DA named woman who reported assault
During his news conference to explain why he was not charging police officers in the shooting of Jacob Blake, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley identified the victim of an alleged sexual assault — an unusual step that worries victim advocates.
Keeping victims’ identification confidential is considered vital in both protecting them from further harm and prosecuting those responsible.
In his news conference, Graveley mentioned the woman’s name repeatedly. A PowerPoint presentation that accompanied his remarks also included her name and other personal information.
Graveley said he decided to reveal the name in an effort to locate the woman, who has avoided contact with law enforcement after witnessing Blake’s shooting on Aug. 23. Graveley refused to provide specifics, but said officers have been trying to determine why she stopped cooperating with the investigation.
Meanwhile, in documents released by the Wisconsin Department of Justice covering its investigation into the shooting, the issue is handled in an inconsistent way. At times, the woman’s identity is revealed and other times redacted.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel typically does not name the victims of sexual assaults without their permission and has not identified the woman in this case.
Diana Newton, executive director of Women and Children’s Horizons, a domestic violence shelter and intervention service in Kenosha, said she spoke to Graveley about his decision and has mixed feelings about it.
She said her organization always wants the privacy of victims to be upheld, but she acknowledged that the extraordinary national interest in Blake’s shooting put immense pressure on law enforcement to be transparent.
“He probably could have left it out, but I’m not sure if that would’ve been as effective,” Newton said. “I think that what he was trying to do ... is to present the facts to people and let them decide what to do with them.”
She added: “I think that probably is his strongest argument in my mind for revealing the name. Even after a twohour press conference, people are still getting the facts wrong.”
Still, Newton said she didn’t fully agree with Graveley’s decision, but she felt reassured after her conversation that he had put thought into it.
“This case has presented so many challenges to our community,” she said.
Carmen Pitre, president and CEO of the Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee, declined to comment specifically on Graveley’s decision, but said that when a victim of a sexual assault is identified, it makes her fearful other survivors will not come forward.
The center, which serves nearly 12,000 clients a year, provides a shelter and support for victims navigating the justice system, among other services.
“We think it’s critical,” Pitre said. “Many victims have said in the past they don’t want to be exposed and that being exposed is hurtful and harmful. What it does is put your personal life in the public arena.
“Victims need to know we will protect their identities and that we will not put their experiences out their in a way that exposes them.”
Law enforcement trying to verify why victim stopped cooperating
The victim, who was Blake’s partner at the time, accused Blake of invading her Kenosha home and sexually assaulting her in May 2020. Blake was charged with third-degree sexual assault, a felony, but the charge was dismissed after Blake pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct in November.
He was sentenced to two years of probation.
The original case factors into the lead-up to the shooting of Blake in August, because the responding officers knew there was a warrant at the time for his arrest relating to the domestic violence and sexual assault accusations, Graveley said.
The same woman placed the 911 call that brought officers to the 2800 block of 40th Street that day, telling dispatchers Blake was trying to drive off with her rental car.
Graveley said the woman briefly spoke with investigators on the day of the shooting, but has avoided them since.
Around Thanksgiving, Graveley was nearing a decision on the shooting case, but state investigators received a tip about why the victim was not available. At the news conference, Graveley said that delayed his charging announcement, as investigators tried to track her down and verify the tip.
Graveley declined to describe the nature of the tip, other than to say it did not indicate the victim was unsafe. He said investigators have been trying to determine why she has not cooperated since the initial interview.
“I hoped that putting her name out there might allow for an ability to finish up the investigation about why she was unavailable,” Graveley said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel.
He also said he wanted “to let the members of the public know that she was a human being who needed to be valued as well.”
Advocate: Victims shouldn’t be forced to participate in justice system
The criminal complaint for the sexual assault notes at several points that the victim felt humiliated by the incident and declined to be examined by a nurse because “she’d been through enough.”
When asked if he worried that disclosure of the name could be destructive, Graveley said, “I’m not in this particular circumstance for the reasons I described.”
Ian Henderson, director of legal services for the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said it seemed as if Graveley could have explained his charging decisions about Blake’s shooting without naming the woman.
In many cases, for instance, a pseudonym such as Jane Doe is used.
Generally speaking, Henderson said, if someone is unable to get permission from the victim, their name should not be released. He also said that victims should not be forced into participating with the criminal justice system.
“They might have extremely valid reasons why they didn’t want to participate,” he said.