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From Start to Finish: How the Multidisciplinary Team helped a family through their journey
Our staff and investigative partners work diligently to see that our clients’ cases receive the proper care and handling if they make it to court. Recently, a client of ours testified in criminal court against their abuser, a close family friend and neighbor, who was later sentenced by a jury to life in prison.
In 2020, when the child first disclosed about their experience of abuse, a report was made to law enforcement who had the child seen at Cook Children’s CARE Team for a medical exam and then requested that the child be forensically interviewed. During the forensic interview, the child provided graphic details of years of sexual abuse at the hands of someone their family knew and should have been able to trust. After completing an investigation, the detective filed the case and years passed before it came up for trial.
It is not uncommon for a few years to go by between the initial investigation and trial. When a family gets notified about an upcoming trial date, it can reopen old wounds and bring stressors that can aggravate trauma symptoms; that is when and why our Family Advocates reengage with families. In this specific case, one of our family advocates spent many hours with this family providing support and preparation for trial. She also helped engage the client in therapy, specifically EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy with one of our clinical therapists to help the child through the healing process.
When the trial date came, the child had to face and testify against their abuser after many years apart. This can be very stressful for the child, and often their support persons have been subpoenaed to testify so cannot sit in the courtroom during the child’s testimony. In this case, our family advocate was at the courthouse with the child and their family to ensure they were not alone throughout the process. Our clinical therapist who had worked with the child also attended for support. The forensic interviewer who conducted the interview testified in the case not only about what the child said in the interview, but also as an expert witness about child sexual abuse dynamics, the detective testified about the investigation, the CARE team nurse testified about the exam, and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office presented the case to the jury.
In the end, the child’s abuser was sentenced to life in prison, allowing the child to finally feel safe and at peace. All of our staff members are integral parts of the MDT process, and with their help, they were able to support the child and their family until justice was won.
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