PINEVILLE, N.C. — Most times after a sexual assault, the first place that a victim goes to is the hospital, meaning that medical professionals are often the first to provide care and support through their hardest times.
Taneika Torres in Pineville is there for people on their worst days; as a sexual assault nurse examiner at Atrium Health, she opens at least one sexual assault kit a day.
Torres told Channel 9′s Gina Esposito that she’s completed over a thousand of those kits since she started. But it’s the work with the victims that Torres has been passionate about for over a decade.
“I love that I get to just really take my time with them and sit down and just let them know it doesn’t matter what happened, what you were doing, this was not your fault,” Torres said.
Mecklenburg County averages about 300 sexual assault cases per year, and around 300 strangulation cases. Once a SANE nurse completes a kit, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says a detective has 45 days to submit it to a county lab.
Right now, CMPD says more than 300 sex assault kits are awaiting testing. Mecklenburg County does have its own lab, making it unique in North Carolina. The state handles the other 99 counties, and its backlog is over 16,000 kits. Victims can track their sexual assault kits through this website at the Department of Justice.
Torres told Esposito that some victims wait months to get test results and wait years to go to trial. She says it can be challenging for victims to get justice, especially if they’re younger when the assault happened.
“Let’s say they’re like 10, 11, 12 and then it’s three or four years later and they’re now 17,18; it’s hard for juries to see them as a small 11 or 12-year-old,” Torrest said.
Torres says it’s a compounding problem for many areas in the state.
“I would say the biggest thing would be getting nurses in every single hospital, because there are so many parts of the state that don’t have SANE nurses at all,” Torres said.
Torres, who won Atrium Health’s Pinnacle award in 2022 for her work as a SANE nurse, is also part of the sexual assault response team, which launched the non-fatal strangulation protocol in 2019. She says SANE nurses can now identify the signs of someone who has been strangled, which in many cases can lead to deadly outcomes.
“I’ve had two patients that I’ve done exams on and have ended up being murdered by their significant other,” she said.
This week, Torres is testifying in a strangulation case, and she said she hopes to see more cases go to trial.
“I think we are definitely saving lives and I do think that we are making a difference,” Torres said. “I do think that we will continue to see increases of trials and us being used as expert witnesses in strangulation cases.”
If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, it’s recommended that you get tested by a SANE nurse within five days of the incident. You can also contact Safe Alliance for help; the 24/7 hotline is 980-771-4673.
(WATCH: StarMed launches DNA lab to help solve sexual assault cases)
©2023 Cox Media Group
