Friday, April 25, 2025
In a Coryell County Commissioner’s Court meeting on Tuesday, March 11, a motion was made to approve the creation of a Coryell County Adult Sexual Assault Response Team (SART).
The SART was originally brought to light in 2021 through an interlocal agreement after legislature passed Senate Bill 476. Although it did not take off, the county has now made strides to establish the SART in Coryell County.
Similar to the MDT (Multi-Disciplinary Team), which is meant for providing support to children who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking, the SART will be responsible for all sexual assault victims in the county, including adults.
The SART is made up of a group of professionals from various agencies, including law enforcement, medical, and advocacy groups, who work together to provide a coordinated response to sexual assault cases within the county.
Lieutenant Jason Schaefer, SART representative for the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office, said that each representative has been selected by the head of each department. Representatives include Captain Cardona with the Copperas Cove Police Department, Scott Stevens with the District Attorney’s Office, victim advocacy groups, and Baylor Scott & White McLane’s Children Hospital Chief Forensic Nurse Mary Salmond.
Salmond not only gives the scientific and nursing component to the SART, but she is also the individual who brought forth the SART to Coryell and surrounding counties.
“She is really the hero or the heroine of this story,” Lieutenant Schaefer said. “She came back in and said ‘look, I was able to get this started in other counties, let me help you guys.’”
Lieutenant Schaefer said that since Salmond is one of the managers of the forensic nursing program, if detectives need assistance, she becomes their subject matter expert. She is also able to testify in trials, so the District Attorney’s Office leans on her heavily as well.
Unlike other counties with higher caseloads, the Coryell County SART will meet monthly to discuss cases.
If a sexual assault occurs, an agency will respond alone to take an initial report, along with the victim being taken to the hospital, and information should be gathered. Then, at the first meeting after the date of the offense, the case will be briefed to the members of the SART advisory board.
Each of the professions at the SART table has a role to play in the response, and by ensuring wrap-around support and communication through each step in the process, victims are more likely to be prioritized.
“You have all these people that have done this for many years, guiding you, and making sure no victims are left behind,” Lieutenant Schaefer said. “You can really get counsel and a strategy from other professionals, and I think that is the strength of the model.”
Lieutenant Schaefer said that the county has learned a lot about trauma over the last 20 years.
“There’s a stigma with most sexual assault; I’ve had victims sometimes carry sexual assault for 20 years, and some of the first questions the jury wants to know is, why did it take you so long to come forward,” he said.
“What we have learned through trauma-informed care is that not everyone processes this at the same time, and there is a lot of societal factors,” he said. “What the SART does is maybe the counseling piece can explain to me and law enforcement why this victim didn’t come forward and what is going on in their life. So, now, as a detective, I understand what happened, and I can explain it to the jury.”
Lieutenant Schaefer has served as a police officer for nearly 18 years, and he explained that the viewpoint of an assault of any kind has changed as years progress.
“The science of trauma has advanced, and I think certain reforms in policing and in society have made it more acceptable to say, hey, this happened to me,” he said. “Law enforcement needed assistance in understanding victimology.”
For instance, in the past, if a police officer were to ask a victim what color shirt their assaulter was wearing at the time of the incident, and the victim says they don’t know, it would come off to the police officer as evasive or deceptive.
“What we know from trauma now is that your brain is in fight or flight mode, and it is not prepared to in any way know what color your blouse is, so that data has forced policing in general to grow and this is a wonderful reform that is needed in all counties,” he said.
The first meeting of the SART will be held next month in May.
