Houston – Houston police are using trauma therapists to help clear the massive backlog of sexual assault cases deactivated by the department’s Special Victims Division. Chau Nguyen and her colleagues with The Forensic Center of Excellence will do forensic interviews for police. Nguyen tells KPRC 2 Investigates reporter Joel Eisenbaum that the system failed more than 4,000 survivors of sexual assault by essentially abandoning their cases.
“So many survivors wait and wait. They want that justice. They want the accountability that their perpetrator or abuser is accountable for his action or her actions, and to wait and to suffer like that. I think for those of us who work in this space, what we know is surviving the trauma of sexual assault is severe,” Nguyen said. “So many survivors don’t go to police because of the shame, because they’ve heard that the system doesn’t help, because of the trauma of having to relive and tell your story.”
Trauma therapists in her organization are advocates specially trained as adult forensic investigators. Nguyen says their interviewers are trauma-informed and do their best to support survivors in a caring, compassionate way. In cases of this nature, justice is far from guaranteed.
“There are survivors who have moved on. They’re working on their healing. I say this all the time. You can get healing. . . You may not get that in the criminal justice system. And that is what we’re seeing.”
Over the last 10 years, officers in the Special Victims Division coded more than 4,000 cases “SL” which means suspended for lack of officers. Police Chief Troy Finner says he ordered the department to stop using that coding back in November of 2021 and has launched an internal investigation to find out why some ignored his directive. Two high-ranking officers have been demoted and now Chief Finner says his officers are working intensively to find and talk with the sexual assault survivors whose cases were suspended.
“So can you imagine not hearing from law enforcement waiting and just not knowing and then moving forward with your life, and then all of a sudden you get a call saying, we’ve resurrected your case. Can you come in?”
During that search for survivors, police found that one had died by suicide.
“And it’s unfortunate, but I don’t know what caused the suicide,” Chief Finner said in a news conference this week apologizing to sexual assault survivors and their families. Finner said he doesn’t know if the suicide was related to the case or the way it was handled, but he’s investigating.
Nguyen says she hopes hearing or reading about what survivors go through will help people understand “that it is critical to support survivors, to believe them” and help guide them through the criminal justice process.
“I do believe in my heart of hearts that Houston police, that Chief Finner is doing all they can after learning about this. But you have to wonder, is it a little too late when you hear of a case of death by suicide?”
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