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They are often the crimes that shake up entire communities the most: those involving physical or sexual violence against children. And no community seems immune to the problem.
“We tend to forget that we see these cases in Sulphur. Not to the extent of volume as across the river, but we do have them,” said Sulphur Police Det. Lane Matte at a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Sulphur.
According to Matte, the Sulphur Police Department worked seven physical child abuse cases in 2011. The detective spoke of a memorable case involving a 3 year-old and an 18-month-old. Both were brutally beaten by their mother’s boyfriend.
“Both children were bruised from head to toe,” he said. “Both were bleeding from the ears. The 18 month-old had a ruptured eardrum. Both children were hospitalized for three days.”
Matte keeps a framed photo of the younger child on a bookcase in his office as a reminder of what his job is all about.
“I have that in my office as a daily reminder that we have victims that can’t defend themselves and some of them can’t speak for themselves,” he said.
“These cases affect me deeply and I have that photograph to remind me so that I don’t become too desensitized to that type of case. These children need someone to help them.”
In regard to sexual child abuse cases, the number is much greater. In 2011, the SPD worked 14 of these cases.
“These cases are very involved. They are very time-consuming, very taxing on the investigator and very difficult to prosecute,” said Matte.
“Unlike adult sex crimes, sex crimes against children more often than not have virtually no evidence to go to trial with. Children typically cannot disclose for a long time,” added Matte. “By the time a child typically discloses, evidence, or time to obtain DNA evidence, is gone.”
A valuable piece of evidence in prosecuting this type of case is a recorded interview with the victim, whereby the child details the sexual abuse. For cases in this area, that recording is done with a certified forensic child interviewer at the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) in Lake Charles. A telling indication that the number of sexual child abuse cases is high in this area is the fact that it can take up to two weeks to get an appointment with the CAC.
“They have three trained certified interviewers,” said Matte of the Center. “They do two [interviews] in the morning and two in the afternoon, and they stay late and do some after hours. They do that many everyday.”
“They have two different interview rooms. One is designed for younger children with more stuffed animals and toys and the other is designed for the older kids that they call the teenage room. The Center is designed to be child-friendly.”
The child and interviewer are the only ones in the room. Detectives watch the interview on closed-circuit television and can speak to the interviewer directly without the child hearing the questions. The interview is recorded and used as evidence.
The recording, however, does not entirely exclude the child from having to testify. Matte states that in those cases, the victim is usually put in a separate room from the perpetrator and testifies via closed-circuit TV.
But there are times that the child does not want to talk once they arrive at the CAC. Talking in detail about a sexual encounter is difficult for most adults and can be moreso for a young child.
“In a room full of adults, no one would be comfortable doing that but somehow we as a justice system expect a six year-old girl to walk into a room with a complete stranger and do exactly that. It’s very difficult and stressful on the children,” said Matte.
“However, without that interview on tape, that case is dead in the water.”
Those cases that move on can take quite a bit of time to prosecute. According to Matte, cases involving young children are usually treated as aggravated rape, carrying a mandatory life sentence and prolonging prosecution time. In his three years of working sexual crimes, Matte states that most of his cases are still unresolved or awaiting trial.
The detective has seen quite a bit of emotionally wrenching cases in his years of police service. And as a veteran police officer and the father of an 18 month-old baby girl, he knows that there needs to be a shift in the culture to better arm and educate children within the community.
“We need to think about what we are teaching our children and put ourselves on their level,” he said.
Part of that process would include teaching a young child the proper names for all of his or her body parts and to not think of any part of their body in negative terms.
“I believe that we are not educating our children at a young enough age on how to protect their bodies and on what to do if something should happen to them,” Matte concluded.
They are often the crimes that shake up entire communities the most: those involving physical or sexual violence against children. And no community seems immune to the problem.
“We tend to forget that we see these cases in Sulphur. Not to the extent of volume as across the river, but we do have them,” said Sulphur Police Det. Lane Matte at a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Sulphur.
According to Matte, the Sulphur Police Department worked seven physical child abuse cases in 2011. The detective spoke of a memorable case involving a 3 year-old and an 18-month-old. Both were brutally beaten by their mother’s boyfriend.
“Both children were bruised from head to toe,” he said. “Both were bleeding from the ears. The 18 month-old had a ruptured eardrum. Both children were hospitalized for three days.”
Matte keeps a framed photo of the younger child on a bookcase in his office as a reminder of what his job is all about.
“I have that in my office as a daily reminder that we have victims that can’t defend themselves and some of them can’t speak for themselves,” he said.
“These cases affect me deeply and I have that photograph to remind me so that I don’t become too desensitized to that type of case. These children need someone to help them.”
In regard to sexual child abuse cases, the number is much greater. In 2011, the SPD worked 14 of these cases.
“These cases are very involved. They are very time-consuming, very taxing on the investigator and very difficult to prosecute,” said Matte.
“Unlike adult sex crimes, sex crimes against children more often than not have virtually no evidence to go to trial with. Children typically cannot disclose for a long time,” added Matte. “By the time a child typically discloses, evidence, or time to obtain DNA evidence, is gone.”
A valuable piece of evidence in prosecuting this type of case is a recorded interview with the victim, whereby the child details the sexual abuse. For cases in this area, that recording is done with a certified forensic child interviewer at the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) in Lake Charles. A telling indication that the number of sexual child abuse cases is high in this area is the fact that it can take up to two weeks to get an appointment with the CAC.
“They have three trained certified interviewers,” said Matte of the Center. “They do two [interviews] in the morning and two in the afternoon, and they stay late and do some after hours. They do that many everyday.”
“They have two different interview rooms. One is designed for younger children with more stuffed animals and toys and the other is designed for the older kids that they call the teenage room. The Center is designed to be child-friendly.”
The child and interviewer are the only ones in the room. Detectives watch the interview on closed-circuit television and can speak to the interviewer directly without the child hearing the questions. The interview is recorded and used as evidence.
The recording, however, does not entirely exclude the child from having to testify. Matte states that in those cases, the victim is usually put in a separate room from the perpetrator and testifies via closed-circuit TV.
But there are times that the child does not want to talk once they arrive at the CAC. Talking in detail about a sexual encounter is difficult for most adults and can be moreso for a young child.
“In a room full of adults, no one would be comfortable doing that but somehow we as a justice system expect a six year-old girl to walk into a room with a complete stranger and do exactly that. It’s very difficult and stressful on the children,” said Matte.
“However, without that interview on tape, that case is dead in the water.”
Those cases that move on can take quite a bit of time to prosecute. According to Matte, cases involving young children are usually treated as aggravated rape, carrying a mandatory life sentence and prolonging prosecution time. In his three years of working sexual crimes, Matte states that most of his cases are still unresolved or awaiting trial.
The detective has seen quite a bit of emotionally wrenching cases in his years of police service. And as a veteran police officer and the father of an 18 month-old baby girl, he knows that there needs to be a shift in the culture to better arm and educate children within the community.
“We need to think about what we are teaching our children and put ourselves on their level,” he said.
Part of that process would include teaching a young child the proper names for all of his or her body parts and to not think of any part of their body in negative terms.
“I believe that we are not educating our children at a young enough age on how to protect their bodies and on what to do if something should happen to them,” Matte concluded.
