The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office will take over a program that provides specialized health care to survivors of sexual assault in a five-parish region after the St. Tammany Parish Coroner's Office moved to end it.
The sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) program employed specially-trained nurses sent to hospitals across the region to help care for survivors and assist in evidence collection. The program was run out of the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office until Dr. Christopher Tape, who became St. Tammany's coroner in March, said he would end it.
“From the beginning, I have wanted the SANE program to continue,” Tape said Monday in a news release put out by the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office. “But my obligation to the taxpayers of St. Tammany Parish has also been paramount.”
When Tape took office in March he said that he believed the SANE program was “illegal,” because it required St. Tammany’s taxpayers to foot the bill for services provided in other parishes.
Former St. Tammany Coroner Charles Preston said the program was funded through grants and federal funds, and indicated he did not believe it to be a significant financial burden on the Coroner’s Office. The cost of the program depends on the number of exams performed.
Tape’s move to end the SANE program prompted immediate backlash from northshore lawmakers. A judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking Tape from ending the program. But Tape had already fired the nurses who were its backbone.
Now, those nurses will be employed by the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office, which said it would provide SANE services across the region “without difficulty.” The arrangement, the Jefferson Coroner's Office said in the news release, would reduce costs for both St. Tammany and Jefferson parishes.
“It's a win for everybody involved, except for the people who commit sexual assault,” Jefferson Parish Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich said in an interview.
Without the SANE nurses, he said, the task of collecting evidence would likely fall to emergency room doctors, who aren’t accustomed to administering rape kits.
“Having been an emergency room doctor back in the day, rape exams are something that ER doctors are not used to doing and they’re not good at doing, because they don’t do them a lot,” Cvitanovich said.
The St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office previously provided SANE services to a five-parish region: St. Tammany, Livingston, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, and Washington. Jefferson Parish will be added to the list. The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office already employed one SANE nurse; it will now add the two nurses previously employed by St. Tammany Parish to its payroll.
Under the new agreement, St. Tammany and Jefferson parishes will split the state and federal funds that pay for the SANE program. If the program runs a deficit, the costs will be shared by both parishes, Cvitanovich said. He emphasized that the agreement would ultimately save Jefferson Parish money, while continuing to provide SANE services.
“When Dr. Tape had announced his concerns about the finances of the SANE program, Dr. Cvitanovich reached out and offered to facilitate continuation of the program for the five parishes,” said James Hartman, a spokesperson for the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office.
Morgan Lamandre, the CEO of the nonprofit Sexual Trauma Awareness & Response (STAR), which filed a lawsuit to block Tape from ending the SANE program, said she was thankful to Cvitanovich for "taking the lead in trying to resolve this issue."
"Jefferson Parish does not need to come to the rescue of [the five-parish region] and they are," she added.
Tape, meanwhile, faces a recall drive in St. Tammany following media reports that said he faced child sexual assault accusations against him in 2002 in New Mexico. WWL Louisiana first reported on the indictment, which was ultimately tossed out because prosecutors waited too long to bring formal charges. Tape has maintained his innocence.
Recall organizers are trying to get more than 35,000 valid signatures by mid-October in order to force an election on voting Tape out of office. Tape has called the drive a distraction but said it won't affect how he runs the office.