The Power of Two

In child abuse prosecution, it is all but axiomatic that a two year-old victim simply cannot describe her victimization to any legally usable degree.  In most cases, toddlers that age can’t relate anything reliably.  Facts that can be gleaned are disjointed, conflated with the product of imagination, or just impossible to follow.  Most prosecutors, even if they’ve raised children themselves, won’t attempt to interview a two year-old.  If the child is three, and fairly precocious, maybe.  Two is just too young.But ADA Danielle Pascale is not most prosecutors.The Bronx District Attorneys Office, where I served for almost two years, is one of the most challenging in the country.  The Bronx, despite its generally dismal image, is an interesting, diverse, and in some areas beautiful place to live and work.  Its food, in neighborhood restaurants and corner delis, is fantastic.  It is framed by magnificent waterways and huge, shaded parks.  Its historical value and educational heritage are unmatched almost anywhere. Some Bronx neighborhoods are charming, tree-lined and friendly.  But grinding poverty and social pathology deeply haunt other areas and still produce crime, while less now than in the hellscape of the 70’s and 80’s, in daunting amounts.Danielle is a product of the Bronx and serves in the Child Abuse and Sex unit where she’s been for nearly nine tough years.  Her compassion for, love of, and raw skill with children are unmatched anywhere in my long experience in child protection.  But sometimes, Danielle surprises even me.A few months before I left the office, a particularly horrific case arose that fell to Danielle.  In a Bronx apartment, a toddler I'll call Jane stumbled out of her mother’s bedroom and into the living area she shared with her three older sisters.  Jane’s lip was split, her hair disheveled, and her face bloody.  Blood was later discovered in her underpants, reflecting a brutal injury to her vagina.  The suspect, Jane’s mother’s boyfriend (I'll call him John), had been in the bedroom alone with the child and walked out a few seconds later.  Jane’s sisters reacted quickly and called the police.  Jane was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, an excellent Bronx hospital where child abuse is often investigated and treated.  She was attended to by physicians and taken into protective custody.  As part of a multi-disciplinary effort in the Bronx to get ADA’s involved early in child abuse cases, Danielle responded to Jacobi after Jane had been treated to see what could be done with the case.When Danielle encountered Jane, she was armed with nothing but the contents of her purse and her cell phone.  She played with the girl for a couple of hours, interacting with her, building rapport, and (in the spirit of the team approach to child abuse) watching her and assessing her ability to describe what had been done to her.  Given Jane’s age, this step is one most prosecutors would have skipped, believing it hopeless.  Patient and tender interaction with an abused and traumatized child is its own absolute good, and the time Danielle spent with Jane wouldn’t have been wasted anyway.  But what emerged from that effort was remarkable.  Danielle was impressed with the cognitive level of development the child was showing, and eventually decided to use the video function on her cell phone to see how Jane would respond to seeing herself recorded.  She loved it, and recited her name, her ABC’s, and eventually her knowledge of basic body parts like her nose, mouth and eyes. Then Danielle put the phone away.  Careful to frame the question fairly and not suggest anything to the child one way or the other as she had been trained, Danielle asked Jane if she knew why she was at the hospital.  Jane nodded.“John hurt my cookie with his hand,” she said.  Danielle asked Jane if she knew where on her body her 'cookie' was.  Jane pointed to her genital area.  And who was John?  Mommy’s boyfriend, Jane knew.New York law allows something called unsworn testimony with children who are too young to be properly sworn as witnesses before tribunals like a Grand Jury or a court of law.  Their testimony can still be considered as long as it is corroborated with other admissible evidence.  Danielle’s first challenge once charges were brought against John would be a presentation to one of the Bronx’s sitting grand jury panels.  She knew that the physician and child abuse specialist on her team could testify compellingly to the injuries to Jane’s vagina and face.  There was no question that she had been hideously attacked; the only question was who did it.  The circumstantial evidence was very good to begin with- the suspect had been alone in the room with the child and had walked out almost immediately after her in view of Jane’s sisters.But Danielle got far more than that.  A child less than three years of age, whom she had known for less than an afternoon, told her in no uncertain terms who had harmed her and how.   Danielle would now make sure Jane told the grand jurors who would hear the case against her abuser.  The testimony would be unsworn, but with the other evidence it could be considered if it could be elicited.  Seeing how well Jane had reacted to being video recorded, she arranged for a camera crew the next day to come to Jacobi, and before the camera asked Jane the same simple questions.  The jurors saw this evidence in context with the rest and passed the case on to the next level of prosecution, where it remains pending.My friend accomplished the nearly impossible through patience, deftness, compassion, and an almost ethereal ability to reach and draw from a child far too young to speak on her own.  In so doing, she gave Jane something the child had likely never experienced and probably won’t again for some time to come: Power. Her power to express herself yielded a simple and profound truth that, communicated to players in a system of justice, went far to seal a criminal case against the man who brutalized her.  A two year-old shouldn’t need that kind of power, but in her case it was utterly crucial to ensure justice and protect herself, her family and other potential victims like her.  This empowerment was certainly lost on Jane in the moment.  But God willing, echoes of it will cascade throughout her life and shape the woman she’ll become.   For Danielle, it was all in a day’s work.