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Kaine proposals target assaults

January 3, 2008 12:35 am

RICHMOND--Gov. Tim Kaine says the state has made strides in keeping violent sexual offenders behind bars, but it's time to focus on the victims of such crimes.

To do that, Kaine yesterday announced proposals for the upcoming legislative session, several of which aim to make less traumatic the experience victims of sexual violence have with the police.

"Many times people suffer in silence, and that's one of the reasons we're trying to address this issue," Kaine said in a news conference.

He was flanked by members of his Commission on Sexual Violence, which recommended several of Kaine's proposals.

One would eliminate a requirement in some localities that victims pay for the "physical evidence recovery kits" used to collect physical evidence of a sexual crime if they do not agree within 48 hours to prosecute that crime.

Each kit can cost up to $800 and is paid for by the state if the victim prosecutes, but if a victim refuses to prosecute he or she can be charged for the kit.

Whether to prosecute an attacker is "the last thing that somebody in the immediate aftermath of a sexual assault needs to worry about," Kaine said.

Another proposal would bar police from administering polygraph tests to victims of sexual assault.

Kaine said a 2004 survey showed that 72 percent of law enforcement agencies sometimes make sexual assault victims take lie detector tests, while only about 15 percent of such agencies said they never ask the victim to take a polygraph.

Such tests on victims, he said, suggests that their stories of assault are met with skepticism that "compounds the injuries and trauma that they suffered."

Some police agencies, such as the Fredericksburg Police Department, have special units assigned to handle sexual and domestic assault.

Natatia Bledsoe, spokeswoman for the city police said that department has a policy "that precludes victims of sexual assault from having to submit to a lie detector test."

The federal Violence Against Women Act, passed in 2005, requires that states stop using the polygraph on sexual assault victims and charging them for evidence kits by 2009, or risk losing federal funds.

Other proposals from Kaine include eliminating the "marriage as subsequent defense" statute. Under that statute, someone who commits "carnal knowledge" of a 14- to 16-year-old, and later marries the victim, can use the marriage as a defense.

Kaine wants to repeal that because, he said, it is an "antiquated concept that really doesn't have any place in our concept of sexual violence.

"The notion that something is an excuse for sexual assaultis a really outrageous notion," he added. Kaine compared his proposal to the now-repealed marital rape law, which had prevented spouses from being prosecuted for sexually assaulting their wives or husbands.

Kaine is also proposing having court clerks enter into police databanks any protective orders, rather than having the clerks report the protective order to police and police entering it into the databank. That's the current system, and it results in a delay of several days before a protective order is in the police system.

In Fredericksburg, Bledsoe said, policy requires protective orders to be entered into the state and national database as soon as they are received from the court or magistrate.

Kaine's two-year budget includes an additional $900,000 for the state's sexual assault crisis centers--the only victim assistance programs that provide 24-hour services to sexual violence victims--and $576,000 over two years for the Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances Project.

That project operates in seven localities and works to prevent domestic violence.

Kristine Hall, with the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, said Kaine's proposals are a good response to barriers within the system that can hinder victims' ability to get help.

Over the next few days Kaine will unveil other issues he'll push during the two-month legislative session, which begins next Wednesday. Those issues include working to pass a ban on smoking in restaurants, which failed in the legislature last year.

Kaine said he thinks a ban has a better chance of passing this year, because he took into account some lawmakers' concerns about technical aspects of the legislation. He said that while some localities are already passing their own bans on smoking, "the best practice is a statewide practice" because it affects all localities equally.

Kaine will also support some consumer protection legislation to be announced today, and a closing of the "gun show loophole" that allows people to buy guns from sellers who aren't gun dealers without having to undergo background checks.