WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
LOCAL
Shining a light on sexual abuse
Lead prosecutor notes
increase in reported
cases
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Years into her job as a sex
crimes prosecutor, Jaclyn Jenkins
is still not always sure what the
right answer is.
Umatilla County’s lead deputy
district attorney has worked with
hundreds of victims and their fam-
ilies, but contends there is no for-
mula for dealing with cases.
Sitting in her office, Jenkins
looked at the notes and drawings
from victims she’s worked with
over the years that hang on her
wall.
“Each of those cases, I can tell
you about my victims,” she said.
“It can’t just be a case. You are ask-
ing them to do so much.”
Jenkins, who has worked for the
Umatilla County DA’s office since
2009, has handled sex crimes cases
since 2014.
She said in the past few years she
has seen an increase in the number
of cases the office has prosecuted.
“I feel like when I started, my
caseload was a lot more mixed
with violent crime of a non-sexual
nature,” she said.
She said she suspects part of the
reason for the increase is more peo-
ple are coming forward.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Umatilla County lead deputy district attorney Jaclyn Jenkins listens to a
defense attorney during a pretrial hearing for Charley Lazano last week at
the Umatilla County Courthouse in Pendleton.
“Which is excellent,” she said.
“We are talking about it now, it’s
not something to hide.”
Since November 2016, she has
prosecuted 106 sex crime cases,
but that number does not include
sexual harassment. The majority of
victims she works with, she said,
are under 16 years old.
In the crime statistics that Herm-
iston Police Chief Jason Edmis-
ton presented to the city earlier
this month, he noted that the num-
ber of reported rapes in the city had
increased, and was up to six for
2018, through the third quarter.
Edmiston said that number
doesn’t include other types of sex-
ual assault or abuse.
The victim and perpetrator
almost always know each other
somehow, he said.
“Generally, defendants in my
cases are: boyfriend, dad, grandpa,
uncle, babysitter,” Jenkins said.
Chasing history
Jenkins said while she may hear
a victim’s case, it’s not always via-
ble for prosecution — and she
doesn’t always want to put a victim
through a trial.
“The hardest thing to say is, ‘I
absolutely believe you, but I can’t
prosecute your case because there’s
not enough evidence,’” she said. “I
don’t think it’s right to prosecute a
case if there’s not a chance it’ll get
resolved. They’ll get torn apart by a
defense attorney who’s doing their
job.”
Still, she said, she reminds vic-
tims that the outcome of the case
doesn’t erase what happened to
them.
“Let’s say we charge it, and (the
defendant) gets 200 years, which
has happened,” she said. “That
doesn’t make it OK. That’s what
I tell my victims when we start —
there is no amount of time that will
make you feel vindicated.”
She said she leaves the door
open in case they want to pursue
it later, but won’t push a victim
if they’re not comfortable going
forward.
“This system is not made for
victims,” she said. “This is a system
designed to protect defendants.”
Edmiston said it can be an uphill
battle even if a victim does want to
proceed.
“The worst thing that can hap-
pen is, somebody makes the deci-
sion to report, and the system lets
them down,” he said.
Hermiston Police Department
Lt. Randy Studebaker, who over-
sees investigations, said most of
the incidents they pursue aren’t
reported immediately.
“They usually report days,
weeks, months, years later,” he
said.
He recalled a case from a few
years ago. A girl had been sexu-
ally abused in Hermiston when
she was 9 or 10, and then moved
away. Twenty years passed. Then,
her abuser, who had also left town,
was arrested in Texas for a crime
against another child. At that time,
he made reference to an incident in
Hermiston.
“We did a ton of work and
matched him with the victim,”
Studebaker said. “We were within
days of the statute of limitations
running out, but we found her. She
still hadn’t told anybody.”
The only common thread with
these crimes, he said, is that peo-
ple don’t report them, or delay
reporting.
“We’re chasing history with a
lot of these,” he said.
SAFE Kits
One of the tools in prosecut-
ing rape cases is a SAFE, or Sex-
ual Assault Forensic Evidence, kit.
Oregon State Police announced
a few weeks ago that they had
recently completed processing a
two-year backlog of SAFE kits.
Evidence collected from the exam
can help determine whether the
DNA of a rape or sexual assault
suspect is present.
Geoffrey Bock, an analyst with
the state forensic lab, told the
Hermiston Herald that between
November 2016 and November
2018, the OSP Forensic Services
division had received 67 SAFE kits
from Umatilla County law enforce-
ment agencies.
Jenkins said the kits are only
sometimes useful.
“So often, it comes down to
what a SAFE kit can’t prove,” she
said. “If there was force, if there
was a lack of consent.”
Stanfield students raise more than $1,000 for local food bank
Penny drive pays
off for people in
need this season
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
The students of Stanfield
Elementary School have
been working to make sure
no one in their town goes
hungry.
Over the past month, stu-
dents have raised more than
a thousand dollars through
a penny harvest, and will
donate the money to the
Stanfield Food Basket during
an assembly on Thursday.
The entire school partici-
pated and raised $1,219.16,
surpassing their goal of
$1,000.
The idea came from one
second-grade student.
While doing a reading
assignment in class, Phoenix
Davis came across a story
about a school in New York
that found a way to raise
money.
“There was this thing
called ‘why pennies are
powerful,’” said Davis, 8.
He asked his teacher, Kim
Harwood, if Stanfield Ele-
mentary could do the same
thing. The rest of the staff
agreed, and the effort turned
into a competition between
the classes to see who could
raise the most money.
Harwood said the teach-
ers made the decision to
donate the money to the
Stanfield Food Basket.
“The individual teach-
ers talked about the reasons
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Stanfield second-grader Phoenix Davis, bottom center, stands with his classmates and a bin full of money collected in a
penny harvest Tuesday at Stanfield Elementary School. It was Davis’ idea to start the penny harvest that netted a total of
$1,219.16 for the Stanfield Food Basket.
we’re doing a penny drive,
and helping others. Espe-
cially this time of year, peo-
ple are in need,” she said.
Though the students were
excited by the competition
aspect — with the high-
est-earning class getting a
pizza party — Harwood said
they also talked about the
impact the donations would
have locally.
“They were listing people
that needed food,” she said.
“The fact that it was some-
where close, it hit close to
home.”
Some of Harwood’s sec-
ond-graders said they asked
their parents to help out,
while others donated money
of their own.
“My parents have a jar
filled with money, and I
asked them for some of
that,” said Avah Viesca.
Sophie McFetridge said
she found $2 in her back-
pack, which she donated to
the penny drive.
“I grabbed some of my
money, but made sure I
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didn’t get rid of all of my
money,” Davis said.
Though he said he hoped
his class would win, he was
more happy to be doing
something nice for others.
Davis’ mom, Kalie, said
her son always takes the
initiative to raise his own
money.
“Phoenix does extra
chores to earn money for
when we go on vacation or
when he really wants a new
toy or game,” she said.
But he saved that money
once he came up with the
idea for a penny drive.
“The first week of the
penny harvest he came home
and dumped all of his allow-
ance money into a bag so he
could donate it,” she said.
“He has a heart for helping
people.”
Toni Eddy, the board chair
of the Stanfield Food Basket,
said she and other food bank
members were moved by the
students’ efforts.
“It had everyone in tears,”
she said.
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Eddy said the food bank
serves between 120 and 150
families per month. It is
open the last two Mondays
of each month from noon
to 4 p.m. During Novem-
ber and December, it is open
every Monday.
She said families can
take whatever they need, but
they give out food based on
the size of the family. They
stock fresh, frozen, dried
and canned food, and try
to provide enough food for
families to make five or six
meals between each visit to
the food bank, to supplement
food they can buy with their
own income or from other
programs.
She said Safeway donates
fresh produce and groups
will contribute, as well.
“Most of our donations
come in the form of food,”
she said. “We have a couple
of sources that contribute on
a regular basis.”
They also apply for
grants, and get donations
from CAPECO and the Ore-
gon Food Bank. Donations
from schools and commu-
nity members also help.
“We use the monetary
donations to fill in the gaps,”
she said. “So if we’re get-
ting a lot of grain products,
we may need to buy more
canned food,” Eddy said
They also use it for spe-
cial occasions.
This year, they gave away
whole roasted chickens for
Thanksgiving.
The Stanfield Food Bas-
ket is at 405 N. Sherman St.,
Stanfield, and is open to any-
one who lives in Umatilla
County.
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