Anonymous child survivor of sexual assault (age 16 at time of report)
Three years after she reported a sexual assault, the survivor wrote LSPD an online form describing what the detective had said to her: "He told me I wanted it… he told me it sounds like you just felt guilty for cheating on your boyfriend… he told me I wasn't raped."
- Sergeant Robert Miner
What the file shows
The survivor's own words, preserved in the file: "When I was 16 I was sexually assaulted by a boy in my math class and I came to you for help. An older man took over my case as a 'detective.' And when I told him my story he proceeded to interrogate me… You stripped me of more than what I had already been stripped of with the assault. You abolished my trust with the police… No amount of therapy and medicating has eased me of this gaping hole in my chest… I was traumatized the day he raped me but I was ruined the day I reported it. Can you tell me something? If your daughter walked into the police station after being raped would you have told her she wanted it?"
Sgt. James Barnes's investigation consisted of: trying to email her back at the address she provided, getting "undeliverable" returned, and closing the case Unfounded. Sgt. Miner, the subject of the complaint, was the one who pulled the original 2017 case file and helped Barnes "locate" it. Miner's own supplemental report was the document attached as evidence that the interview had been appropriate.
Snohomish County declined the charges in 2017 due to "lack of victim cooperation" — directly downstream of the interview the survivor describes here. The single allegation logged on the IAPro file is "Courtesy / Disrespect."
Why this file matters
The most direct example in the IAPro record of a sexual assault survivor being treated as the suspect in her own case. The complaint was investigated by allowing the accused detective to vouch for himself, and closed Unfounded.