Sex crimes units expanding throughout Vt.
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By WILSON RING THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Published: July 8, 2009
MONTPELIER — A plan to have special sex-crime investigative units covering the entire state by July 1 is behind schedule, but the program is continuing and officials are working to achieve the goal.
Vermont State Police continues to assign detectives to work full time on the units as the people become available.
"We are in full gear and we're doing what we can," said Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Ingrid Jonas, the special investigative unit coordinator. "I am a realist. It's a work in progress."
Officials say State Police detectives are being assigned and units set up across the state. Most of Vermont's counties are now covered or about to be, but Windham, Addison and Caledonia counties are just getting started.
Even though the process might be behind schedule, Jane Woodruff, the executive director of the Department of State's Attorneys and Vermont Sheriffs' Departments, said the special investigators and their expertise can be made available anywhere in the state.
Any Vermonters "can with no doubt get the services, but not the optimum services. That's why we want to move forward especially in (fiscal year) '10," Woodruff said.
Three years ago, the Legislature set a July 1 target date to have the entire state covered by the special investigation units modeled after successful units in Chittenden County and the single unit that covers Franklin and Grand Isle counties.
They use specially trained detectives from state and local police agencies who work with social workers, psychotherapists, doctors and others to investigate sexual assaults and child abuse. The established units have special kid-friendly locations where children can feel safe while being asked to describe what can be horrible details of sexual abuse they have suffered.
"The fundamental basis for special investigative units is we work as a team," said Jonas. "We benefit from everyone's involvement."
Woodruff said her office began pushing the Legislature to expand the units in 2005. But the Legislature focused on the issue in 2006 after a man convicted of molesting a young girl was initially given a 60-day jail sentence because he couldn't receive sex offender treatment in jail. After a public outcry, the rules were changed so he could be treated in prison and he was given a three-year sentence.
Funding for the special units got a boost after last year's death of Brooke Bennett, a 12-year-old Braintree girl allegedly raped and killed by her uncle.
Both Jonas and Woodruff said one challenge to setting up the units is finding investigators who can commit themselves to the job.
"These are some of the most difficult cases to investigate. It's horrible, horrible, horrible stuff," said Woodruff, who prosecuted sex crimes while Orleans County state's attorney.
State Police Detective Trooper Tyler Burgess, assigned to the Bennington County Special Victim's Unit, on April 1, investigated sex crimes before, but the cases would frequently be passed between investigators. Now one investigator will follow the case from beginning to end.
"That was never heard of before," Burgess said.
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