Woman could have faced language barrier in reporting rape incident

CLAYTON -- By Rebecca Putterman

Law enforcement suffered a slew of miscommunications after a local woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped Jan. 30.

The victim, a woman in her mid-30s, told Clayton Police on Feb. 8 she had been raped by someone she knows on a roadway around N.C. 42 and Amelia Church Road.

Although the victim reported the incident to a sexual assault agency on Feb. 6, she went to the Clayton Police Department to follow up on Feb. 8 after alleged difficulty in obtaining a translator, as well as confusion over whether the rape occurred in Johnston County or in Clayton.

On Feb. 7, Officer R. Moyer was contacted by Harbor Inc., a sexual assault-advocacy agency in Smithfield, and was asked about information related to the address of a victim who had reported a sexual assault that occurred in Clayton.

According to the report, Moyer was told by a Harbor representative that a translator was going to contact the victim to gather more information. At that point, someone from Harbor would then contact the police department for further investigation.

Based on discussions with Harbor regarding the victim’s address and the possibility that the rape occurred in that area, Moyer told Harbor that that location was in the jurisdiction of the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office, and advised Harbor to contact them.

In the narrative given by reporting Officer R. Moyer, Moyer writes, “On Feb. 6 (the victim) contacted a Rape Crisis Center and on Feb. 7 she was contacted by Johnston County Harbor. She reports that she was told that law enforcement would be made aware of the incident and would contact her to investigate. (The woman) reports that no one from law enforcement contacted her, so she came directly to the police department today (Feb. 8) to have the incident investigated.”

The report goes on to state that Moyer contacted Harbor to inquire about the investigation. Moyer reports that Harbor told him they had contacted the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office and that Harbor was told that “because of a delay in reporting the incident and because there were no Spanish-speaking deputies available, that the victim should call back the next day when someone may be in the office that can assist in translation.”

The sheriffs’ office spokeswoman, Tammy Amaon, denied that a victim or agency calling to report a crime would be told to call back the next day because there were no interpreters.

“We have two Spanish speakers on staff – they’re paid extra to (be on call). They’re available all the time, we can page them,” Amaon said.

Amaon also confirmed that to her knowledge, there’s no one new on staff who wouldn’t have been aware of that procedure when the victim called to report the incident.

Harbor also makes efforts to have Spanish-language interpreters present whenever a Spanish-speaking victim needs assistance.

Harbor officials would neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of the police report. “Nothing in the language barrier has hampered us to do this case,” said Clayton police Chief Glen Allen.

“I’m not sure what the original reporting officer heard . . . (We’re) not sure there was any delay in reporting it based on the sheriff department’s action,” Allen said, adding that the officer who took the original report is not the same officer who is investigating it with follow-up interviews.

The Clayton police also have on-duty interpreters, as well as officers who speak Spanish fluently.

“We have resources to call, interpreters who volunteer with the court system to do interpreting services, as well as employees that speak Spanish,” Allen said.

Delay in reporting

Allen said that the only impediment to investigating the rape would be the amount of time that passed between the alleged rape and when the victim chose to report it.

“I’ve talked to the investigator and what we’re dealing with here, obviously this is something reported to us belatedly . . . nine days between the time of the incident and the time of the report,” Allen said.

Allen confirmed that the alleged rape occurred between individuals who knew one another. If the victim did have a rape kit done – in which a hospital gathers physical evidence of a sexual assault – then there might be some hope of prosecution, Allen said.

“There is no hard-and-fast line. It can depend entirely on the broad set of circumstances. The sooner (a rape kit) is done, the better,” he said.

In many instances of sexual assault, victims are threatened by their attackers not to report the incident to law enforcement, let alone visit a hospital for treatment or a rape kit.

Both Harbor and the Clayton Police advise that victims should report all sexual assault incidents.

“Contact law enforcement immediately, even if she’s been threatened not to,” Allen said. “If you’re going to report it, it needs to be done properly and it should be reported.”