DA mistake violates victims’ rights UPDATED

UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

****

DA mistake violates victims’ rights

ER In a mistake that the District Attorney admits to, the names of both alleged sexual assault victims in the case against David Gundersen found their way into the public record. This happened despite both women’s request that the information remain confidential.

In cases like the one against Gundersen, confidential personal information is required by law to not be made public. One of the reasons for this is that revealing personal information could have harmful effects to victims of sexual violence.

Gundersen, chief of the Blue Lake Police Department, awaits trial on suspicion of 19 charges, including 12 counts of spousal rape with an intoxicant and one count of kidnapping to commit another crime.

Confidentiality laws are in place to protect victims of sexual assault, so they can feel comfortable coming forward to testify,

Yet several documents, found in Gundersen’s case file, reveal the identity of the victims.

One document was a request by one of the alleged victims to have her name kept confidential, although the form not only has her name but also her address and contact information.

“That should not be there,” District Attorney Paul Gallegos said of the document. “That’s an error on my part.”

Another court record — the statement for probable cause, which led to an arrest warrant issued against Gundersen — had repeated uses of the same alleged victim’s name.

Gallegos said he was unsure how the name had gotten placed into the document as it had been given to a judge by his office.

No law enforcement agency is allowed to make public the name of any victim of a sex crime who chooses to keep it confidential, according to Section 293 of the penal code. The confidential names of victims are only supposed to be made available to the appropriate people, mainly law enforcement officials.

Victims’ addresses are also not intended for public viewing when sex crimes are involved, according to the same penal code.

The second alleged victim, who, according to other court documents, is known as one of the confidential victims, had her name on a confidential report from the Eureka Police Department.

“If you have identifiable information in there, it’s not supposed to be in the record,” said Executive Director of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault Suzanne Brown-McBride regarding confidentiality.

Despite the error, Gallegos said he doesn’t believe it will affect the case against Gundersen. That case’s preliminary hearing was moved forward two weeks to April 11.

With the names of the victims clearly identified in court records, one could look at other reports where they are called “Confidential Victims” to get full details into the crimes that allegedly happened to them.

“It’s fairly easy to sort through who that is,” Brown-McBride said.

Protections for sexual assault victims don’t go away after trial, she said. These protections are also in place for victims when the sex offender is released from prison.

Publicly revealing the details, and personal information, of someone who was sexually assaulted can have grave consequences, said North Coast Rape Crisis Team Community Outreach Coordinator Paula Arrowsmith-Jones, who spoke in general and not about the
Gundersen case.

“It could be a discouragement for those people coming forward,” she said. “It can’t help but affect the decisions that they make.”

It’s rare for cases involving sexual assault to receive widespread publicity, but when it does, hundreds of survivors watch to see how its handled, Arrowsmith-Jones said.

A survivor can be victimized twice when their identity is revealed and scrutinized publicly, said Executive Director of the Emma Center Marybeth Bian.

“Once it’s out,” she said, “it’s a snowball effect.”

Although California provides protection to survivors of sexual assault, Arrowsmith-Jones said it doesn’t do enough to give the person privacy if they don’t want their identity known. Examples of this are cases of spousal rape — a different charge from rape in California —
that identify the person harmed in the charge.

Gallegos, who said he was surprised that this information was in the case file, said the first step was to notify both victims of what happened. Then he would “act accordingly,” which includes having the documents with the victims’ names sealed by the court.

He said he reviewed the case file and that it was clearly an oversight on his part.

His office works hard to not reveal the names of those who want confidentiality, but couldn’t guarantee that mistakes wouldn’t happen, Gallegos said. “By and large we are successful.”

Maintaining the privacy of survivors is critical to the healing process, Arrowsmith-Jones said. Allowing for public scrutiny does the opposite.

“These protections are very important,” she said. “The best all of us can do is respect that.”

TS - Gundersen hearing pushed to April

Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen's preliminary hearing has been postponed -- again....

Russell Clanton, Gundersen's attorney, said the defense requested a continuance at a Wednesday hearing because the District Attorney's Office had yet to provide it with all the case's discovery -- a court term for the exchange of information between the attorneys involved in a case.

updated Related coverage, with links

Separate, but related, tragedy: CHP: Teenager hit while lying in road
A 16-year-old McKinleyville boy remained in critical condition Monday, two days after being hit by a car while he was reportedly lying in the road, the California Highway Patrol said.

CHP Officer Paul Dahlen identified the boy as Stuart Christopher. He said Christopher was near McKinleyville High School on Murray Road in the center turn lane Saturday at 8:23 p.m. when a car turning into the school's parking lot hit him.

The driver, 48-year-old Margaret Gundersen of McKinleyville, wasn't cited or arrested, as there were indications the teenager was lying in the roadway on his back, the CHP said....

Car’s wheels miss teenager lying in road
Outside the McKinleyville High School entrance Saturday, at a dark intersection with no street lights, a 16-year-old boy lay in the road with his legs badly contorted after being run over.

Stuart Christopher was lying in the turn lane to the school’s entrance around 8:30 p.m. when a driver switched into it from the westbound lane of Murray Road.

She hit a bump and thought it was a dog, according to her statement to California Highway Patrol Officer Chis Nelson.

She got out to look and heard someone screaming, “You’re on top of me.” Christopher’s leg was pinned underneath the carriage of the car, Nelson said, but the wheels had not run over him.

The driver, McKinleyville resident Margaret Gundersen, put her car in reverse and backed off Christopher.

Nelson said the procedure helped pull Christopher’s leg back down, as it was pushed up to his chest.

The major injuries he incurred are a broken femur and a broken pelvis, Nelson said. He is currently being treated at the UC Davis Medical Center.

Gundersen was traveling about 10 mph and had no way to react to the body in the roadway, Nelson said.

Christopher told paramedics that he liked to go jogging and when he’d get tired, he’d lay down in the road, Nelson said.

He reportedly saw the car coming, but thought it would stay in the westbound lane, Nelson said.

It’s an accident that he said he hasn’t seen in his 13 years on the job.

A Mad River Community Hospital ambulance and Cal Fire crew were on the scene very quickly, Nelson said.

“I was really impressed with how quickly paramedics arrived — within five minutes,” eyewitness Rebecca Kimber said.

When asked why he was in the road, Kimber said that Christopher stated that he’d “just had a really crazy day and it was stupid what I did.”

She said that she asked if he was suicidal, and he laughed and said no.

“You don’t go play games in the street, it’s just not a place to play. He was lucky — big-time lucky,” Kimber said.

UPDATED:

◼ Former Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen has been cleared of all major charges first filed against him in 2008. - Arcata Eye MARCH 2012

****