NS nurse tells the police commission that the officer seemed to blame the alleged rape victim

A nurse who collected rape evidence from a Nova Scotia woman told a police commission hearing Tuesday that an officer asked the woman inappropriate questions that appeared to criticize the victim.

Carrie Low filed a complaint against the Halifax Regional Police and Const. Bojan Novakovic a year after she reported sexual assault by at least two men in a trailer in East Preston, NS on May 18, 2018.

Jane Collins, a sexual assault examiner, told a Nova Scotia Police Review Board hearing that she felt Novakovic’s detailed questioning of Low at the hospital the next day should have been left to officers who specialize in rape cases.

Collins said the officer asked Low why she didn’t try to get out of a car she was being locked in and call for help from police, who were in a nearby parking lot.

“It put the pressure on Mrs. Low as to why she couldn’t escape,” Collins testified. “I thought [Novakovic] was victimizing her again. It was not something I had experienced before with a police officer.”

Low told the hearing that after leaving a bar in suburban Halifax, she remembered lying in a car and repeatedly asking the men inside to let her out. The hearing also heard evidence that while Low was in the car, police responded to a nearby fight.

“I felt there was some blaming and I didn’t think it was appropriate, that really bothered me,” Collins said of Novakovic’s questions.

Novakovic was paid eight hours for his handling of Low’s case. In response, Low appealed that sentence to the review board, and she has also asked the board to make recommendations to improve the Halifax Police Department’s response to sexual assault survivors. Low’s attorney has said the legal team is considering appropriate disciplinary action against Novakovic.

Later on Tuesday, Samantha Sarty, a second sexual assault nurse who treated Low on May 19, 2018, testified before the hearing. Sarty said Novakovic told her he had training to talk to trauma victims, adding that the officer seemed confident.

However, Sarty, who is also a social worker, said Novakovic’s questions left Low confused and red-faced. Sarty said she noticed Low starting to cry.

“What I noticed mentally was that he asked her a lot of ‘why’ questions, provocative questions… Questions that tried to
understand the motive behind someone’s behavior, rather than just a fact,” she said.

Sarty recalled Collins stepping in and telling Novakovic not to ask those kinds of questions.

On Monday, Low told the review board that police never went to the scene of her alleged rape, even after giving Novakovic the address. She also said her underwear and one of her shoes were never found at the East Preston crime scene.

Low also testified Monday that Novakovic gave her a bag of evidence and told her to store her clothes in it for possible DNA samples. She said the officer told her an officer would pick it up later in the day. However, the board learned that it was Novakovic who collected the clothes 10 days later, after Low complained about the delays to a police supervisor.

Sarty told Tuesday’s hearing that clothing evidence should normally be kept in a refrigerated environment and that failure to do so would risk its validity.

Board chairman Jean McKenna asked Sarty why the nurses didn’t pick up the clothes themselves, and Sarty replied that she couldn’t remember exactly why they decided not to. She added that sometimes nurses decide not to confiscate any clothes because the victim has no other clothes to wear.

Collins testified that the general procedure is for the sexual assault nurses to ask a list of questions when meeting a rape survivor, adding that they strictly avoid questioning the survivor’s answers.

“We don’t ask, ‘Why didn’t you do this?’ or “Why didn’t you?” she told McKenna.

Collins said nurses are sensitive to their questions because they know the victim will be interviewed again by police trained in assault cases, and because victims are often exhausted after a physical examination — in Low’s case, her exam and interview with nurses longer. than four hours.

Collins told the hearing that she had apologized to Novakovic for getting angry and interrupting his interview at the hospital; however, she said she stuck to her criticism of his questions.

The session continues on Thursday.