They’re among the most heinous offenses handled by law enforcement and advocacy centers, but rape and sexual assaults among adults are also considered one of the most difficult and challenging cases to prosecute because of the many components that can cloud a case when an accusation is made by a victim.
In Arizona and Colorado, rape and sexual assault are considered the same under the law. But there are different definitions for each offense. Rape generally refers to the crime of having forcible sexual intercourse with another person without the consent of the “victim.” Sexual assault is defined as intentionally making physical contact with the intimate body parts of another person, doing so without that person’s consent.
One of the main factors is that in the greater majority of the cases where a rape or a sexual assault is reported among adults, the victim and the suspect know each other, said local law enforcement officials, the Cochise County Attorney’s Office and an advocacy center in interviews with the Herald/Review.
In other words, a rape or sexual assault among strangers is a rarity, authorities say.
That’s where the waters can get muddied, investigators say, because there is always the lingering question about consent between adults. If there is any hint the encounter may have been consensual, it can quickly become the classic, “he said-she said” scenario, something juries are loath to convict on.
As a result, many adult rapes and sexual assaults are not reported, investigators said, not only because of the stigma attached and the emotional rollercoaster faced by the victim, but also because of how hard these crimes are to prove in a courtroom.
Some victims may report their assaults to an advocacy center such as Lori’s Place and have an exam done, but then request that it not be reported to law enforcement, said Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre and other law enforcement officials.
“It’s a very hard hurdle,” McIntyre said. “You have to think of what’s in a reasonable juror’s mind. The accusation is one thing ... (but) as soon as there is some evidence that there was some consent, or mutual involvement, the idea of getting a conviction becomes very unlikely.”
Even if police have probable cause to arrest someone, that is often not enough, said Sierra Vista Police Chief Adam Thrasher. Probable cause means it is more likely than not a crime occurred. Investigators can make an arrest if they have probable cause.
But in a rape or sexual assault, offenses that don’t normally have witnesses or other obvious evidence such as a murder weapon, juries want to make sure that a prosecutor can prove his or her case “beyond a reasonable doubt,” Thrasher said.
“Our investigators are taught to go for ‘beyond reasonable doubt,’ “ Thrasher said. “You don’t want to arrest someone who is not guilty.
“You want to build a case that’s beyond just the bare probable cause. We can make the arrest and have probable cause and take it to the county attorney and they may not take the case because they don’t believe they can win it in a jury trial.”
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said he encourages anyone who has been a victim of a rape or sexual assault to report it, regardless of the challenges that could be faced. So does Anne Thrush, the director of Lori’s Place, also known as Cochise Family Advocacy Center, a facility that helps adult and child victims of sexual and physical abuse.
The moments following an assault are crucial, authorities say, and that’s when such attacks should be called in. Sometimes the victim will report directly to a facility such as Lori’s Place and have the SANE — Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner — test done so that any DNA evidence can be collected. Usually, the victim is interviewed and encouraged to contact police.
Some victims choose to go directly to law enforcement to report the matter. In some instances, there are obvious injuries, and the victim may lead the police directly to the attacker. Investigators will arrive at the suspect’s residence, and the person may simply admit to the offense.
In such situations, the suspect is arrested immediately, and the case is prosecuted, McIntyre said.
But it’s rarely that straightforward.
Many times, the cases stall early on, after interviews are done and authorities realize there are issues present between the parties that block the matter from going further.
Statistics provided by the Sheriff’s Office for rapes and sexual assaults in 2021 and 2022 are considered low. No rapes were reported at all in the county in 2022 and only one was reported in 2021, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Carol Capas. Sexual assaults, which the Sheriff’s Office classifies separately, were a bit higher with 21 reported in 2022 and 17 in 2021.
Sierra Vista, the largest city in Cochise County, saw 26 rape/sexual assaults reported in 2022 and 26 in 2021, Thrasher said.
In both agencies, the cases are at various stages of investigation, but some have been dismissed because the accusations were unfounded.
McIntyre said his office received only two rape cases in 2022. One is going through the court system and the other was prosecuted and the perpetrator sent to prison after he entered a plea. In both matters, the victim and the defendant knew each other.
In the past several weeks, two women contacted the Herald/Review concerning reports they filed with police — one a rape, the other a sexual assault. Neither woman is being identified because of the nature of their cases. The individual in the sexual assault incident wanted her identity published, but the Herald/Review decided against it because of other situations she is involved with in the county’s legal system.
At the moment, both cases are closed and both victims have complained that prosecutions are unlikely because the men they have accused are well-known in their respective communities. The Herald/Review is not naming the suspects because neither has been convicted of the offenses, although the individual in the sexual assault was indicted.
While these women do not know each other, both claimed the legal system in Cochise County is a “good old boy network” where anyone who is well-connected goes scot-free no matter what the circumstances.
The rape, which occurred in Sierra Vista in October 2022 behind a bar on State Route 90, was recounted to the newspaper by the victim’s mother. She said the suspect is a business owner in the city who attacked her daughter.
“Before this came out, he (the accused) said he knew people,” said the victim’s mother, who also is not being named so her daughter is not identified. “The Sierra Vista Police closed the case and it’s because the man who did it is well-known.”
Thrasher said the case is not solid enough at this point to present to the County Attorney’s Office because the details are somewhat murky.
“This was a difficult one,” he said. “It’s unfortunate for her (the victim). We’re not saying you’re not a victim, we’re just saying we don’t have enough evidence at this time.”
Thrasher said the case could be reopened if stronger evidence is produced. Additional proof could come from a sexual assault kit, or more evidence from either party. The chief however, said he has been unable to verify whether a sexual assault kit has been done. The rape report shows the victim did have a SANE test done at Lori’s Place. However, that does not necessarily mean that there is proof of an assault.
The accused individual in this case has refused to speak to police and has hired a prominent criminal attorney in the area, Thrasher said.
“The problem is, was it consensual or not?” Thrasher said. “We don’t have that locked down. There are some text messages between him and a friend … but it’s hard to tell what he’s saying. He says nothing happened but what does that mean?
“You can’t know that until you have an interview, but he isn’t giving an interview. It doesn’t mean that we’re not close, but to determine whether or not it was or was not consensual ... what I mean by that if you read her statement she wasn’t exactly clear on whether he was clear that she didn’t want to do this.”
Thrasher also said that the results culled from a SANE exam must be sent to a lab to determine if there is foreign DNA inside the victim. But even if there is, there must still be proof that it was forced sex.
Even when there are obvious injuries, it’s still challenging, Thrush of Lori’s Place said, because many suspects claim the intercourse was just “rough sex.”
“DNA evidence can be collected and we do that here, but that does not prove it was a forced situation,” Thrush said. “Even through the exams, the injuries and so forth, you can’t without any doubt say that this was a forced sexual encounter. Because as many claim, many perps claim, ‘Oh it was just rough sex.’
“You can’t distinguish from rough sex that it was a rape or forced situation. So it makes it really difficult.”
She agreed that because there is such a high bar of proof in rape cases, it deters many individuals from reporting their ordeals.
In the sexual assault case, which sheriff’s investigators said occurred in Elfrida in November 2017, the accused was indicted in 2020 on five counts of sexual abuse for having contact with the woman’s breasts against her will, one count of aggravated assault for holding the victim down while he kissed her against her will, two counts of kidnapping because investigators said he restrained her while he performed the acts on her, and one count of indecent exposure when he showed the woman his genitals, the indictment shows.
McIntyre said the man was indicted because his “DNA was found where it shouldn’t have been.”
The case took three years to reach the indictment stage because of a snafu at the Sheriff’s Office.
McIntyre recalled the case. He said the deputy who took the report “had done the right things.”
“He collected the DNA (after the victim reported the assault), the DNA results came back,” McIntyre said. “It was initially a ‘he said-she said.’ She said one thing and he said ‘Nope, I’m not surprised’ type of thing.
“But when the results came back, his DNA was found where it shouldn’t be,” McIntyre added. “But then the lab report just sat in an inbox somewhere. There was communication with the sheriff’s office, ‘Like you need to get this over here (to the County Attorney’s Office).’ “
Then the victim vanished.
McIntyre said after the accused was indicted, a court hearing was held and the woman never showed.
“There is probable cause all day, but I had no victim,” McIntyre said. “The guy has a right to a trial. I cant get anything in without a victim.”
He said his office attempted to contact the woman repeatedly to no avail. The case was dismissed without prejudice in November 2020. Dismissing a matter without prejudice means that it can be reopened and the same charges can be lodged against the suspect.
The woman, who has an extensive criminal history, told the Herald/Review that she was in the county jail when prosecutors were looking for her.
“They never bothered to even look in their own jail,” she said.
But Capas of the Sheriff’s Office checked the jail records for the time frame when the woman was being sought by the County Attorney’s Office, and she was not incarcerated.
The victim, who has been in and out of jail following the dismissal of the sexual assault case, reached out to McIntyre’s office in November, he said. In December, a prosecutor and a victim advocate were assigned to her matter and McIntyre said they told her that the case could be revisited after the new year.
“But we have not heard from her,” McIntyre said.
Thrush pointed out that cases like the ones mentioned here are indicative of some of the frustrations law enforcement and prosecutors grapple with.
“It isn’t so much a desire to not prosecute, but it’s more of the constraints that are faced in the process,” she said. “There has to be some sort of corroboration with what’s going on, what the situation was, either a viable witness or potentially the accused perpetrator admits to it.
“If you don’t have those things, as I understand it, it (does) become a he said/she said,” Thrush added.
She also vehemently denied there is a “good old boy network” at play in Cochise County that protects rapists and other sexual abusers.
“I’m here to tell you that this is not the case,” Thrush said. “We work closely with law enforcement and they are in this heart and soul. They are just as frustrated as the County Attorney’s Office is when they just don’t have a case that has the evidence for it to be prosecutable. “
She said the agency sometimes sees “cross accusations” made by couples out of spite because they’re going through a custody battle for their children, for example.
“Those types of things gray the whole area,” Thrush said. “It makes it very difficult for law enforcement and the prosecutorial process because those things have happened so often and there have been so many false accusations that there is a very stringent requirement for getting proof.”
Regardless of the obstacles, Thrush said victims of these crimes should continue reporting assaults to law enforcement.
“They (victims) feel that they won’t be believed, they’ve heard that they don’t get prosecuted,” Thrush said. “That’s a really bad thing. Victims need to report. Reporting and telling someone about it is part of the recovery process.”
Thrush said she hopes for better prosecution rates of sexual offenders.
“What that golden ticket is to make that happen, I don’t know,” she said.