Are Florida courts harming child victims more than protecting them?

Imagine yourself as a 15 year-old survivor of sex trafficking. You’ve recently been picked up in a law enforcement sting at the hotel where your trafficker was keeping you, only you know him as Dee. Just Dee. Oh, and, he’s your boyfriend. You know this because he rescued you from an abusive home, more or less cares for your basic needs and has sex with you. He can be sweet sometimes, when he’s not beating you for not meeting your quota or for looking at other pimps in the eye or breaking other arbitrary rules of “the game”. You’ve questioned leaving, but he’s convinced you that you’d be found and returned by any number of associates, and betraying him would put your family’s lives in danger. Besides, they don’t want you back anymore, because you’re just a ‘hoe’. So, you resigned yourself to the abuse you endured at the hands of Dee and the five to ten adult men you were asked to service sexually each day to line his pockets with cash.

Now you are a reluctant victim-witness in the Florida criminal court. Reluctant because you are emotionally torn — Dee actually seemed to care about you — and because you are afraid of the consequences of cooperating. Also, you already don’t trust the system; law enforcement, prosecutors, child welfare; they all have failed to protect you or others you know in the past. But what choice do you have? Maybe this is a way out.

The process is overwhelming. There are so many people involved in the case, you can’t even remember who is who; and things are moving so fast. You don’t feel ready. You are told to come in for a discovery deposition, whatever that is. In the room there are several people introduced as the attorneys for the defense, Dee’s lawyers. They question you relentlessly, brutally, for hours, trying to trap you in inconsistencies, painting you as a liar, forcing you to disclose every sexually intimate experience — consensual or non — that you’ve ever had. That you don’t even grasp the concept of “consent” is of no concern; you wanted all of it. Every encounter was your choice, according to these inquisitors. When it is over, you are left utterly defeated, emotionally drained, numb, worthless and ashamed. You were not psychologically prepared to recall every traumatic event you experienced, triggering your PTSD symptoms. To make it worse, you were made to feel it was all your fault….and since the prosecutors also charged two more associates, you will have to go through the process again two more times. And that is all before the trials.

Feeling trapped, you decide your desperate and final act to get free from this pain and hopelessness would be to attempt suicide.

DISCOVERY DEPOSITIONS

In criminal law, discovery depositions allow defense attorneys to question victims regarding their statements in order to obtain information prior to the court hearing. Different states have different rules regarding depositions. Florida allows these depositions for child victims. They are often conducted in a manner meant to intimidate the victim/witness or create doubts or inconsistencies in their recollection of events. Victims can be kept for hours in interviews with defense attorneys which can potentially re-traumatize the most vulnerable, especially if they are minors.

In sex trafficking cases, where the victim is a minor who has already experienced complex trauma at the hands of multiple perpetrators, the effects of this deposition process can be exponentially harmful. If there are several defendants (traffickers) as there often are, children would be subjected to interviews from the attorney for each defendant separately. This process has been so traumatizing for victims in South Florida, that suicide attempts by victims have immediately followed discovery depositions.

Clearly it is important to balance due process for defendants with victim well-being. However, Florida is one of only six states in the nation to allow criminal discovery depositions by right, among states that allow it, there is a growing trend to further protect victims with additional rules.

There are several reasons to end this unnecessary and harmful practice:

• Exacerbating PTSD symptoms leads to further harm and longer term mental health issues.
• Exacerbating PTSD symptoms shields the court from truth and accuracy by affecting a child’s ability to testify. Creates imbalances that favor defense.
• Protecting children is in best interest of state.
• 90% of states do not allow discovery depositions by right without leave of the court.
• The American Bar Association does not recommend criminal discovery depositions by right without leave of court.

Recommendations:

1. The Florida Bar, the Florida Supreme Court, and the Florida Legislature should examine the current body of research and consider possible new approaches and protections.
2. Criminal discovery depositions by right of child witnesses under the age of eighteen should be eliminated; amending rule of criminal procedure to be more consistent with the current ABA Standard.

TAKE ACTION!

We need your support in changing these rules. Encourage the Florida Bar to begin the process by convening the study.

1. SIGN THE PETITION!
2. READ THIS letter from State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and WHITE PAPER on the psychological effects of trauma on court proceedings drafted by the University of Miami
3. SEND AN EMAIL to Michael Higer, President of the Florida Bar (mhiger@bergersingerman.com)!
4. SHARE!

Our children are depending on you to help protect them by creating a more trauma-informed process for victims in our courts. Please consider adding your voice to the movement to encourage the Florida Bar to consider alternatives to our insensitive discovery deposition process.