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 entire "investigation," in his own words on the running sheet: the complainant "provided an address of 12345 in Lake Stevens, which does not exist," "a phone number of 425-425-4245, which is not a working phone number," and an email that "returned UNDELIVERABLE." He made no other attempt to locate her. He closed the file Unfounded eight days later.
The detective she was complaining about — Sgt. Robert Miner — is the one who "was reminded of a case back in 2017 that sounded very similar" and pulled the original case number for Barnes. Miner's own supplemental report, describing his interview with the victim, was then attached to the IAPro file as the evidence that the interview had been appropriate. The accused officer supplied the exonerating document in his own misconduct investigation.
Barnes's narrative concedes the core of her complaint while dismissing it: "Sgt. Miner did question [the victim] on inconsistencies in her story after interviewing witnesses, the suspect, and listening to her interview at Dawson Place. [The victim] may have felt that she was being accused of lying based on a review of the original report documents." Snohomish County then declined the 2017 charges for "lack of victim cooperation" — directly downstream of that interview. The single allegation logged against Miner on the IAPro file is "Courtesy / Disrespect." Unfounded.
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 — and of LSPD letting the accused detective vouch for himself, on paper, in his own misconduct file.