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Mary Washington's sexual assault nurse examiners are trained to gather criminal evidence and provide treatment to traumatized victims. Date published: 5/28/2006
Gail Perkins sat calmly on the witness stand, a small figure with short blond hair and glasses, dressed in a black suit and white sweater.
Perkins smiled at defense attorney Brent Jackson, who stood before her ready to begin his cross-examination. Jackson smiled back, but Perkins was not a friendly witness. Jackson knew that Perkins' testimony might convict his client. If Rodney Braxton was to be found innocent of rape, Jackson would have to explain the evidence that Perkins had found. Perkins is a nurse at Mary Washington Hospital. She is trained to treat sexual assault victims and has examined more than 100 of them. She examined the victim in the Braxton case hours after the attack happened on June 15, 2001. Among the many things Perkins did that morning was to inspect the woman's genitals. As part of the exam, she searched for bruising, redness, swelling or small cuts. She used a medical scope to examine the woman internally, and she applied Toluidine Blue dye to reveal tiny lacerations. She found no evidence of trauma. "Nothing at all?" Jackson asked her. "That's correct," Perkins replied. "So you can't tell if there was a rape?" Jackson asked. "I can't say," Perkins replied. The exchange, which took place this month in Fredericksburg Circuit Court, illustrates the work done by Perkins and a team of specially trained nurses at the hospital. The SANE nurses, or sexual assault nurse examiners, treat victims of sexual assault and document the evidence they find. Someone else--often a judge or jury--must decide whether that evidence merits a conviction. In the Braxton case, Perkins found no evidence of vaginal trauma, but she did find other injuries that corroborated the victim's story. More importantly, she found what she said was "white fluid" inside the woman. DNA tests revealed that Braxton was literally the only person in the world who could have deposited that semen there. When neither he nor his attorney could satisfactorily explain how it got there, a judge convicted him of rape. Sexual assault nurseWhen Perkins talks to community groups, she tells them, "You or someone you know has been or will be the victim of sexual assault." In 2005, at least 37 people, including two men, showed up at the emergency room at Mary Washington Hospital for treatment of sexual assault.
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