ANDERSON — A 10-year-old molestation victim took the witness stand in court, where she would have to relive traumatic moments.
The youngster had already told her story many times, recalled Judge Steve Koester, a prosecutor at the time. The repetition, he believed, resulted in a sense of detachment in her testimony, which a defense attorney used to discredit it.
“I started thinking, ‘There’s got to be a better way to do this,’” Koester said.
Spurred by a desire to prevent further trauma by giving children a voice in the criminal justice system, Koester co-founded Kids Talk in 2014.
But there was work to be done.
The organization needed qualified staff to provide needed services. Denise Valdez, the current executive director, was its first hire.
Valdez came to Kids Talk with a passion, cultivated across many years, for helping victimized children. She had directed a nonprofit in California and had founded one in Indianapolis before becoming the director of Kids Talk.
As the organization marks its 10th anniversary this month, Valdez has a staff of four people, including forensic interviewers and family advocates, who all play a part in the fact-finding process.
Interviewers bring a child into a comfortable area resembling a living room, where they sit down for the interview.
Children being interviewed are assured that the space is safe, that they may share whatever they wish. The interviewer then asks a series of open-ended questions about what they’ve experienced.
“We use a lot of the ‘tell me’ statements,” one of the interviewers, Julie Coon, said recently. “’Tell me more about this,’ ‘tell me more about that,’ ‘tell me what that felt like.’”
The questions prompt children to provide detailed answers and include sensory details.
An investigative team consisting of law enforcement officers and local advocacy group representatives views a live feed of the interview in a nearby room.
Officers may also suggest questions to interviewers through a walkie-talkie to an earpiece in the interviewer’s ear. They hope to get detailed answers to build an airtight prosecution of the alleged perpetrator.
FALSE CLAIMS RARE
A child’s testimony is considered sufficient evidence; additional evidence is helpful but not necessary, officials said.
Law enforcement agencies may be hesitant to pursue some molestation cases because of a lack of physical evidence. Such fears are often not warranted — false claims are rare, according to Deputy Prosecutor Andrew Hanna.
“It was a process to get law enforcement’s buy-in on what we do here, to look at evidence in a different light,” Coon said. “A majority of these cases don’t have physical evidence with them.”
Investigators use sensory details revealed during interviews to build a case.
“This kid can describe the inside of that person’s bedroom down to the color of the carpet and the ceiling fan,” Coon said. “That’s verifiable evidence that kid was in that room.”
Getting law enforcement on board is difficult; getting juries to do so can be even more so.
“If you believe that child, that’s enough to convict. That’s all you need,” Hanna said. “I get frustrated with folks who are really committed to these types of things until they actually have to make a decision.”
Sometimes victims wait several years before coming forward, which can raise the question of “why now?”
Such crimes are often committed by trusted individuals, such as a family member or friend, which can increase a victim’s hesitancy to come forward.
Some victims recant their claims because they are fearful of hurting someone they love. In other cases, they’ve been pressured by family members.
“They see someone they care about got arrested, so now it’s all their fault. Everything that happened was their fault,” Coon explained.
“They want to go back to their normal because they know how to survive in that normal. The unknown is scarier than the known for a lot of kids.”
WORKING WITH OTHERS
Advocates also play a role in Kids Talk’s process by speaking with a child’s caretakers and referring them for services with organizations such as the Madison County Department of Child Services.
Caretakers can be afraid to make allegations for a variety of reasons, ranging from financial security to immigration status.
Some families are undocumented immigrants who fear deportation. But officials working with Kids Talk do not take a person’s immigration status into account. Law enforcement is not notified.
The organization often serves Hispanic families, according to Valdez. The number of cases involving Hispanic children thus far in 2024 has surpassed the number involving Black children.
Some of the Hispanic families speak little English. That’s where Jailyn Figueroa, a bilingual advocate, comes in.
Figueroa interprets not only for families but also for children being interviewed.
She also provides Hispanic families with ethnic representation, which can make them more comfortable sharing case-related information.
“I’ll never forget this one family who was so thankful for what we were able to do for them,” Figueroa said. She said the family told her, “’Thank you, thank you for checking on us. ... (services like those provided by Kids Talk) isn’t normal where we come from.’”
Forensic interviews occur after abuse, but Kids Talk is active in offering prevention services, too. Advocates such as Coon and Khloe Cortrecht educate local students from elementary to high school ages.
Coon and Cortrecht give lectures on topics ranging from body safety for elementary school students to avoiding sexting for students in middle school and high school.
Both educational lectures help students recognize what constitutes inappropriate touching and online behavior.
The lectures also prompt some students to come forward to tell stories of abuse or fill out a form requesting help from Kids Talk, Coon said, noting that many students can’t fully describe their experience until they understand what happened to them.
