NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEBRASKA STATE PATROL
www.nsp.state.ne.us
Contact: Deb Collins 402-479-4985
May 13, 2008

Preventing Sexual Assault Focus of Conference

(Lincoln, NE)- “Understanding and Responding to Sexual Assault in Nebraska”, is the title of a training conference scheduled for May 20-21, 2008, at the Midtown Holiday Inn, in Grand Island, Nebraska.  The conference will present best practices and emerging issues dealing with sexual assault.  Participants will hear from presenters in such areas as effective prosecution of sexual assault cases, sexual assault trauma, forensic evidence collection and creating a sexual assault response in your community.

Jennifer Long, Director of the National Center for the Prosecution of Violence Against Women at the American Prosecutors Research Institute in Alexandria, Virginia, and Marc LeBeau, Chief of the FBI Laboratory’s Chemistry Unit, in Washington, D.C., are the keynote speakers at the conference.
 
Jennifer Long has traveled across the country lecturing to prosecutors, law enforcement officers, victim advocates and other allied professionals on various issues related to violence against women.  Marc LaBeau has worked as a forensic chemist and toxicologist for the FBI since 1994, and has provided training to law enforcement officers, forensic scientists, attorneys, medical professionals, and rape crisis counselors throughout the world on the proper collection, preservation and analysis of physical evidence in sexual assault cases.

Various disciplines of professionals who deal with victims and perpetrators of sexual assault will participate in the training conference.  By learning together, organizers hope to help foster an understanding of each other’s roles, so that the criminal justice system can consistently hold offenders accountable.

The conference is funded by a grant awarded by the Nebraska Crime Commission and sponsored by the Nebraska State Patrol. 

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