For victims of sexual assault, it takes a lot of courage to step forward and pursue justice. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for roadblocks to pop up, making it difficult for victims to get the justice they deserve. For example, recently a “sexual assault case was not prosecuted because either the Bend Police Department or St. Charles Bend lost key evidence that would have proved a woman was drugged before she was assaulted.” As a result, a lawsuit was filed on the woman’s behalf in Deschutes County Circuit Court.
For victims of sexual assault, it takes a lot of courage to step forward and pursue justice. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for roadblocks to pop up, making it difficult for victims to get the justice they deserve. For example, recently a “sexual assault case was not prosecuted because either the Bend Police Department or St. Charles Bend lost key evidence that would have proved a woman was drugged before she was assaulted.” As a result, a lawsuit was filed on the woman’s behalf in Deschutes County Circuit Court.
At the moment the woman is “seeking economic damages of slightly more than $1 million and noneconomic damages of $666,700” because, according to the lawsuit, “prosecutors could not charge the woman’s alleged assailant because of negligent actions by the police department and hospital staff that prevented blood and urine samples from being tested at a state crime lab.”
Unfortunately, issues like this aren’t uncommon. According to the attorney who filed the lawsuit, Todd Grover, “he has seen a number of similar accounts of negligence nationwide.”
So what happened, exactly? Well, it all started back on October 30, 2015, when the woman attended a Halloween party, “along with her husband and a group of friends.” While at the party, the lawsuit claims someone slipped an “unidentified date rape drug into her drink.” Shortly afterward, the plaintiff became “separated from her husband and friends around 1:30 a.m., and between 1:30 and 2 a.m. she was sexually assaulted by a man who had been hired to assist with security at the event,” according to the lawsuit.
Shortly after the woman reported the alleged sexual assault to the Bend Police on November 1, 2015, the alleged attacker was questioned. During questioning, he “told police that he had sex with the plaintiff, but it was consensual and she did not seem overly intoxicated.” In addition to questioning the alleged attacker, the police also advised the woman to “go to St. Charles Bend for a sexual assault examination.”
According to the lawsuit, during the examination “multiple blood and urine samples were taken” from the plaintiff, and St. Charles employees told her some of the samples “would be tested by the medical center to help with her care and others would be used by police as evidence in the sexual assault investigation.” Though the police department denies it, the lawsuit claims Kevin Uballez, a Bend police officer, “picked up some of the samples” the night of the plaintiff’s examination.
Long story short, the samples never arrived at the crime laboratory for testing, meaning criminal charges weren’t filed against the alleged attacker because there was no way to prove the plaintiff “was incapacitated and therefore unable to consent.”
In addition to the plaintiff’s most recent lawsuit seeking $1 million in economic damages and $666,700 in noneconomic damages, she also “filed a separate $6 million complaint against her alleged assailant, Midtown Ballroom and Bend Radio Group” back in August.
Wondering how the Bend Police Department responded to the allegations and claims detailed in the lawsuit? Well, at the moment questions have been deferred “to the city attorney’s office,” which itself came out and said the “case will be handled by the city’s insurance company.”
Sources:
Lawsuit: No charges in sex assault case because police lost evidence
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