Harvey debacle breaks the silence

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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:35AM

When I was growing up, I played with a girl who was being molested by her father. I didn’t know whether the molester was her biological father or her stepfather.

But the girl shared details of the bad things that happened when the man came into her room at night or when her mother was not at home.

We were 12 years old.

When another playmate tried to tell a teacher about the sexual abuse of our friend, she was put out of the classroom and her mother was summoned as if the girl had to be lying.

I don’t recall what happened after that. But decades later, I bumped into my childhood friend on public transportation. She looked so worn down and so much older than our years that I barely recognized her.

It was as if she carried the dark secret on her face.

Multiply this victim by 200 and you may be able to grasp the suffering the Harvey Police Department may have caused by failing to test more than 200 rape kits.

On Tuesday, one of the victims associated with the rape kits, a 25-year-old woman identified as Jane Doe who was allegedly raped by her stepfather, sued Harvey for unspecified damages.

“The rape kit was collected and turned over to Harvey police and they did nothing with it. The rape kit just sat there for 10 years,” said the woman’s lawyer, Yao Dinizulu.

The rape kits were discovered in 2007 during a raid of the Harvey Police Department.

Some of that evidence was linked to Robert Buchanan, 45, a Cook County corrections officer, and the stepfather. In September 2011, Buchanan was charged with the 1997 sexual assault of his then-10-year-old stepdaughter.

Although the girl’s mother took her to a hospital where the rape kit was done, and Buchanan was interviewed and arrested in connection with the crime, the rape kit was never tested.

As a consequence, Buchanan was released, and he returned home, where he allegedly continued to molest his stepdaughter.

“I have done sexual assault cases before and from what I learned, Buchanan was using typical pedophile grooming techniques,” said Dinizulu. “Predators will use things that the victim wants or needs in order to get them to agree to continuing this type of abuse.”

The victim didn’t fall through the cracks as much as she was pushed.

Sadly, there’s no indication that the girl’s mother ever demanded that the Harvey Police Department do its job.

Her silence played into the hands of officers who were either too callous or too incompetent to handle the responsibilities they were entrusted.

To many of us, it is inconceivable that Buchanan could have stepped foot inside of his home again after his stepdaughter accused him of sexual assault.

But many mothers who find themselves in this situation are in denial, or are looking for any sign that the charges are not true.

And it would have been just as difficult for this victim to again confront her abuser after earlier complaints did not stop the assaults.

“The dynamics of this case are very upsetting,” said Dinizulu.

“Clearly for the victim, it is devastating. This is the only dad she knows, the only mother she knows, the only brothers she knows. She just wants to have it recognized that she was molested,” he said.

That is probably the only way these women can get on with their lives.

When I ran into my old friend that day on the bus, we laughed about the funny things we used to do. But the silence of the abuse took up the air between us.

Because of the debacle at the Harvey Police Department, some of the rape victims will have a second chance to break the silence.

Unfortunately, because some of the evidence was destroyed and some of the victims have moved away or died, not all of these women will get that chance.

But when Jane Doe goes to court, she won’t just be speaking up for those women, she will be speaking up for my old friend.