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LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- A task force has begun work on developing a protocol for determining when volunteer sexual-abuse response nurses will be allowed to examine and treat possible rape victims.
The Cache Valley Sexual Abuse Response Team Task Force was organized by Cache County Attorney George Daines after five specially trained nurses resigned from the program after they were required to get law enforcement officers' permission to perform the exams.
At its first meeting on Friday, the task force decided it will hear presentations from law enforcement, the SART nurses, representatives from the Community Abuse Prevention Services Agency and the county prosecutor's office,
The committee members were asked to gather information about protocols used in other communities.
Dianne Crockett, a SART nurse with more than 20 years of experience and a member of the committee, agreed to handle any cases that she could until a new protocol is accepted.
In any cases where Crockett is not available, there will be at least three other nurses in Cache, Box Elder or Weber counties that can be called to perform exams.
Earlier this month, Daines said that each time an exam is administered, the state reimburses the agency that performed it $600.
Since Jan. 1, 2005, about 27 Code-R exams had been administered in Cache County, but only four of the cases resulted in a conviction or are under investigation or pending in court.
Daines said it makes sense to bring a law enforcement detective in from the start to determine whether the exam would be fruitful and whether there's any chance that the victim would want to prosecute.
Daines said he didn't want to get into a situation where women were claiming they were victims of rape just so they could get the free services. He said he did not believe that was prevalent in Cache County.
One of the resigned SART nurses, Beth Booton said at the time that when the SART nurse program started about 10 years ago, the idea was that "if you think you've been raped, come in and we will help you."
Under the program, possible victims were offered free services of health care, morning-after pills, sexually transmitted disease treatments and pregnancy tests.
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Information from: The Herald Journal, http://www.hjnews.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
