A 2019 state law allows survivors of the most severe crimes to bring their evidence to the office of the state's top law enforcer for a fresh look. Four years later, Utah is still the only state with this process. How well is it working?
SALT LAKE CITY — It was Utah's answer to an extraordinary request from four women who wanted new eyes on their allegations of sexual assault.
The KSL Investigators spoke with several women who took their cases to the Utah Attorney General's Office.Almost three years ago, Box Elder County prosecutors told Rylee Ray, then 17, that they would not file criminal charges in the rape she'd reported to law enforcement. Bell was one of four women who'd petitioned Utah's Supreme Court to assign a special prosecutor to look over their separate cases after the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office declined to file criminal charges. The Utah Legislature stepped in to create the new path before the court ruled.
"Unfortunately, due to some difficult evidentiary issues which could not be overcome, there was not a reasonable likelihood of proving the case against Mr. Brailsford beyond a reasonable doubt," Hadfield wrote. "We were just able to take it and move forward with it in a different way with additional resources, and bring a successful prosecution that, I think, brought some justice," he said.The office declined to prosecute Bell's case, but she told the KSL Investigators it was the process, not the outcome, she found damaging.
That interview was not recorded, but Barlow and three other employees of the attorney general's office who were in the room that day later drafted written statements about what happened. Most of these records were dated between four and six months after the meeting. Bell said the experience that day was more harmful to her mental health than the assault she originally reported to police.She left the interview and took an Uber car to the airport to fly back to college in California, she recalled.
"We have investigated familicide and homicide cases where assessments have not rated as high," the chief wrote. "There's consequences for not having a system that is hospitable or even remotely sensitive to victims," Tibbitts said. "They bungled this."Trauma-informed prosecutions Powers didn't want to comment on specific cases but said, in general, if someone wants to have a victim advocate present, investigators and prosecutors should accommodate that request.
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