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certain we d have to call this off.
She guided me into the room where a dozen or so of her committee members were
munching on finger sandwiches. I introduced myself to some of them and decided
to feed myself before I got too lightheaded to go on stage. The crustless
slivers of seven-grain bread were divided onto three trays: watercress, egg
salad, and tomato. I cursed at myself for having passed up Chapman s
overstuffed turkey sandwich so many hours ago in favor of these debutante
miniatures and put a handful of the little morsels on a paper plate.
I moved around the room politely answering questions about the District
Attorney s Office and assuring handshakers that I would convey their warmest
regards to Paul Battaglia. More and more middle-aged women kept drifting into
the reception. There were obvious distinctions between the older half of the
crowd and the younger. The over-fifties carried Vuittons on their arms and
wore flat Ferragamos on their feet. The natural blond hairstyles, more up than
down, were enhanced by Clairol, clearly a two-step process. The newer
inductees favored Dooney and Burke on the shoulder, not the arm and the
Ferragamo with a slightly higher one-inch heel. The blond seemed mostly
natural, with a few streaks thrown in for variety. There was not a lot of
diversity evident in the crowd and I was mentally censoring my notes to
substitute the words private parts for my usual references to penis and
vagina.
Ten minutes before I was scheduled to go on stage, I freshened up in the
ladies room and we moved into the large auditorium. More than two hundred
women had taken seats around the room and I shuffled my note cards to make
certain that I had outlined all of the points I wanted to cover during the
hour I had been asked to speak.
Mrs. McSwain had crafted a pleasant opening for her group and a generous
recitation of the credentials from my curriculum vitae. I climbed the four
steps to the stage, crossed to the lectern, and began my remarks.
I talked about the history of Battaglia s Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit, which
was the first of its kind in the United States. I wanted to impact them with
the enormity of the problem of sexual assault in our country, so I was armed
with some shocking statistics. Not even twenty-five years ago that is, in our
lifetimes in this very city the laws were so archaic that in a single year
although more than a thousand men were arrested and charged with rape, only
eighteen of them were convicted of the crime. A few gasps from the girls down
in front. I shook off my thoughts of Gemma Dogen and concentrated on my
purpose.
I explained how the laws had changed: eliminating the corroboration
requirement that demanded witnesses beyond the victim herself, adding rape
shield statutes to prevent defense attorneys from inquiring about a woman s
sexual history, ridding us of the dreadful insistence that victims must resist
their attackers even when the latter are armed and threatening deadly physical
force. All these accomplishments had come about in just the last two decades.
The hour went quickly for me as I illustrated legal issues with anecdotal
material from actual cases. It became clear as the question and answer period
began that these women were well aware, unlike the generations before them,
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that rape was a crime that affected their lives. No one in that room, I was
willing to bet, had not been touched directly or indirectly by some aspect of
sexual assault. Almost everyone I met these days would disclose the experience
of a friend or relative, child or adult, who had survived some kind of abuse
that was connected to my painful specialty.
As I pointed at raised hands for the first few questions, members of Liddy
McSwain s committee walked up and down the auditorium aisles collecting index
cards that had been on the sign-in table at the entrance. Audience members
filled in their queries on the four-by-six cards, which were forwarded and
handed up to me in a pile.
That s a good one, I said, reading from the card on top. The question is,
How important is the use of DNA technology in your work? The enthusiasm
with which I answered belied my disappointment in the lack of its existence in
Gemma Dogen s case. It s the most significant tool we have in this business
now. We use it, when seminal fluid is deposited on or in the victim s body, to
make a positive identification or to confirm one that she has made visually.
That really takes the weight off the victim at a trial it s not just a matter
of her word in proving the case.
It s just as critical that we use it to exclude suspects. If a defense
attorney tells me his client was in Ohio on the day of the rape, I simply ask
him to provide us with a vial of blood. If the suspect is not our man that is,
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