, she reported to WPD being forcibly raped by two men, one of whom she knew. Payton immediately informed the police and gave a statement at the hospital, where a rape kit was completed and showed evidence of physical trauma.
Despite her immediate action, Payton’s records indicate the WPD did not sit down to take her statement until June 11. The WPD did obtain a warrant for the two accused’s phones and Payton provided her medical records on June 13, but it took more than 17 days for the police to investigate the scene — which she says would have revealed copious amounts of blood on a couch.
Payton detailed her attempts to track down witnesses herself and her multiple meetings with Borton on June 26 and July 3.
In a meeting with Borton and Assistant District Attorney Connie Jordan on July 24, Payton was told her case was being closed after the WPD found no incriminating evidence on the two men’s phones.
Additionally, Payton lacked video or audio evidence, a witness that saw or heard the act and a confession from the two men, who both hired lawyers and refused to speak with police.
Payton was told, essentially, there was no way to prove what happened that night wasn’t consensual, even though Borton and Jordon said they believed her story.
Payton said she spent hours discussing her case with Detective Lucas Borton, who she lauded for his dedication.
“He was frustrated for me,” she said.
Payton’s one qualm with Borton involved her request to use Luminol, a luminescent chemical that can reveal the presence of blood, on the couch she was raped on. Though the case had been closed at that point, Borton obliged, but Payton said he only reported spraying one area of the couch and not the whole thing.
Borton and Jordan didn’t believe there was enough evidence to press charges and Payton reported Borton saying moving forward with charges without Jordan’s blessing would’ve been a “slap in the face.”
The situation revealed a discrepancy between the way victims view the merits of their case and how police and prosecutors — firsthand witnesses to how few sexual assault cases lead to convictions — view them.
“They were so worried about this hypothetical jury,” Payton said. “If [Borton and Jordan] believed me, why wouldn’t a jury?”
WPD explains the process
The barriers Payton faced in her search for justice are not unique to victims of sexual assault. A 2019 study from professors at the University of Massachusetts found only 18 out of 100 rapes and sexual assaults lead to an arrest; it also revealed less than 7% of reported cases in six observed jurisdictions made it to a conviction.
“Outside of witnesses, outside of a confession, outside of something else to suggest that it was non-consensual, it becomes really difficult [to prove a case],” Capt. Rodney Dawson, head of WPD’s criminal investigation department, said.
Dawson and Lt. Greg Willett, WPD’s public information officer, sat down with Port City Daily Friday to discuss the department’s sexual assault investigation process. Though they could not speak about any specific cases, including Payton’s, they were eager to explain their inner workings to the public.
“I think there’s a misconception that detectives or officers are just real nonchalant about these types of cases and almost are dismissive of them,” Dawson said. “That couldn’t be further from the truth … we’re looking for every avenue we have to make a case.”
Dawson walked through the process of a sexual assault investigation. He said a lot of cases begin at the hospital, but sometimes victims file reports directly to the WPD. When a report comes in, the time of day and details of the case determine the pace of the response.
During business hours, a report would be directed immediately to one of the department’s detectives; outside of those hours, an on-call detective — whose expertise can range from murder to fraud — will field reports. They will triage all reports coming in, determining if an immediate response is necessary. If not, the report is referred to a detective the next day.
Payton criticized this procedure, as her report came in overnight and, she says, wasn’t picked up by a detective for days.
What typically requires an immediate response would be a rape committed by a stranger to the victim in a public or semi-public place. Dawson said DNA evidence collection plays more of a significant role in these cases; DNA from an assailant the victim knows, especially if the two have been consensually intimate in the past, could be assumed to be on the victim and doesn’t necessarily prove a sexual assault occurred.
“It’s almost easier to solve a straight up who-dunnit when they’re not known because there’s no question at that point in time if it’s a stranger,” Willett said.
But 8 out of 10 rape cases are committed by someone the victim knows, and these more often occur in private settings. This presents challenges to officers investigating a scene. Absent permission from the owner, a search warrant is needed to enter a home or business. These can take a few days to obtain, but it’s not a simple ask-and-you-shall-receive — a judge will want to see other evidence to necessitate a warrant.
Witnesses could play a role, but again these could be less frequent in cases on private property. Though anyone with knowledge of the situation can act as a witness, those crucial to proving a case will have heard or seen the victim and rapist together or observed some sort of distress.
Absent a witness or recorded evidence, rape cases can often end in an he-said-she-said. Still, there’s a chance the assailant could confess to the crime. Increasing the chances of eliciting a confession, Dawson said, can sometimes come down to timing.
This is where the Payton’s specific request — a 48-hour deadline to examine a crime scene — could hinder more than help.
Dawson told PCD a sexual assault committed by a stranger found at the scene would undergo an interrogation right then, but sometimes, especially in cases where the two parties know each other, more time to gather facts could be beneficial.
“Because if that person says, ‘Well, no I wasn’t there,’ I mean, that’s maybe something where we’re saying, ‘But actually we know that you were,’” Dawson said.
There could also be other reasons a 48-hour timeline couldn’t be met, for example, the suspect leaves the area and has to be tracked down. Though they didn’t say staffing or resourcing was blocking their ability to respond effectively, the WPD does have finite amounts of both.
If the mandatory timeframe isn’t met, the defense could then use it against the prosecution in court and argue the case should be thrown out.
“We have to look at cases individually and what is best for that case,” Dawson said.
Even if a suspect is interviewed, they can refuse to speak at any point and request a lawyer, which happens most of time in sexual assault cases, according to Dawson. When they do speak, they often say it was consensual.
Consent is the breaking point for these cases. The need to prove consent wasn’t given divides law enforcement and prosecutors and victims; the former driven to put forth cases they think have a chance of success, and the latter thinking the decision shouldn’t be made for a jury before it gets to them.
“We’re operating in the legal realm, and we have to operate in those parameters, and they can be very cut and dry, emotionless, unempathetic parameters — those are the tools we have to work with,” Willett said.
That’s not always easy to accept though.
“Nobody comes into law enforcement wanting to see bad guys or offenders go free,” Dawson said. “Nobody wants to see a victim be victimized, have to hear their story and know that the person who did it has no repercussions. It eats at the heart of who we are, and, to be honest, it’s hurtful to hear in the media that officers don’t care.”
Port City Daily shared a summary of the WPD’s responses with Payton on Friday; she said she felt like they were deflecting from the responsibility they have to improve their work.
Going beyond one case
Both officers were cognizant of the hopelessness the information they shared could inspire in victims. For lots of reasons, sexual assault and rape can be difficult and traumatic to report; feeling the circumstances are insurmountable can make it even more so.
RAINN notes 310 out of 1,000 sexual assaults are reported.
Willett and Dawson stressed the importance of filing a report; essentially, an 8% chance of conviction is better than 0%. Technology and investigative methods are always improving and the officers said unexpected breakthroughs can happen at any point as new evidence is uncovered.
Not only can reporting improve that individual’s circumstances, it can affect the ability of the department to solve other sexual assault cases. Dawson said it’s possible for DNA evidence collected in one victim’s case to be used to solve another.
“There may be some situations where a crime occurs and that criminal is never going to commit another crime in their life,” Dawson said. “But I think, more often than not, if they’re going to sexually assault somebody today and feel that they get away with it, they may do it again tomorrow and continue on.”
On a macro level, the patterns observed in reports can inform the WPD where and how best to allocate resources, programs (like the department’s successful self-defense classes) that can be created or opportunities to engage and educate the public.
Speaking to the calls for reform, the officers said the WPD is always open to improvements, especially when it comes to technological advances that can help them solve crimes.
Willett mentioned the prevalence of Ring cameras has helped; though controversial due to privacy concerns, the WPD is now able to access Ring cameras and public video feeds (with owner permission) without having to request access each time. It’s a streamlined process that could theoretically help solve crimes easier and faster; Dawson was the one to secure the $3.7 million in funding from the Wilmington City Council earlier this year.
“We are not the same agency that we were when I started 20 plus years ago, and I hope we are not the same agency 20 years from now that we are today,” Dawson said.
As for Payton, she said she’ll be taking a step back from advocacy after Saturday’s protest, but hopes to lead a support group in the future.
“I have a lot of healing to do,” Payton said.
She’s invited members of city council and the DA’s office to attend the protest; she showed PCD the emailed response she got from District Attorney Jason Smith. He said, though he couldn’t be in attendance Saturday, he commended Payton for her advocacy and said the DA’s office shares her passion for improving outcomes for victims.
The protest will begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14, at Wilmington Police Headquarters, 615 Bess St.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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